What's the challenge?
Talk of a housing crisis in the UK has been going on for a number of years. To many the crisis is one of an imbalance between house prices and affordability, but the reality is different. The UK has a projected housing shortfall of 3 million homes over the next 11 years (by 2020) and the real crisis is one of supply meeting demand and where to put these new homes.
Brownfield land facts
-
Brownfield land is also known as previously developed land (PDL)
-
Real estate research firm Savills has been appointed to compile a so-called ‘Domesday Book’ of all brownfield public land in London, to be completed by the end of 2015.
-
Brownfield land is often contaminated and needs to be treated before building which can make it more expensive than greenfield sites
Green belt facts
-
Green belts protect the countryside from urban sprawl, prevent towns from merging into each other, protect country setting of historic towns and cities, and encourage regeneration of sites within towns and cities
-
1955: Year the UK Government set out a national Green Belt policy in England
-
England’s 14 Green Belts cover over a tenth (13%) of the land. The largest is around London
-
60% of the population lives in the urban areas within Green Belt boundaries
-
4 square miles: Amount of Green Belt lost each year between 1997-2003 on average
Source: CPRE
The Thames Gateway
The Thames Gateway is Europe’s largest regeneration project, stretching 40 miles along the Thames estuary from Canary Wharf in London to Southend in Essex and Sittingbourne in Kent. The area includes the largest designated brownfield site in the south of England, which is intended to become a leading eco-region.
The government anticipates the Thames Gateway will provide environmental jobs and lead the way with a greater use of renewables and new technologies. Carbon neutral improvements to both new and existing homes and buildings will aim to create a leading eco-region for the rest of the country to follow.
Regenerating existing towns and creating new carbon-neutral urban developments is intended to transform the Thames Gateway region and relieve the huge demand for housing in the south east region.
The Thames Gateway is a cluster of cities, towns and villages around the Thames estuary. Each is different and individual, but networked together.
Who is involved?
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is responsible for co-ordinating the project and development will be largely delivered by the three regional development agencies:
• The London Development Agency (LDA) – part of the Greater London Authority
• The East of England Development Agency (EEDA)
• The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)
• together with English Partnerships, the national regeneration agency who are helping to deliver sustainable neighbourhoods, organise infrastructure improvements and new jobs and facilities for local people.
Adding to the 1.5 million people who already live in the region, 160,000 new zero carbon homes and 225,000 jobs are to be created by 2016, with significant government investment in local schools, further education colleges, hospitals and transport systems to cater for the growing population in the region. The Thames Gateway Delivery Plan (2007) outlined a government spending plan of £1.4 billion for hospital provision and £1.2 billion on schools in the 16 gateway local authorities.
The Thames Gateway Delivery Plan represented the first steps towards promoting higher standards for cutting carbon emissions, water conservation, reducing waste, and protecting people against flood risk. The plan also announced that DCLG will invite proposals for the country’s first eco-quarter in the gateway, similar to eco-towns but being based in an existing urban area.
The gateway was established as a national policy priority in 1994, with the publication of Thames Gateway Regional Planning Guidance by the Department of Environment. In 2003, the launch of the Sustainable Communities Plan put further focus on the Thames gateway as one of the key growth areas in the south east.
Critics of the Thames Gateway – ‘from regeneration to housing growth’
In May 2007 The National Audit Office released a report Laying the Foundations in which they warned that house building in the project would need to “more than double” to reach it targets.
Warning that to realising their ambitions would “require a step change in how central government departments work together with regional and local agencies”
The Public Accounts Select Committee warned the project could become a “public spending calamity” if management was not vastly improved. The scale of the project has raised concerns that progress will be slowed by the number of bodies and organisations charged with overseeing development of the project.
Campaign groups such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) are concerned about the wider environmental impact of development on such a large scale.
