Sustainable urban planning and the brownfield development process in the United Kingdom: Lessons from the Thames Gateway

Abstract

Over recent decades urban and regional development agendas in the United Kingdom have become dominated by the discourses of sustainable development, holistic regeneration and community capacity-building. It is in this context that brownfield development has emerged as a core feature in strategies to regenerate urban areas. Bringing brownfields back into use tends to be, a priori, presented as a ‘good thing’ that will have broader economic, environmental and social benefits. This paper assesses the role that brownfield development plays in urban and regional policy agendas in the UK. It begins by identifying the rationales for, and concerns associated with, the brownfield development process in the UK, before discussing the trajectories of policy under the New Labour government since 1997. It argues that at present too much is expected from brownfield-led regeneration programmes and that wider benefits will only accrue if these programmes are embedded within a wider and more comprehensive set of development projects and policy agendas.

Acknowledgements

The research for this paper was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Sustainable Urban Brownfields: Integrated Management (SUBR:IM) research consortium, of which the authors are members (Grant Reference number: GR/S148809/01). The authors would like to thank Kate Theobald, Philip Catney and two anonymous referees for their insightful and thoughtful comments on an earlier draft. Responsibility for the final product is, of course, the authors' alone and the essay does not represent the collective view of the SUBR:IM consortium.

Notes

1. In February 2005 the government introduced Planning Policy Statement 1: Delivering Sustainable Development to take the place of the existing Planning Policy Guidance (General Policy and Principles) 1997. The statement sets out the core principles that local planning agencies are required to consider when managing local decision-making processes.

2. It also calls for development on selected greenfield in three growth areas around London (in Cambridge, Ashford and Milton Keynes) and development in Market Renewal Areas in nine northern industrial cities. However, in terms of brownfield-led regeneration, it is the proposals for the Thames Gateway that are the most significant aspect of the programme.

3. John Prescott is the Deputy Prime Minister and has responsibility for the Sustainable Communities plan and the government's regional and urban policy agendas.

4. Under the authority of Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1990 (as amended by Section 12 of the Planning and Compensation Act, 1991), local authorities are permitted to enter into legally binding agreements with developers for the purpose of restricting or regulating the development or proposed land use to achieve relevant planning objectives, provided that they relate to the impact of, or the pressures created by, the particular development in question (Department of the Environment, 1997).