Cllr John Merry talks about what residents want from a modern city.
We in key cities are determined to make our cities a success. The fact is that people want to live in cities these days rather than have to. They want to live in cities because there are centres of skill and innovation and opportunity. And if this government is serious about driving the economy forward, it needs for cities to actually succeed.
So we want to articulate the policies required to make our cities work. Whether it's transport, housing, skills or manufacturing opportunities, we're absolutely committed to working with the government to make those happen. We have a, we have a problem though, because the government doesn't seem to want to give us the opportunity to run our own economies and it's absolutely vital that we actually reflect the areas which we come from.
The opportunities in Salford, for example, around Media City are slightly different from the opportunities around Southampton in terms of being a major port or somewhere like Bradford, where the textile industry was traditionally a very strong player and can be a strong player again.
So for all of those reasons we want to be centres of innovation, opportunity, but also centres where power is devolved downwards to our local authorities and to give us the tools to work in partnership with local businesses.