U+-+urban+MEDC

There are many issues in towns and cities, including those relating to housing, traffic, serices and provision for a mixed community.


 * Housing**

Population in the UK has increased by 7% since 1971 and this rate of growth is predicted to continue, giving a population of 52.5 million in England by 2021. The number of households has risen by 30% since 1971. Most of this increase is because more people live alone - some 7 million of the UK's population. New single-person households account for 70% of the increased demand for housing. This is due to people leaving home to rent or buy younger than previously, marrying later, getting divorced and living longer. A third of single-person households are aged over 65.

The government target is to build 240,000 new houses every year by 2016 so that house prices do not spiral out of control as a result of a shortage. Many of these new homes will be built throughout existing towns and cities, with a target of 60% to be built on brownfield sites - areas that have been previously built on, usually in the inner city. However, some housing will inevitably be built on greenfield sites - areas that have not previously benn built on, usually on the edge of the city.

Newcastle case study


 * __The Inner City__**

Part of the demand for housing will be satisfied in inner-city areas. Successive governments have had a variety of strategies to improve living in inner cities since 1945 - most infamously the building of cheap, high-rise blocks of flats in the 1960s and early 1970s as a 'quick fix'. Over the years, strategies have changed and there has been a greater involvemnt of private funding and the local comminity.

Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) were a major strategy introduced in the 1980s, with London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) and Merseyside Development Corporation (MDC) being established in 1981. Even more UDCs followed. These were large-scale projects where major chanegs occurred with the help of both public and private investment. Although the LDDC ceased to exist after 1998, the areas has continued to develop and change. During its lifetime, £1.86 billion of public money was invested along with £7.7 billion from the private sector. Changes are continuing today, with further improvements in the transport system (such as the eastward extension of the Jubilee Line - underground), and the building of further skyscrapers at Canary Wharf (Heron Quay, North Quay) and other locations.

__**Strategy 1: UDCs**__

The 1980 Act requires an UDC to secure the regneration of its area by bringing land and buildings into effective use, encouraging the development of existing and new industry and commerce, hosung and social facilities are available to encourage people to live and work in the area.


 * The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC)**

The LDDC was at work for 17 years. In its final annual report in 1998 it headlined its achievements as follows:
 * £1.86 billion in public sector investment
 * £7.7 billion in private sector investment
 * 431ha of land sold for development
 * 144km of new and improved roads
 * the construction of the Docklands Light Railway
 * 2.3kmsq of commercial/industrial floorspace built
 * 762ha of derelict land reclaimed
 * 24,046 new homes built
 * 2,700 businesses trading
 * contributions to 5 new health centres and the redevelopment of 6 more
 * funding towards 11 new primary schools, 2 secondary schools, 3 post-16 colleges and 9 vocational training centres
 * 94 awards for architecture, conservation and landscaping
 * 85,000 people now at work in London Dockland


 * __[[image:hulm_cres.jpg width="400" height="265" align="right"]]Strategy 2: City Challenge__**

City challenge was a big initiative of the 1990s. It had a holistic approach to regneration, where local authorities, private companies and the local community worked together from the start. The focus of the projects varied. The Hulme (Manchester) City Challenge Partnership sought to improve the housing that had been built in the 1960s to replace old terraces that had once stood there. Integral to this was an attempt to enhance the environment, community facilities ad shopping provision.


 * What they did?**
 * crescents were built in the 1960s and demolished in the 1990s
 * through City Challenge, Hulme received £37.5 million
 * some old buildings were retained
 * homes were designed to conserve water, and be energy efficient and pleasant
 * there was a return to a traditional layout - Stretford Road (at the end of which is Hulme Arch) was rebuilt after demolition of crecents (orignal course was through the middle of these
 * local schools and a new park have been built
 * the views of local people have been taken into account

__**Strategy 3: Sustainable communities**__

Sustainable communities allow people to live in an area where there is housing of an appropriate standard to offer reasonable quality of life, with access to a job, education and health care. This initiative began in 2003 and one area affected by it is ab area of east Manchester, formerly known as Cardroom and now renamed New Islington Millennium Village. The aim to of the protect is to provide for an appropriate quality of life in inner-city Manchester in the 21st century:

What's coming to New Islington? New homes Waterways Urban amenities Parks and gardens Community facilities Sustainability Agenda
 * 66 houses, 200 ground-floor apartments
 * 500 two-and three-storey appartments
 * 600 1-and 2-bed apartments
 * 34 urban barns
 * workshops
 * refurbishment of Ancoats hospital and Stubbs Mill
 * new office space
 * 3,000 metres of canalside
 * 12 bridges
 * 3 giant canopies
 * 50 moorings for narrow boats and canalside facilities
 * [[image:uk-manchester-newislington.jpg width="406" height="408" align="right"]] 10 new shops
 * 2 pubs, 2 restaurants, cafes and bars
 * metrolink stop in 10 minutes' walking distance
 * new bus lines and bus stops
 * 200 on-street and 1,200 underground car-parking spaces
 * a safe Old Mill Street (crime reduction/prevention)
 * 300 new trees
 * 2 garden islands, an orchard, a beach
 * play areas and climbing rocks
 * secured courtyard gardens
 * private gardens and patios
 * a primary school and play areas
 * a health centre and 8 GPs
 * 2 workshops
 * a creche
 * an angling club and a village hall
 * a football pitch
 * boreholes will provide up to 25 litres per second of naturally filtered water
 * central heat and power to generate 600KW electrial energy and 1,000 KW thermal energy
 * recycling collection points that allow occupants to recycle 50% of domestic waste


 * __Key terms:__**


 * Household** - a person living alone, tow or more people living at the same address, sharing a living room
 * Brownfield sites** - land that has been built on before and is to be cleared and reused. These sites are often in their inner city
 * Greenfield sites** - land that has not been built on before, usually in the countryside on the edge of the built-up area (rural-urban fringe)
 * Urban Development Corporations (UDCs)** - set up in the 1980s and 1990s using public funding to but land and improve inner areas of cities, partly by attracting private investment
 * City Challenge** - a strategy in which local authorities had to submit a bid for funding, competing against other councils. They also had to become part of a partnership involving the local community and private companies who would fund part of the development
 * Regeneration** - improving an area
 * Sustainable community** - community (offering housing, employment and recreation opportunities) that is broadly in balance with the environment and offers people a good quality of life
 * Quality of life** - how good a person's life is a measured by such things as quality of housing and environment, access to education, health care, how people feel and how contented and satisfied they are with their lifestyle
 * Park-and-ride scheme** - a bus service run to key places from car parks lcoated on the edges of busy areas in order to reduce traffic flows and congestion in the city centre. Costs are low to encourage people to use the system - they are cheaper than fuel and car parking charges in the centre
 * Segregation** - occurs where people of a particulr ethnic group choose to live with others from the same ethnic group, separate from other groups