About us

The Party conference season 2008 will have its own ‘Urban Hub’ for the first time. The Hub will be an integrated programme of fringe events and a reception at all three party conferences this autumn. City issues are rising quickly up the political agenda – there was a wealth of fringe events on urban issues at last year’s conferences, and the Urban Hub will eliminate the many clashes and duplications on last year’s fringe programme. This will bring greater number of people together to generate rich debate on city issues. Combined with the growing political interest in cities' economies, the built environment, urban growth and planning, and quality of life of for city-dwellers, we are expecting the Urban Hub to be an exciting high-profile part of this year’s fringe programmes.

2008 is the first year that party conferences will move away from the seaside towns and into two of the core cities – Manchester (Labour) and Birmingham (Conservative). The Lib Dems conference will remain in Bournemouth. This provides an ideal setting for the Hub.

Westfield Group is Urban Hub’s key sponsor.

The Hub’s official media partner is the Times Public Agenda.

The partners for Urban Hub are:

• The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
• CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment)
• Centre for Cities
• Core Cities Group
• The Work Foundation