A think-tank report called for local councils to tackle the decline of the traditional high street by taking over empty shops and offering them to local entrepreneurs and small businesses without premises on a free basis or by charging a low rent.
Source: James Hulme, High Noon for the High Street: Responding to the cycle of decline in Britain's town centres, New Local Government Network
Links: Report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Dec
A report (by an official advisory body) said that a switch was needed in public spending from 'grey' projects (such as road building and heavy engineering projects) to green schemes (such as street trees, parks, green roofs, and waterways).
Source: Grey to Green: How we shift funding and skills to green our cities, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (020 7960 2400)
Links: Report | CABE press release
Date: 2009-Nov
A report examined evidence on the contribution of 'core cities' (with a collective population of 4.3 million) as major employers and leaders on work and skills within wider local partnerships.
Source: Core Cities: Delivering Employment and Skills, Core Cities Group and Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Nov
An article examined the links between changes to the planning system and the deregulation of the numbers, capacities, and types of licensed premises in town and city centres.
Source: Marion Roberts, 'Planning, urban design and the night-time city: still at the margins?', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 9 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Nov
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on town centre planning. It said that it remained committed to promoting the vitality and viability of town centres, and to ensuring that the planning system supported their growth and development.
Source: Need and Impact: Planning for town centres – Government Response to the Committee's Tenth Report, Second Special Report (Session 2008-09), HC 1082, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2009-Nov
A collection of essays examined ways to make suburban areas more sustainable and better places in which to live and work.
Source: Paul Hackett (ed.), Housing and Growth in Suburbia, Smith Institute (020 7592 3618)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Sep
An article said that Britain's major cities had fallen behind the best practice in transport of European and north American cities, and needed to address this to compete in global markets. A number of potential mechanisms were available to United Kingdom cities – but only if central government were willing to transfer (limited) financial powers to the city-regions.
Source: Iain Docherty, Jon Shaw, Richard Knowles and Danny Mackinnon, 'Connecting for competitiveness: future transport in UK city regions', Public Money and Management, Volume 29 Issue 5
Links: Abstract | CIPFA press release
Date: 2009-Sep
A new textbook examined urban regeneration policy.
Source: Andrew Tallon, Urban Regeneration in the UK, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Aug
A think-tank report said that workforce skills largely determined how well cities were performing in the economic recession, and that most of the worst unemployment hotspots were 'repeat casualties' from previous recessions.
Source: Alexandra Jones, Neil Lee and Katy Morris, Recession and Recovery: How UK cities can respond and drive the recovery, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2009-Jul
A think-tank report highlighted the cities that were most vulnerable to public sector job losses. Some cities were too dependent on the public sector for jobs, and needed to start immediate planning for reduced public spending from 2011.
Source: Kieran Larkin, Public Sector Cities: Trouble ahead, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300)
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release | BBC report | Personnel Today report | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2009-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government needed to monitor closely the effects of removing the 'needs test' that prioritized the needs of town centres in the planning process. Such monitoring needed to cover the ability of local planning authorities to cope with this and other changes to the planning system, as well as both the number of applications for out-of-centre development being approved, and the total amount of new development occurring in and outside town centres.
Source: Need and Impact: Planning for town centres, Tenth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 517, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Jul
A new book examined how the 'New Towns' came to be built in the period 1946-1970, how they aged, and the challenges and opportunities they faced as they began phases of renewal.
Source: Anthony Alexander, Britain's New Towns: Garden cities to sustainable communities, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Jun
Researchers examined how towns and cities could be planned so that they were socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and economically efficient. The government's policy of concentrating new housing in existing urban areas and on 'brownfield sites' was not working, and could build up problems for the future. High-density urban housing developments could be incubators for a range of social and economic problems. In the south east region of England, existing policy could increase production and housing costs by £30 billion a year by 2031. The report proposed a policy of 'sustainable suburbs' that, although they would inevitably encroach on green belt land, would reduce living costs and provide housing in which people wanted to live.
Source: SOLUTIONS (Sustainability Of Land Use and Transport In Outer NeighbourhoodS): Final Report – Strategic Scale, SOLUTIONS consortium (Cambridge University and four others) (info@suburbansolutions.ac.uk)
Links: Report | Cambridge University press release
Date: 2009-Jun
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on new towns.
Source: New Towns: Follow-Up – Government Response to the Ninth Report, Fifth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 253, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2009-May
A report identified key issues and lessons for existing planning policy and practice concerning the development of new urban extensions.
Source: Michael Carley and Rosalind Bayley, Urban Extensions, Planning and Participation: Lessons from Derwenthorpe and other new communities, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report (by an official advisory body) set out the practical and policy responses to climate change that were needed to ensure that towns and cities were genuinely sustainable places.
Source: Hallmarks of a Sustainable City, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (020 7960 2400)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Mar
An article examined the implementation of the government's 'city strategy' initiative in a devolved setting, drawing on the experience of the three Scottish pathfinders – Edinburgh, Dundee, and Glasgow.
Source: Donna-Louise Hurrell and Carol Hayden, 'City strategy in a devolved setting', Local Economy, Volume 24 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Feb
A report ranked the economic performance of 64 of the United Kingdom's largest cities and towns. The ranking included an overall economic prosperity index, a social deprivation index, and a built environment index.
Source: Cities Outlook 2009, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300)
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release | FT report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Jan