Examples Evaluate The Success Of Urban Regeneration Schemes
With reference to examples, evaluate the success or otherwise, of urban regeneration schemes in combating the causes and consequences of urban decline. (40 marks)
Urban decline is the deterioration of urban areas, normally triggered by a decrease in industry. The decrease in industry could be due to manufacturing moving overseas, causing industries to close or companies moving to areas outside the city where rent is cheaper, such as AXA, Sunlife, HP and many more companies that moved from the centre of Bristol to Stoke Gifford. The decrease in industry then leads to unemployment rates rising as jobs will be lost and the jobs available will be low paid and unskilled, people are likely to move away to find jobs. People leaving the city will mean less people using services such as shops, buses, leisure facilities …show more content…
etc. and those that will be using them will be those with less money to spend, forcing them to close. As people, industry and services move out they leave behind empty buildings which can become derelict, which attracts vandalism and graffiti to the area. Parks and recreational areas become neglected and develop problems with crime such as drug dealing. The more unattractive the area becomes, the more decline occurs as people do not want to live in these areas. Consequences of urban decline include unemployment, low wages, lower aspirations, crime increase, less skilled workforce, environment and building quality decline, services closing and population decline.
There are regeneration schemes put into place to reduce, or solve the problems, of urban decline. The first I am going to talk about is Gentrification. Gentrification is when wealthier people move into an area of urban decline and regenerate it by improving housing, which can cause social changes in the area as lower income groups are displaced by more affluent people, and can therefore have an effect of the shops and services of the area.
Southville, Bristol has been through the process of gentrification. Brownfield sites either side of the River Avon were built on and houses were improved, the building on brownfield sites rather than greenfield sites is much better as it improves the land, and the look of the area, rather than just building on new land which increases urban sprawl. This allowed derelict land to become valuable and therefore attracted wealthier people to buy property there. House prices increased by £40,000 in just the last 5
years.
As the new and modified properties are more expensive than what was originally there, more affluent people move to the area, these affluent people were generally more mobile (can work from home, have cars to travel to facilities further away) and therefore do not rely on local facilities such as small local shops, which were not receiving enough business and so were forced to close, this caused a loss of the community spirit and so locals felt isolated and displaced.
The change in social groups living in the area also increased traffic along the main roads (Raleigh Road and North Street) due to the more affluent population having cars to travel, this has led to people being charged to park outside their own house, on the road, this can cost £90 a year. The closure of the local facilities meant working class locals didn’t have the affordable shops close to home and some may not have been able to travel the distances that the new, wealthier people travel to, and so would have had to move to somewhere where the living costs were lower. This created conflicts with locals and new comers, sometimes resulting in crime – the area now has higher than Bristol’s average of violent crimes this may be due to locals not being able to afford to live in the area and also unemployment due to loss of shops and services.
To keep the community spirit George Ferguson, a local architect, converted the old Tobacco Factory on Raleigh Road into a theatre, restaurants, cafes, a bar, and art space, apartments and a farmers market. He only allows local businesses etc. to trade at the factory. The new Tobacco Factory helped preserve the original, local culture and “transformed the area”. The independent high street has kept many of its local shops and businesses to provide affordable food etc.
Overall the gentrification has had a good impact for those who are new to the area as they have new facilities, new housing where as for the less affluent locals they can no longer afford to live in their own area, they feel isolated and conflict, unemployment and crime has resulted. There has been a positive impact on the environment as docks and the river were cleaned and brownfield sites were used rather than Greenfield, improving the aesthetics of the area.
Another way used to manage urban decline is property led regeneration, which is where UDC’s (Urban Development Corporations) take responsibility of regenerating inner city areas which have large amounts of derelict and vacant land. They are given planning approval and were encouraged to buy land, buildings and marketing, with public money, to attract private investment.
