Seminar Paper: Housing for an Urban Renaissance: Implications for Social Equity

This paper deals with UK’s housing policy to promote an ‘urban renaissance’ – the repopulation and
regeneration of British cities after passing through a period of inner city urban decay, which led to the
formation of suburbs in the mid-20th century. Social equity is a theory outlined in the text, where it is
compared to the urban form and to what extent does the idea of the ‘compact city’ influence this theory
positively or negatively. The objectives of this research are to validate the claims that the compact city
does promote social equity and also to highlight positive aspects of urban compactness. Through the
careful investigation of social equity impacts in 25 British cities with varied levels of compactness, the
influence of the compact city on social equity was found to be positive in high-density housing which
are well-connected to basic services and facilities. This contributes to sustainable living as it reduces
the need for car-dependency and promotes social interaction within the city or neighbourhood. This
critical report will evaluate the findings and compare it to the current housing situation, 15 years after
the publication of this study.

Summary

The idea of the ‘compact city’ as a sustainable urban form, where high-density and mixed-use
development are integrated on previously developed urban land (brownfield) close to transit nodes, is
the British government’s objective so as to meet the projected housing requirements. By providing well-
designed spaces and places for people to live in within cities, this will encourage people to move back
into the cities. The ‘compact city’ offers sustainable ways of living: services and facilities such as schools
and shops within a comfortable walking distance, the revitalisation and regeneration of abandoned
buildings and the idea of living over shops. These benefits will prevent urban sprawl as the countryside
will be conserved, there is less car-dependency (reduced fuel and traffic congestion) and increase in
the use of public transport, walking and cycling. High-density housing will consist of 30-50 households
per hectare rather than the usual 20-30 households.

Although there was very little evidence as to whether compact cities are in fact sustainable, mostly with
regards to whether it promotes social equity.

``One of the key problems with the compact city hypothesis is that it ... brings very diverse
concepts together under a potentially misleading banner. Moreover, these concepts vary from
polemics based on rather Utopian ideologies through to minutely detailed empirical research''
[Pratt and Larkham, 1996].

The alleged compact city appears to have diverse qualities, but empirical studies tend to focus on
aspects such as gross and residential densities rather than evaluating the impact on social equity. Social
equity depends on the country’s cost of living and benefits it provides to its inhabitants, and how such
benefits are distributed amongst the social groups. Proper planning of policies must be implemented
to encourage the development of high density urban forms.

Sustainable development theories focus on the need to eliminate poverty, by bridging the gap between
the advantaged and the disadvantaged: distribution according to need which may require positive
discrimination in favour of those in need. By doing so, this will improve the quality of life of low-income
groups which will increase their share of social goods and self-respect.

In order to test the theory of social equity in the compact city, advantages and disadvantages delivered
by the compact city were identified on the basis of how these affect the quality of life of the low-income
groups. Social equity is dependent on many factors, such as the socio-economic position of that town
or city and the rate of unemployment. In this study, social equity was measured by the use of indicators
i.e. the living space, level of segregation etc, with data obtained from the Censuses of Population. By
using statistical tests, such as comparing the level of compactness to the levels of social equity, the
relationship between sets of indicators was identified. Social equity factors which strongly related to
the compactness level were access to shops, green space and public transport use, walking and cycling,
death from mental illnesses and respiratory diseases, crime and social segregation. With these results
in hand, it was confirmed that urban compactness has high impact on social equity. The higher the
social housing percentage is, the higher the level of social equity there is since such housing eliminates
negative circumstances that the housing market would impose on the disadvantaged.

Density was the largest factor of compactness that related to much of the indicators the three
categories accessed (mixed-use and intensification). Although results showed that positive influences
were outnumbered by the negative ones. Intensification had the most positive influence and mixed-
use cities appeared to be the most democratic in terms of the proportion of the least well off to the
most well off, when compared to other cities in the study. Positive aspects of compactness consisted
of the wide-range of facilities offered, high-density housing (apartments and terraced housing), a high
occurrence of re-urbanisation and the redevelopment of brownfield sites.

