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Housing: Underpinning sustainable urban regeneration
Abstract
Housing should be a key element underpinning urban regeneration to ensure long‐term sustainability. Two issues facing urban areas stand out as we reach the millennium— these are urban competitiveness and the negative effect of large numbers of urban residents who are economically and socially excluded. This article argues that a more strategic approach to city regeneration is required, establishing a vision for the future so that smaller‐scale regeneration initiatives have a clear role. Social housing, in particular, can contribute to a city's competitiveness and the revitalization and reintegration of areas of economic and social exclusion. Housing developments can lever in substantial funds, bring local economic spin‐offs and, most importantly, deliver increased community cohesion.
... Winston (2010) has noted that the key characteristics of sustainable housing are in relation to the location, construction and design, use, and regeneration. Garner (1996) has highlighted the important role which the housing and social housing plays in improving a city's competitiveness as well as in the revitalization and reintegration of the economically and socially excluded areas within the urban landscape. The United Nations (2017) in its New Urban Agenda has proposed the slum dwellers should be able to access safe water, access primary health care, access safe sanitation. ...
The urban population of India is expected to reach 416 million by 2050. As more and more people shift from rural to urban areas, the urban centers will be facing serious sustainability challenges to meet the requirements of ever increasing population. One of the key problem areas will be the shortages of the affordable housings for the urban poor and the growth of slums. However, these slums are important component of urban ecosystem as they not only provide affordable shelters to the urban poor but also supply the urban area with its cheap labour force, therefore slums and slum dwellers should be treated as an integral part of urban ecosystem and should be included in the policy frameworks to make urban areas more inclusive and sustainable. This paper examines the sustainability of urban development through livelihood indicators of the slum dwellers of Darjeeling town. This empirical study was carried out in 8 different slum pockets of the town. The data was collected through questionnaires and were subsequently analyzed. The results shows that the slum pockets of Darjeeling town have higher literacy rates (including female literacy rate) as compared to both the national and the state averages, yet its performance in other livelihood indicators is very dismal. The attainment of the lower educational levels by slum dwellers indicates prevalence of very high dropout rates within the community. The slum dwellers face serious levels of deprivation as related to wellbeing indicator and environmental hygiene indicator in regard to access of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities respectively. The slum dwellers of Darjeeling town are forced to live in overcrowded substandard housing conditions with almost no municipal services and are situated on steep slopes which are often prone to the natural disasters. The mixed performance of the slum pockets in regard to the livelihood indicators suggests that the town of Darjeeling has been experiencing unbalanced growth in terms of sustainable development. Therefore a more holistic approach in policy framing is needed to address such multi-faceted problems.
... Edwards and Turrent (2000) and Hal Anke van (2000) examine the relationships of sustainability to housing and suggest for sustainable housing, while Winston (2010) outlined the key characteristics of sustainable housing in terms of location, construction and design, use, and regeneration. Garner (1996) discussed the role of housing and social housing in improving a city's competitiveness as well as the revitalization and reintegration of areas of economic and social exclusion in urban renewal. ...
This paper examines the sustainability of urban development through the livelihood conditions of slum dwellers in Bangladesh. The empirical data were collected through interview schedule and FGD from 97 respondents in two slum areas of Bangladesh. The respondents were selected purposively from the second largest city of Bangladesh namely, Chittagong. The results clearly indicate that there exist significant diversity and differences of sustainability indicators, particularly household and housing characteristics, health, drinking water, waste disposal system and security. More specifically, the finding shows that slum dwellers have been experiencing with a wide range of substandard, overcrowded and unhealthy housing conditions in one hand. On the other hand, they have scarce and insufficient health, sanitation, water and waste disposal services which are unswervingly impeding to sustainable development in urban areas. Although the majority of slum dwellers have access to electricity, they are still threatened by the insecurities of women, drug dealing, eviction and natural disaster. Therefore, the findings suggest a holistic approach to address the multi-faceted sustainability issues that affect the livelihoods of slum dwellers within the framework of context-driven development policy of the country.
... Misguided urban regeneration has been recognised as causing economic and social exclusion, and it is thought that a stronger focus on the provision of mixed housing should be taken, as it can bring economic spin-off effects and facilitate community cohesion (Garner 1996). In fact, the provision of affordable housing is widely recognised as a key catalyst to initiating social sustainability and promoting inclusion and cohesion (Randolph 2004). ...
Urban renewal has a social impact, and, here, we present the Fortitude Valley Renewal Plan (2007), in order to assess its process as a case study in relation to the concept of social sustainability. The objective is to develop recommendations to incorporate social sustainability in a proactive manner within the urban regeneration process. This research is based on the analysis of planning documents and semi-directed interviews with urban stakeholders involved in the regeneration process, particularly in the development of the Fortitude Valley Urban Vision statutory planning document. We analyse the case of Fortitude Valley's regeneration process in regards to three components: urban design, provision of affordable housing and the public engagement process. In conclusion, we explain how the tool of Sustainability Assessment (SA) could be used to improve strategic decision-making for the development of urban regeneration strategies for this case study.