Bristol Docklands were near terminal decline after large cargo ships could no longer navigate the Avon River, as well as the new docks in Avonmouth and Portsbury, meaning less trade was coming to the Bristol docks and many industries e.g. tobacco factories, lead-shot works had to close, leaving a lot of empty buildings. This caused social and economic inequalities, many large areas of derelict land and unemployment- which reached up to 20% in some areas. People were becoming angry with the lack of opportunities and in April 1980 this anger was expressed in a night of rioting in St. Pauls. The UDC bought a 900-acre site in the area of industrial decline near Temple Meads to improve its infrastructure, provide sufficient housing and attract new industries to provide jobs and money. High quality housing was built in Rowham Mead and Baltic Wharf – areas previously seen to be unliveable as there hadn’t been much experience of living in the dockland areas. These areas became popular, causing conflict (which remains highly relevant) as there was much more private housing available than social housing, conservatives made it difficult to build social housing, however, the UDC found a solution to this; ‘mixed housing’, owner occupied housing was built along the waterfront and social housing was built behind. Cannons Marsh, an area owned by British Gas, British Rail and Bristol City Council, which was still undeveloped by the late 1980’s, was developed into new offices, housing, cultural facilities and a Lloyds Bank headquarters which was built in a former bonded warehouse. The Lloyds headquarters was a great spur for investment.
They wanted to preserve the original character of the docklands and so kept a lot of the original warehouse buildings and improved them, such as the Watershed Media Centre, The Arnolfini Art Gallery, An Industrial Museum and many more.
Bristol City Council put in a regeneration bid and received £41 million from the national lottery, this helped to build the @Bristol centre. A Youth Hostel and an architecture centre have been built. The SS Great Britain and other Historical boats have been returned to their original docks and are open to tour on, bring money to the area through tourism and floating restaurants. Bristol also has many festivals including The Harbour Festival. There was also a £200 million scheme in Cannons Marsh to build housing, leisure facilities, offices, retail and public space.
The regeneration of Bristol’s Docklands has been successful as over £500 million has been inwardly invested (public and private money), a new environment attracting new businesses, over 3000 new jobs reducing unemployment, a mixed commercial environment, new developments for the arts, sports facilities, museums, much needed housing, raising the profile of the city and all listed buildings have been preserved. However, there are concerns on how the area will cope during recession as a lot of its income is from entertainment facilities, there is increased traffic congestion and the new housing is very expensive meaning the less affluent people will be able to afford it.
The physical side of urban decline in the Bristol Docklands has been combatted and many jobs have been provided as well as preserving the original character of the area with cultural facilities, however there are still slight issues with social housing.
City Challenge Partnerships encourage local councils to compete to receive government funding, the councils took bids from private companies to support projects to improve inner city areas. For example, Hulme in Manchester. In the 1960s, Hulme was redeveloped as part of a slum clearance scheme and high rise flats were built with poor design features and pre-fabricated materials, 98% of these were council owned. In the area there was low levels of families with children, a large number of single-person households and single parents, it was assumed that the local authority had used the area to ‘dump’ some of its unfortunate residents. The area became declined with high crime rates. More affluent people left the area to find jobs and nicer areas to live in, taking wealth and services with them.
A City Challenge Partnership was put in place in Hulme in 1992, with plans to build 3000 new homes, community facilities, roads, shopping centres, traditional housing patterns – low rise, 2 storey, squares and gardens this all helped improve the community spirit. They built a main shopping centre, an ASDA supermarket, new community centre with a crèche to support those with children looking for jobs and to encourage families to live in the area. The reputation of the area has improved, as well as crime rates dropping due to the social and physical improvements of the area. Birley fields have been partly developed on with offices, including Michelin, Laing O’Rourke and Manchester University Data Centre which has brought many jobs to the area and encouraged investment. Students have also been attracted to the centre due to the Manchester University Data Centre, which means there is a wider variation of ages and a bigger range of service provisions.