This study concluded that the concept of the urban renaissance has strong impacts on social equity
where there is higher density housing with efficient connections to facilities, services and public
transport. Encouraging people to move back into towns and cities will decrease dependency on private
vehicles, eliminate social segregation and improve mental health.

Critique

At present, we are being faced with one of the most serious problems: the global population growth.
This leads to consequent urban expansion on virgin land, going against the principles of sustainable
growth. Expanding population growth will result in negative impacts not just locally by globally, such as
environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources and human health. This also implies that
from this rapid increase in the global population, new cities, neighbourhoods and suburbs will emerge.

Planning authorities have high influence on such urban growth, it is important to have good planning
and implementation of policies in order to prevent the haphazard development of housing. Policies
must be planned around the ideas of having appropriate sized dwellings, and that a certain percentage
of a housing development must cater for affordable housing to bridge the gap between those who
afford and those who do not so as not to end up with social segregation. Green space must be enforced
within developments as such spaces contribute to the well-being.

Urban renaissance needs to be made as attractive as possible, to encourage people to move back into
the cities rather than into the suburbs. There are many reasons why some prefer to move into the
suburbs, due to crime, noise and air pollution, lack of parking spaces, low quality schools, the congested
environment appearance and lack of enforcement on littering. These need to be taken into
consideration in order for the ‘compact city’ scheme to be successful.

Taking a look at the current situation, today many criticize this concept of the ‘compact city’. The
question is, is it really about sustainability or is it to sustain the economy? The compact city has been
the urban model adopted by various countries and it is recommended by professionals as the most
sustainable settlement typology as of yet. Recent studies have shown that the ecological footprint
imposed by city dwellers is equal or higher than to those living in suburbs.

2
In developing countries were cities are very densely built, issues such as poor sanitary conditions, high
levels of congestion and severe overcrowding is extremely common. So, the ‘compact city’ model
cannot be applied in every case.

According to Shlomo Angel in his book ‘Planet of Cities’, he compares the compact city model to the
current urbanization trends, and states the urban densities are declining everywhere in the world. So
regardless of what the professionals are stating, urban densities are not increasing:

‘’ The empirical evidence presented and explained … shows that average urban population
densities in different world regions … are now in decline practically everywhere, and that they
have been in decline for a century or more. In other words, … urban land cover has been
growing at a faster rate than the urban population.’’ [Planet of Cities, Chapter 11]

In terms of social sustainability, studies have shown that the compact city model seems to be having
both positive and negative impacts for this low-income group. The benefits included are improved
public transport, decrease in social segregation and better access to facilities, but problems such as
reduced living space, lack of affordable housing and lack green space still persist. Housing prices tend
to be higher in denser cities, which forces lower income groups to live in small spaces without choice
of quality and location. Such situations are evident in cities like London and Milan, where one feels a
drastic difference between walking through a low-income to a higher-income urban environment,
which end up influencing certain actions such as whether to walk or to use a vehicle.

Conclusion

Limiting space for urban expansion does impose negative impacts on the lower income groups. The
compact city model is certainly the idealistic model to follow but is it too surreal? It is definitely not
easy to achieve and requires a lot of factors working together. In my opinion it all boils down to the
enforcement of policies. Without good authorities and a planning system, such issues will be very
difficult to eliminate.

3
References

Angel, S. (2012). Planet of cities. Cambridge, Mass.: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Burton, E. (2002). Measuring urban compactness in UK towns and cities. Oxford, UK: Oxford Centre for
Sustainable Development, School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University.

Newgeography.com. (2018). Why Compact Cities Aren't so Smart | Newgeography.com. [online]

Available at: http://www.newgeography.com/content/002279-why-compact-cities-arent-so-
smart