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School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHER
Sustainable housing development in
Leeds:
markets and planning
MA in Activism and Social ChangeSCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY
Rachael Unsworth
Faculty of EnvironmentSCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY
Outline
Forces influencing house building
• Patterns of demand – business-as-usual assumptions
• Supply-side factors: the house building industry; the LDF, Localism Act and future development
Leeds Sustainable Development Group – proposals complementary to W.A.R.D. arguments
RU’s research, teaching and involvement in the city of Leeds
• Sustainability
• Futures reading and thinking – horizon scanning and interpretation of trends; visioning
• Long term change in cities
• Leeds: housing, offices, environment, culture, planning and land use, regeneration, community development
RU’s research, teaching and involvement in the city of Leeds
20042008
City living research from 2003
Visioning
January 2008
September 2008
Spring 2010
Vision 2010
Conference
October 2010
November 2009
Leeds
Sustainable
Development
Group
Forces influencing house building
Patterns of demand – commonly held assumptions:
• Smaller households
• Suburban/rural locations (SHMA 2007)
• Owner occupation
• Car ownership & use
• Semi-detached and detached
Supply-side factors
The house building industry:
• quantity, standardisation, little place-making, resistant to radical change (Adams and Payne, 2011)
• ‘Too many housing estates … are not well connected to local services and promote dependency on the car’ (DTLR and CABE, 2001, 5)
• ‘so cynical’ – Jackie Sadek, UK Regeneration 10.5.12
• brownfield: ‘more expensive’
• claim that planning stands on the way – it’s landowners that hold more power
Supply-side factors
The LDF, Localism Act and future development
Whose charter?
LDF Core Strategy
Population expected to increase:
Approx 750,000 2012 to 860,000 by 2028
Existing Green Belt boundary to be reassessed – considered that brownfield sites cannot accommodate all new housing
LDF Core Strategy: housing
Spatial Policy 7: Distribution of housing land & allocations
Aireborough 2,300 houses out of 66,000
5.2.1 A priority is: housing delivery in sustainable locations, which respects local character and distinctiveness, maximises opportunities to recycle previously developed land, whilst minimising greenfield and Green Belt release.
Policy H1: Allocations after the first 5 years: sites that best address: regeneration areas, best public transport accessibility, local services, least impact on Green Belt objectives, least impact on green infrastructure
.
LDF Core Strategy: new housing
LDF Core Strategy: major land use categories and changes
LDF Core Strategy: housing
Policy H2: New housing development will be acceptable in principle on non-allocated land, providing that the number of dwellings does not exceed the capacity of transport, educational and health infrastructure, as existing or provided as a condition of development
LDF Core Strategy
City Centre
5.1.18 The southern half of Leeds City Centre (all of the area south of the river) offers huge potential for development of offices, leisure uses, parkland, and housing, and possibly in the longer term further high street shopping.
Policy CC1: City Centre will be planned to accommodate …
10,200 dwellings
City living and sustainability so far
• built on brownfield sites or using existing structures• improving urban vitality and viability• mixed use and lower need for travel by car
City living so far – not sustainable development
• built in response to demand for buy-to-let
• built to minimum standards to keep costs down
• majority of residents plan to move in short term
• not greenest lifestyle
City living: the next chapter?
In the medium to longer term:
• even more compelling rationale for city centre living for a wider range of households?
energy prices and resource shortages
environmental legislation
• need for a new approach to providing for such households?
Oil production to 2050 – ‘Peak Oil’ soon/now?
Energy is more than a strategic resource; it is integral to the structure of civilisation
Atkinson, A. (2007) Cities after oil – 1: ‘Sustainable development’ and energy futures, City 11(2) 201-213
Estimated reserves of metallic resources
Cohen D. (2007) Earth audit, New Scientist, 26 May 2007, 34-41.
The implications of being beyond cheap energy
• Oil persistently > $100 a barrel
• Pushes up the price of everything
• Squeezes disposable income
“… complex societies need a high Energy Return On Investment built on a large primary energy base” (King and Hall, 2011, p.1811).
EROI =
the amount of energy produced
divided by
the amount consumed
Implications for future of Leeds?
Create options for people to live, work and spend leisure time that are less resource-intensive:
• energy-efficient housing
• reduce need to travel: facilities and jobs close by
• local sourcing of daily needs
• pleasant environment
New kinds of neighbourhoods
Sustainable suburbs
Improved inner city neighbourhoods + Aire Valley eco-settlement
City centre south – new neighbourhood
Leeds City Centre South
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Planning Policy – city centre south
South Bank
Holbeck UV
Aire Valley Leeds
Action Area Plan
?
UDP City Centre
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Attend to road network
Reduce car traffic through the area
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Green infrastructure
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Green space: where liveability and sustainability meet
Clockwise from top left: Chicago, Havana, Tokyo, Berlin, Birmingham, Vancouver
Community Infrastructure
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Development capacity
• > 200 acres
• Capacity for > 20 million sf of development
• 8-12,000 residential units?
Leeds Sustainable Development Group
Sustainable neighbourhoods:examples from a JRF publication
Freiburg
Created collaboratively with ‘an enabling masterplan’
Living within limits
A sustainable city: the many different goals of its inhabitants and enterprises are met, without passing on costs to other people (including future generations) or to the wider environment
Adapted from HABITAT (1996) An urbanising world, p.420.
References
Academy of Urbanism (2011) The Freiburg Charter for Sustainable Urbanism http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/
Freiberg Green City Brochure http://www.fwtm.freiburg.de/servlet/PB/menu/1182949_l2/index.html
Adams, D. and Payne, S. (2011) ‘Business as usual?’ – Exploring the design response of UK speculative housebuilders to the brownfield development challenge, in Tiesdell, S. and Adams, D. (eds) Urban Design in the Real Estate Process, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 199-218.
Atkinson, A. (2007) Cities after oil – 1: ‘Sustainable development’ and energy futures, City 11(2) 201-213.
Cohen D. (2007) Earth audit, New Scientist, 26 May 2007, 34-41.
King, C.W. and Hall, C.A.S. (2011) Relating financial and energy return on investment, Sustainability 2011, 3(10), 1810-1832; doi:10.3390/su3101810 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/3/10/1810
Rockström, J. et al (2009) Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity, Ecology & Society 14(2) http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/
Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods Network (2012) How can local government build sustainable urban neighbourhoods? http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/local-government-sustainable-urban-neighbourhoods
Unsworth, R. (2007) ‘City Living’ and Sustainable Development: the Experience of a UK Regional City, Town Planning Review 78(6), 725-747.
