Meet and Eat: Changing City Environment Event

Birmingham will have its first directly elected mayor in 2012. A new position in which all the powers currently residing in the city council will be transferred to a single, directly accountable individual.

This has the potential to bring radical change to the city. All over the world, directly elected mayors have brought very different styles and outcomes to the traditional city council model.  In addition, the last thirty years have seen a gradual exodus of FTSE top 250 corporate headquarters from Birmingham. This raises the question as to whether London governments would have Birmingham's particular interests as its central concerns.

All of this sets a challenging backdrop for a new kind of city government. As a city, we are better and brighter than we ever give ourselves credit for. An elected mayoralty could be an opportunity for the people of Birmingham to show the rest of the country, and the world, who we really are and what we can really do.

Places are available at £22.50 plus VAT (£26.44 incl).