 Now it's early December in east central London, which means it's the the night is closing in outside It's getting cold, but it's very warm in here So the warmth is not just the temperature, but it's also going to be the atmosphere for the next two hours as we complete the conference Yesterday when David Willits was here. I think he mentioned that there are two Greg Clarks in the UK involved in urban policy One of them is the financial secretary to the treasury the minister for cities an incredibly popular MP he's also handsome smart and has a huge fan club and the other one is me and No more really needs to be said except for the fact that if you were expecting him. I'm sorry, but I'm delighted to be here we're gonna be talking about Transforming urban governance during the next 30 minutes and the format for this is going to be 10 brilliantly crisp wonderfully insightful minutes each from three people and they are going to provoke us to thinking about Urban governance and how urban governance relates to transformation then I will be introducing to you a stellar panel of former mayors serving deputy mayors and People who have made a rather unique contribution to city and urban leadership around the world So without further ado our first speaker this afternoon is somebody you already know very well the executive director of LSE cities and the urban age Philip Rowe