The 2011 census and the need to re-discover regional cities

The 2011 census revealed an unprecedented rise in population between 2001 and 2011, of 3.7 million in England, the need to re-discover our cities is more important than ever before.

Over this period the population of London increased by over 850,000, around 100,000 people more than the entire population of Leeds; England’s 3^rd largest City. 

Despite this, London works as an urban entity. Its population supports a fully integrated transport system while providing the opportunity for a sustainable and compact living environment which other cities can only aspire to. 

Population densities illustrate the extent to which regional cities in the UK could be described as underpopulated.

The top 5 most densely populated London Boroughs (2011 Census)

1. Islington: 13,875 people per sq km
2. Kensington and Chelsea: 13,087 people per sq km
3. Hackney: 12,845 people per sq km
4. Tower Hamlets: people per sq km
5. Lambeth: 11,305 people per sq km

The least densely populated London borough is Bromley with 2061 people per sq km.

Now lets compare this with population densities of England’s 5 largest cities

1. Birmingham: 1,073,000  (4007 people per sq km)
2. Leeds: 751,500 (1362 people per sq km)
3. Sheffield:  552,700 (1502 people per sq km)
4. Bradford: 522,500 (1426 people per sq km)
5. Manchester: 503,100 (4350 people per sq km)

The largest population density outside of London is Portsmouth with 5081 people per sq km.

This Illustrates the extent to which all are major cities are desperately underpopulated, if Leeds were to have the same population density as Bromley, a suburban in character outer London borough, the population could reach 1,137,672, an additional 386,172 people. If it had the same population density as Islington an astonishing 7,659,000 people could be supported within the city boundaries.  

If population growth is to continue these figures illustrate the need to re-balance the regional economies before the densities in London become too high for services to adequately support and begin to negatively impact upon the quality of life of its residents.

My 5 point plan to create a more evenly focused economy

1. Regional centre’s need to look at attracting new start up businesses, all the cities I have listed are home to respected universities and business schools with thousands of graduates passing through every year.

Local councils should look at offering tax breaks and / or rate relief to start up businesses for at least the first 2 years of operation. This will help to rediscover the entrepreneurial spirit which powered much of the early growth of the UK’s regional cities.

2. Fiscal autonomy should be provided to give greater powers for regional cities to develop integrated transport networks without going to Whitehall.

3. Re-nationalise regional transport in a similar vain to London, refocus the aim of providing public transport on getting people from A to B quickly, rather than on profit margin and keeping shareholders happy.

3. New neighborhood’s should form part of the urban fabric of the city, Hulme in south Manchester provides a good low rise but high density starting point.

4. Develop High speed rail with a new hub airport at Birmingham.

Easy.

The alternative? London becomes more unaffordable and regional cities continue a damaging period of stagnation within an increasingly competitive European economy.

Future housing growth needs to be concentrated in existing urban areas as these offer the most sustainable living environments, reducing our carbon footprints and land use.

 Sources: 

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_270487.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/datablog/interactive/2012/jul/16/census-2011-uk-map-data?intcmp=239

Ensuring a Sustainable Future?

It was revealed last week that the UK population grew at its fastest rate for over half a century.


Between june 2009 and 2010 the countries population grew by 470,000 people, roughly the same number of people who live in Liverpool. Yet unless I have missed it, a new city hasn't risen out of the ground. So where are these people living?


Just over half of the 470,000 rise can be attributed to natural change, (The difference between births and deaths). This figure was 134,000 higher than the figure 10 years ago. Just under half of this rise were immigrants, leaving  around 200,000 extra people needing accommodation in a country where over the last 10 years house completions have continually decreased and where in many communities there is a strong resistance to any new development.


The increase in immigrants can also be partly used to explain the natural rise with 200,000 extra women of child baring age residing in the UK compared to 10 years ago.


At the other end of the scale the amount of people over the age of 85 has doubled from 600,000 in 1981 to 1.4 million today. Bringing its own problems of housing and care provision.


The result of this is record house prices, increasing number of people in their late 20s early 30s are now opting to rent and there is a council house waiting list of 1.75 million people. (The Times)


The coalition governments Draft national planning policy framework which is set to be released later this month aims to change the balance in favour of developers. Although this will give housebuilding a kickstart the policy could result in a increase in greenfield and greenbelt development, while current sustainability guidelines ensuring  new developments have access to public transport or walking and cycling routes to shops or places of work, will be ignored. Acording to the Times 'Councils will be unable to reject developments unless they can prove that the impacts would be so severe that they would outweigh the urgent need for new homes' (1).


90% (2) of the UK is currently open space, a fact perhaps forgotten in the overcrowded south east. While the density of Northern Cities such as Sheffield (3,942 people per Km2)  and  (Scottish) Glasgow (3,171) is very low when compared to Greater London at 5,099 people per sq km,and  there is a good supply of brownfield land in many of these places ready and waiting to be developed.


In 20 years the children born today will be wanting to fly there own nest;  it is crucial that for there sake at least the country has a proactive planning system and a ready supply of homes available and perhaps the new policy will result in a more sustainable long-term future.


(1)Webster B (1/7/2011) Planning rules pave way for greenbelt bonaza, The Times, London
(2)Pennington M (2/7/2011) Loosen your Greenbelt become a BIMBY, The Times, London