Focus on the Thames Gateway 2, a report released in November 2007 by CPRE was critical of the green space management and access to local services in the local authorities of the gateway. Hilary Newport, spokesperson on the Thames Gateway for CPRE, criticised the government for seemingly moving the agenda of the gateway from regeneration to housing growth at almost any costs.
The same report however, identified that most local authorities in the gateway had improved their use of brownfield land and were actively promoting good housing design, a cause championed by Commission for Built the Environment (CABE)
December 2007, Judith Armitt stepped down as Head of the Thames Gateway regeneration after a year in the position. Joe Montgomery, as director general , regions and communities, now has direct responsibility and will coordinate the work of government department and agencies in the gateway.
21st Century Challenges held a panel discussion on 13 May 2008 to discuss the issue.
Simon Jenkins , Columnist for The Guardian and Chairman of the National Trust
Simon Jenkins is a journalist and author. He writes for the Guardian and the Sunday Times, as well as broadcasting for the BBC. He has edited the Times and the London Evening Standard. In July 2008 Simon was named new Chairman of the National Trust.
Professor Sir Peter Hall (19 March 1932 – 30 July 2014), English Town Planner, Urbanist, Professor of Planning and Regeneration at UCL, President at the Town and Country Planning Association and the Regional Studies Association
Sir Peter Hall was the Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett, University College London and President of the Town and Country Planning Association. He was an internationally renowned authority on the economic, demographic, cultural and management issues that face cities around the globe and a key planning and regeneration adviser to successive governments.
Martin Crookston, Urban Economist at LSE, Town Planner at University of Glasgow, Director of Urban Studio and member of the UK Government’s Urban Task Force
Martin Crookston is an urban economist at London School of Economics and town planner at Glasgow University, and a director of Urban Studio, a team of urban planners, designers and researchers. He was a member of the UK Government’s Urban Task Force led by Lord Rogers of Riverside. He collaborated with Professor Sir Peter Hall on the major Four World Cities study of London, Paris, New York & Tokyo.
Wayne Hemingway is co-founder of fashion label Red or Dead and HemingwayDesign. After 21 consecutive seasons on the catwalk at London Fashion Week, he and his wife sold Red or Dead in a multi million cash sale in 1999. He then set up HemingwayDesign, joining forces with building firm Wimpy to work on various housing projects specialising in affordable and social design.
He is the Chairman of Building for Life, CABE (Commission for Architecture and The Built Environment) a funded organisation that promotes excellence in the quality of design of new housing. He is a Professor in the Built Environment department of Northumbria University, a writer for architectural and housing publications as well as a judge of international design competitions including the regeneration of Byker in Newcastle and Salford in Greater Manchester. Having received an MBE in the Queen’s 2006 Birthday List and being Chairman of the South Coast Design Forum, he believes in the supremacy of design, whether in clothes or in buildings.
Staiths South Bank housing development in Gateshead
Wayne Hemingway takes a tour of the Staiths South Bank housing development in Gateshead. Wayne is a member of the government Eco Towns Advisory Panel, who are advising on the new house building initiative. The Staiths South Bank, Gateshead was awarded the Silver Award by the Commission for the Built Environment (CABE). The development is at the eastern end of a formerly contaminated isolated site at Dunston Staiths, this development is the outcome of a mainstream housing developer’s response to designer Wayne Hemingway’s provocative criticism of the ‘Wimpeyfication’ of Britain by volume housebuilders.
Eco towns
In 2007, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, stressed the importance of new housing and revealed a role of eco-towns in realising the target of 3 million new homes by 2020. The government introduced the speech Eco-Towns Challenge Panel – twelve experts from the worlds of design, the environment, transport and sustainability. The panel provided expert advice and highlighted the challenges. Designer Wayne Hemingway was on the panel:
Further reading
Eco-house not ‘at home’: the crisis of post-political spatial planning, Geography Directions, 2013
Manifestos General Election 2015: Cities and Housing, Geographical Magazine 2015