This scheme really has helped with the consequences and causes of urban decline, by changing the area, encouraging different social groups of people to live in the area, improving the standard of living and the jobs and services provided.
Urban decline is the deterioration of urban areas, normally triggered by a decrease in industry. The decrease in industry could be due to manufacturing moving overseas, causing industries to close or companies moving to areas outside the city where rent is cheaper, such as AXA, Sunlife, HP and many more companies that moved from the centre of Bristol to Stoke Gifford. The decrease in industry then leads to unemployment rates rising as jobs will be lost and the jobs available will be low paid and unskilled, people are likely to move away to find jobs. People leaving the city will mean less people using services such as shops, buses, leisure facilities …show more content…
etc. and those that will be using them will be those with less money to spend, forcing them to close. As people, industry and services move out they leave behind empty buildings which can become derelict, which attracts vandalism and graffiti to the area. Parks and recreational areas become neglected and develop problems with crime such as drug dealing. The more unattractive the area becomes, the more decline occurs as people do not want to live in these areas. Consequences of urban decline include unemployment, low wages, lower aspirations, crime increase, less skilled workforce, environment and building quality decline, services closing and population decline.
There are regeneration schemes put into place to reduce, or solve the problems, of urban decline. The first I am going to talk about is Gentrification. Gentrification is when wealthier people move into an area of urban decline and regenerate it by improving housing, which can cause social changes in the area as lower income groups are displaced by more affluent people, and can therefore have an effect of the shops and services of the area.
Southville, Bristol has been through the process of gentrification. Brownfield sites either side of the River Avon were built on and houses were improved, the building on brownfield sites rather than greenfield sites is much better as it improves the land, and the look of the area, rather than just building on new land which increases urban sprawl. This allowed derelict land to become valuable and therefore attracted wealthier people to buy property there. House prices increased by £40,000 in just the last 5
years.
As the new and modified properties are more expensive than what was originally there, more affluent people move to the area, these affluent people were generally more mobile (can work from home, have cars to travel to facilities further away) and therefore do not rely on local facilities such as small local shops, which were not receiving enough business and so were forced to close, this caused a loss of the community spirit and so locals felt isolated and displaced.
The change in social groups living in the area also increased traffic along the main roads (Raleigh Road and North Street) due to the more affluent population having cars to travel, this has led to people being charged to park outside their own house, on the road, this can cost £90 a year. The closure of the local facilities meant working class locals didn’t have the affordable shops close to home and some may not have been able to travel the distances that the new, wealthier people travel to, and so would have had to move to somewhere where the living costs were lower. This created conflicts with locals and new comers, sometimes resulting in crime – the area now has higher than Bristol’s average of violent crimes this may be due to locals not being able to afford to live in the area and also unemployment due to loss of shops and services.
To keep the community spirit George Ferguson, a local architect, converted the old Tobacco Factory on Raleigh Road into a theatre, restaurants, cafes, a bar, and art space, apartments and a farmers market. He only allows local businesses etc. to trade at the factory. The new Tobacco Factory helped preserve the original, local culture and “transformed the area”. The independent high street has kept many of its local shops and businesses to provide affordable food etc.
Overall the gentrification has had a good impact for those who are new to the area as they have new facilities, new housing where as for the less affluent locals they can no longer afford to live in their own area, they feel isolated and conflict, unemployment and crime has resulted. There has been a positive impact on the environment as docks and the river were cleaned and brownfield sites were used rather than Greenfield, improving the aesthetics of the area.
Another way used to manage urban decline is property led regeneration, which is where UDC’s (Urban Development Corporations) take responsibility of regenerating inner city areas which have large amounts of derelict and vacant land. They are given planning approval and were encouraged to buy land, buildings and marketing, with public money, to attract private investment.
