The Government’s drive to improve urban environments is having an impact on city cleaniness, but evidence is lacking on the quality of the streetscene and pedestrian journeys. An independent review into the progress the Government is making with its urban White Paper reported ‘significant progress’ on street cleanliness in recent years, with both observed and attitudinal data revealing improvements on grime and litter. But while management of these problems was getting better, people’s expectations were continuing to rise and were not being met. Deputy prime minister, ~John Prescott~ trumpeted the State of the cities report, produced by Professor ~Michael Parkinson~ and a team of urban experts, as ‘describing the revival of urban England.’ But the team’s surveys had found stakeholders in England’s cities had complained that the Government had failed to recognise the significance of transport in urban renaissance. The report also highlighted a lack of evidence on whether or not the Government’s ‘liveability agenda’ was making a difference on the ground. There was no means for local authorities to measure the quality of streetscenes and pedestrian routes, so it was impossible to say whether or not they were getting better. Road congestion also needed to be ‘monitored more effectively and less simplistically’, and the links between reducing traffic jams and improving the public realm given Whitehall and town hall recognition.