City regions may grow from ashes of North-East vote

In an interview with Regeneration & Renewal in 2002, David Lunts, the newly appointed head of the ODPM's Urban Policy Unit, complained that the Government didn't recognise the value of cities. "If we had a better understanding of cities as drivers of urban renaissance, then we'd have a stronger basis on which to persuade the Treasury that regeneration is not fundamentally about curing poverty; it's about creating wealth and opportunity," he said.