Bristol Docklands were near terminal decline after large cargo ships could no longer navigate the Avon River, as well as the new docks in Avonmouth and Portsbury, meaning less trade was coming to the Bristol docks and many industries e.g. tobacco factories, lead-shot works had to close, leaving a lot of empty buildings. This caused social and economic inequalities, many large areas of derelict land and unemployment- which reached up to 20% in some areas. People were becoming angry with the lack of opportunities and in April 1980 this anger was expressed in a night of rioting in St. Pauls. The UDC bought a 900-acre site in the area of industrial decline near Temple Meads to improve its infrastructure, provide sufficient housing and attract new industries to provide jobs and money. High quality housing was built in Rowham Mead and Baltic Wharf – areas previously seen to be unliveable as there hadn’t been much experience of living in the dockland areas. These areas became popular, causing conflict (which remains highly relevant) as there was much more private housing available than social housing, conservatives made it difficult to build social housing, however, the UDC found a solution to this; ‘mixed housing’, owner occupied housing was built along the waterfront and social housing was built behind. Cannons Marsh, an area owned by British Gas, British Rail and Bristol City Council, which was still undeveloped by the late 1980’s, was developed into new offices, housing, cultural facilities and a Lloyds Bank headquarters which was built in a former bonded warehouse. The Lloyds headquarters was a great spur for investment.
They wanted to preserve the original character of the docklands and so kept a lot of the original warehouse buildings and improved them, such as the Watershed Media Centre, The Arnolfini Art Gallery, An Industrial Museum and many more.
Bristol City Council put in a regeneration bid and received £41 million from the national lottery, this helped to build the @Bristol centre. A Youth Hostel and an architecture centre have been built. The SS Great Britain and other Historical boats have been returned to their original docks and are open to tour on, bring money to the area through tourism and floating restaurants. Bristol also has many festivals including The Harbour Festival. There was also a £200 million scheme in Cannons Marsh to build housing, leisure facilities, offices, retail and public space.
The regeneration of Bristol’s Docklands has been successful as over £500 million has been inwardly invested (public and private money), a new environment attracting new businesses, over 3000 new jobs reducing unemployment, a mixed commercial environment, new developments for the arts, sports facilities, museums, much needed housing, raising the profile of the city and all listed buildings have been preserved. However, there are concerns on how the area will cope during recession as a lot of its income is from entertainment facilities, there is increased traffic congestion and the new housing is very expensive meaning the less affluent people will be able to afford it.
The physical side of urban decline in the Bristol Docklands has been combatted and many jobs have been provided as well as preserving the original character of the area with cultural facilities, however there are still slight issues with social housing.
City Challenge Partnerships encourage local councils to compete to receive government funding, the councils took bids from private companies to support projects to improve inner city areas. For example, Hulme in Manchester. In the 1960s, Hulme was redeveloped as part of a slum clearance scheme and high rise flats were built with poor design features and pre-fabricated materials, 98% of these were council owned. In the area there was low levels of families with children, a large number of single-person households and single parents, it was assumed that the local authority had used the area to ‘dump’ some of its unfortunate residents. The area became declined with high crime rates. More affluent people left the area to find jobs and nicer areas to live in, taking wealth and services with them.
A City Challenge Partnership was put in place in Hulme in 1992, with plans to build 3000 new homes, community facilities, roads, shopping centres, traditional housing patterns – low rise, 2 storey, squares and gardens this all helped improve the community spirit. They built a main shopping centre, an ASDA supermarket, new community centre with a crèche to support those with children looking for jobs and to encourage families to live in the area. The reputation of the area has improved, as well as crime rates dropping due to the social and physical improvements of the area. Birley fields have been partly developed on with offices, including Michelin, Laing O’Rourke and Manchester University Data Centre which has brought many jobs to the area and encouraged investment. Students have also been attracted to the centre due to the Manchester University Data Centre, which means there is a wider variation of ages and a bigger range of service provisions.
This scheme really has helped with the consequences and causes of urban decline, by changing the area, encouraging different social groups of people to live in the area, improving the standard of living and the jobs and services provided.