... The authors suggest that a multisectoral approach is required. Best (1996) and Garner (1996) take a more optimistic view that housing policy can have an impact on socially excluded estates, suggesting that housing can lever in resources to enhance run-down housing localities. An interesting approach to issues of social exclusion is advanced by Forrest and Murie (1995). ...
... The authors suggest that a multisectoral approach is required. Best (1996) and Garner (1996) take a more optimistic view that housing policy can have an impact on socially excluded estates, suggesting that housing can lever in resources to enhance run-down housing localities. An interesting approach to issues of social exclusion is advanced by Forrest and Murie (1995). ...
... On the other hand, various aspects of housing can have a significant negative impact on the environment and the eco-system (Winston, 2010). Although housing and regeneration have been relatively neglected topics, Garner (1996) discussed the role of housing and social housing in improving a city's competitiveness as well as the revitalization and reintegration of areas of economic and social exclusion in urban renewal, while Winston (2010) outlined the key characteristics of sustainable housing in terms of location, construction and design, use, and regeneration. ...
Urban renewal and sustainable development are two popular issues in both policy agenda and academia. Although their importance has been increasingly recognized, an integrated review covering sustainability, planning, and urban renewal has yet to be produced. Based on 81 journal papers, this paper presents a critical review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal over the period 1990–2012. The review focuses on the planning sub-system and the social sub-system of urban renewal in terms of the evaluation of sustainability. The complexity of achieving sustainable urban renewal is emphasized and discussed. To better clarify the mechanism behind the urban renewal process and improve urban sustainability, recommendations of future research directions are also provided.
... Misguided urban regeneration has been recognised to cause economic and social exclusion, and it is thought that a stronger focus on the provision of mixed housing should be taken as it can bring economic spin-off effects, and deliver community cohesion (Garner, 1996) . In fact, the provision of affordable housing is widely recognised as a key catalyst to initiating social sustainability and promoting inclusion and cohesion (Randolph, 2004). ...
There exist various indicators that measure land tenure security for urbanites. Most of those indicators measure the degree to which land titling promotes the security of tenure. Based on the reviewed literature, it is admitted that land titling is not a panacea to land tenure security. Measuring the degree of land tenure security should not rely only on the legalisation of landownership. This paper makes a meta-analysis and conceptual modelling to connect spatial justice and land tenure security. It discusses the potential of inclusive urban development grounded on the claim that spatial justice enhances land tenure security. A comprehensive framework of indicators which can measure the degree of land tenure security from a spatial justice lens is thereafter derived. The meta-analysis and conceptual modelling were coupled with research synthesis to perform an in-depth review and qualitative content analysis of the literature on concepts of spatial justice, land tenure security, and urban (re)development processes. This study proposes 60 indicators which measure the degree of spatial justice and land tenure security along a continuum of spatial justice and land tenure security. Those indicators provide a more holistic approach for measuring land tenure security from a spatial justice lens than the separated sets of existing indicators.
Twenty years after the publication of the seminal 1977 White Paper on the inner cities, the promise of a more coordinated and strategic approach to urban policy still remains to be realised. This paper addresses the issue of why British urban policy has been characterised by a form of 'policy amnesia' - a failure to learn from past experiences. In arguing for the importance of policy learning and adaptation, the paper identifies 10 key lessons that emerge from the operation of urban policy since the late 1970s.
Demographic and economic changes are likely to be favorable to the U.K. as 2001 approaches. Population pressures are easing, and the economy is recovering sharply. But constraints on public spending will remain. The U.K. housing system is costly and appears to boost prices more than output, reinforcing macroeconomic instabilities. Its key limitation is the lack of an adaptive rental sector—social or private. Policy has been too focused on maximal rather than sustainable homeownership. What Britain needs most is a new vision that encompasses both enhancing economic flexibility and addressing the problems of inequitable income distribution and urban decay.
While emphasizing homeownership and competition as the pillars of U.K. housing policy, the article sets out the importance of producer subsidies and a renewed emphasis on rental housing. Some organizational reforms are proposed. Britain can do better in housing—more thought, not more government money, is the key to progress.
Urban Partnerships are multi‐agency projects led by central government in Scotland intended to regenerate run‐down and deprived housing estates. They are multi‐sectoral projects but a large part of their agenda concerns housing. The Partnerships are explicitly based on the principle of resident involvement, taking lessons from previous projects. This paper examines one Partnership area, Ferguslie Park in Paisley where there had been a long tradition of resident involvement. It finds that in the early years of the Partnership the community was largely set aside while more powerful members of the Partnership pursued their own agendas. The reason for this is not simply that community interests were ignored, but that the political objectives of government, the complexity of the project and its timescale prevented meaningful local involvement.