Failing inner cities without it is hypocritical (9)
I believe the answer is:
insincere
'hypocritical' is the definition.
('insincere' can be a synonym of 'hypocritical')
'failing inner cities without it' is the wordplay.
'failing' is an anagram indicator.
'without' is a deletion indicator.
'inner'+'cities'='innercities'
'innercities' with 'it' removed is 'innercies'.
'innercies' with letters rearranged gives 'INSINCERE'.
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for insincere that I've seen before include "may be laying it on" , "False, hypocritical" , "Deceitful, not genuine" , "Hollow" , "fake" .)