A straw poll among delegates at last week's LGA conference was that the venue, Birmingham, was a great success.

The convention centre, despite being 15 years old, appeared spankingly new and pristine in condition. The restaurants around the restored canal area of Brindley Place were sophisticated and cosmopolitan, the hotels well-appointed and all delegates required from eateries to fringe events were in easy walking distance.
It was the first time the LGA has chosen Birmingham for its annual event and only the second time it has met in a conurbation, the first being Manchester. Yet it is a sign of the renaissance of English cities. For who would have thought a decade ago that a major annual conference would take place in a Midlands or Northern industrial city?
There was a time 10-15 years ago when the local government calender was dominated by events in Blackpool, Eastbourne, Scarborough, Southport as well as the old survivors, Bournemouth and Harrogate. Now Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Cardiff are the new kids on the conference block Just as the flocked wallpaper and threadbare carpets of the seaside town hotels, the Grands, Palaces and Royals, are losing their charm among increasingly demanding delegates up spout the state-of-the-art international chains, the Jurys, Novotels, Hyatts and Holiday Inns, from the debris of urban industrial wasteland.
It is a regeneration triumph but as we celebrate their renaissance let us not forget that smaller towns and resorts continue to struggle, often in the shadow of the conurbations. The recent casino row showed us how desperate some of our towns have become if their only economic salivation is the roulette table. 
A report this week from the IPPR's centre for cities talked of ‘two-track cities' with towns like Burnley or Leicester registering virtually no employment growth while Sunderland and Middlesbrough continue to post double-figure jobless rates. Milton Keynes as one of the designated growth areas may be thriving but nearby Northampton struggles with the declining shoe industry and low incomes.
The reality is that despite the success of England's big cities, despite the UK being the world's fourth largest economy and despite London's financial pre-eminence many of our provincial towns languish at the foot of the prosperity ladder.
Michael Burton,
Editor, The MJ