Professor Tony Travers is director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics. He is also a professor in the LSE’s Government Department. His key research interests include public finance, local/regional government and London government. He is currently an advisor to the House of Commons Education Select Committee and also the Communities and Local Government Select Committee. He is a research board member of the Centre for Cities and a board member of the New Local Government Network. He is an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy. He was a Senior Associate of the Kings Fund from 1999 to 2004, and also a member of the Arts Council’s Touring Panel during the late 1990s. From 1992 to 1997, he was a member of the Audit Commission. He was a member of the Urban Task Force Working Group on Finance.