Paul Hildreth is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (SURF) University of Salford. He is contributing to SURF through research, consultancy and dissemination work to understand the boundaries and scope of contemporary urban policy. In this capacity he is drawing on experience from his wider portfolio of consultancy and research. SURF projects include advice on Newcastle-Gateshead’s economic development company, city-regional governance (for Core Cities), Science Cities and on city-regions in the North West Region. He provided the SURF contribution to ‘city relationships: economic linkages in Northern city regions’, published by the Northern Way in November 2009. Paul is now working with the Greater Manchester Local Interaction Platform on comparative approaches in UK cities to sustainable urban development.

Until November 2009, Paul worked with the Department of Communities and Local Government, advising on their cities and regional development panel. He has undertaken research and policy projects for a variety of organisations, including the OECD, UNDP, the Work Foundation, Centre for Cities, The Northern Way, Keele University and East Sussex local authorities. In 2006 Paul was commissioned by the OECD and the Presidency of Galicia in Spain to develop a typology of medium-sized cities. He has developed this research in application to English medium-sized cities. He is currently updating this paper to take into account findings from his more recent research, including from publications on ‘place-shaping’, ‘city-links’ and ‘city relationships’.
Paul is a CABE Enabler. He is also an expert for the Council of Europe in local and regional development, working in Eastern Europe. He has advised on projects in Albania, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine.