Blackpool has been selected to join the inaugural class of the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative, the first-ever professional leadership and management program designed specifically for the region’s mayors and municipal officials.
Council Leader Lynn Williams will join 30 mayors and 60 city officials total who hail from 17 countries, serving over 21 million residents, selected to participate.
Established and led by Bloomberg Philanthropies together with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will be delivered by LSE Cities in collaboration with the Hertie School in Berlin.
The program will provide Blackpool with pioneering expertise to tackle problems, modernize services, strengthen operations, and improve people’s lives – advancing progress on the issues—from housing to transit to youth outcomes—residents care most about.
Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: “For many years, we have been championing Blackpool nationally and internationally, making sure our great town gets the support, funding and recognition it deserves and needs.
“That work has helped support our £2bn regeneration programme, which is boosting our economy and creating jobs for local people, as well as delivering over a thousand better homes for local residents.
“One of our key priorities is to make sure our young people have the best start in life and have the tools to make the most of their opportunities.
“I’m delighted to join the European City Leadership Initiative so we can boost our ability to deliver on these aims.
“The programme will allow us to take the leadership advice from some of the most well respected business and political minds in the world on how we tackle the key issues that Blackpool faces – maximising growth and opportunity, creating stronger communities and providing the right environment so our young people can succeed.
“This programme means that Blackpool will share the programme with major European cities like Oslo, Dublin, Zagreb and Madrid, who we can share ideas with and make connections with to help our town in the future.”
“We continue to expand our municipal leadership programs globally, because we've seen how well they y work – and we want more cities to benefit,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City. “As Europe increasingly looks to local governments to lead, we’re glad to join forces with the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Hertie School on this new initiative. Together, we can bring mayors and senior officials the tools, training, and peer networks they need to take on their biggest challenges – and succeed.”
National and global policies increasingly require local progress – and in recent years, Europe’s municipalities have served as intermediaries for infrastructure, resilience, and more. Still, they face a confluence of challenges. While attending to the fundamentals, they must also mitigate climate shocks, stem building shortages, manage rising costs, and meet growing resident demands alongside navigating complex central government rules and slow bureaucracies with strained budgets and stretched capacity.
The data underscores the need: 86% of mayors surveyed by Eurocities report that their city will have to innovate to overcome a lack of resources to deliver on their priorities—and two thirds rank leadership and commitment from mayors and senior municipal officers as the most important factors to achieve this.
The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will equip Blackpool with the strategies, skills, and networks to meet the moment. Through the nine-month intensive classroom, field-based, and capacity-building training, Blackpool will learn evidence-backed strategies from world-class faculty, researchers, and policy leaders on how to drive performance, work across departments, mobilize collaborations, and marshal solutions that deliver tangible results for citizens.
“Cities are where our most complex, urgent challenges show up first, and so where real solutions often start,” said Professor Larry Kramer, President and Vice Chancellor of LSE. “Mayors across Europe are looking to lead—but to address the unique problems they face and deliver on new opportunities that emerge, they need sharp management, strong teams, and the skills to innovate. This is precisely what the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative will help provide. I am deeply grateful to Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies for their steadfast commitment to strengthening local governments here in the UK and across the globe. This Initiative is a testament to their visionary thinking—and to the enduring partnership between our two organizations to help the continent’s mayors push further and do more.”
“Mayors are democracy’s frontline, grappling with today’s most pressing challenges - from climate change to migration, from housing to mobility,” said Professor Dr. Cornelia Woll, President of the Hertie School. “The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative comes at exactly the right moment to strengthen the skills, networks, and capacity of city leaders across Europe. By uniting the Hertie School’s expertise with that of our partners at Bloomberg Philanthropies and the London School of Economics and Political Science, this program will provide mayors and their teams with the knowledge and support they need to innovate, govern effectively, and deliver for their citizens, and we are proud to contribute to this transformative Initiative.”
To kick off their participation in a four-day convening beginning today in London, Blackpool will receive keynote instruction and engage with global experts from Bloomberg Philanthropies, LSE, the Hertie School, UCL IIPP, and fellow peers including: Michael R. Bloomberg, 108th mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies; Mayor Sadiq Khan of London, UK; Professor Ricky Burdett, Director of LSE Cities and the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative; Professor Dr. Andrea Römmele, Dean of Executive Education and Professor of Communication in Politics and Civil Society at the Hertie School; and more.
Two top officials from Blackpool will begin their participation in the Initiative in December with an immersive classroom experience in Berlin. Through the program, these officials will also support Cllr Lynn Williams in overseeing a ten-member city team that will develop an innovative approach to solve a pressing, resident-facing challenge.
The Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative builds on more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies to advance mayoral leadership and local government innovation across the globe. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, has to date trained 387 mayors and over 2,400 senior city officials—including 8 in 10 of America’s big city mayors and 9 of England’s mayoral combined authorities. With initiatives that operate today in over 900 city halls, tens of thousands of mayors and municipal officials receive support from these efforts to better the lives of the hundreds of millions of residents they collectively serve.
Blackpool, alongside the local governments joining the Initiative, will benefit from this global community of practice, and learnings from peers in city halls across the region and around the world.