Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is also a Visiting Professor in the LSE’s Government Department. His key research interests include local and regional government, and public service reform.
He specialises in cities, taxation and public spending in Britain, regional and local devolution, and British politics. He has appeared on many TV and radio programmes and writes regularly for the national press. His opinions are frequently sought on topics ranging from local elections, education and health, public sector finance and, currently, Scottish Independence.
He is currently an advisor to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Select Committee and the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
His key areas of research cover central and local government policy and finance, including a speciality in all aspects of local government structures, functions and finance. Tony has undertaken research into public sector regulation and has published his research studies on resource distribution mechanisms for local government and schools.
Tony Travers received the Political Studies Association Award for Political Communication in 2008.
He has published a number of books on cities and government, including:
- Failure in British Government
- The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis)
- Paying for Health, Education and Housing
- How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennester and John Hills)
- The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City