Memorandum by Leeds City Council (UWP
71)
THE PROPOSED URBAN WHITE PAPER
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Leeds is the second largest authority
in England in terms of area and it is the regional centre of the
Yorkshire and Humberside Region. The district has a total population
of 727,000 and contains a main urban area with a population of
half a million, and an outer ring of small towns and countryside,
the majority of which is designated Green Belt. Leeds has excellent
road and rail links. The principal airport in the Region is located
in the district. There are around 2.2 million people within 30
minutes driving time of Leeds City Centre and 11 million within
90 minutes.
1.2 Leeds has one of the most diverse economies
of any UK city, which has been the key to its continued strength.
Major sectors include financial services, legal and professional
services, retailing and manufacturing. Leeds has the lowest unemployment
rate of any major city in England and Wales. Leeds has achieved
the best performance of any UK city in terms of employment growth
with a net increase of 29,000 jobs between 1981 and 1996 compared
to job losses in many other cities. This has had major benefits
for the region with figures for net in-commuting rising from 35,000
in 1991 to an estimated 48,000 in 1997 resulting in growing numbers
of jobs for areas such as South Yorkshire, Wakefield and Bradford.
1.3 Notwithstanding the City's continuing
economic success, not all the residents of Leeds have benefited.
Whilst many Leeds residents have enjoyed economic prosperity many
individuals and communities have and are experiencing exclusion
and inequality. Within Leeds there is increasing polarisation
of neighbourhoods which are perceived as "good" or "bad".
People who have the option of moving out of declining neighbourhoods
generally do so. The 1998 DETR Index of Local Conditions shows
that under the intensity measure (worst three wards), Leeds is
ranked the third worst of all local authorities in the country.
1.4 The City of Leeds believes that that
it has a distinctive role to play within the Yorkshire and Humberside
Region. The concept and role of the city-region is detailed in
the appended report "Core Cities: Key Centres for Regeneration
Synthesis Report". The report produced by the Centre for
Urban and Regional Development Studies, University of Newcastle
upon Tyne was commissioned by the Core Cities Group of which Leeds
City Council is a member. The report outlines the potential of
the Core Cities as engines of growth within their regions to contribute
to regional and national growth and sustainability and the unique
problems they face in terms of social polarisation.
2. WHICH OF
THE RECOMMENDATIONS
OF THE
REPORT OF
THE URBAN
TASK FORCE
SHOULD BE
A PRIORITY
FOR IMPLEMENTATION
2.1 The following priorities for implementation
are identified:
— The need to have regard to the distinctiveness
and individual circumstances of local areas,
— The need to facilitate a Partnership
approach.
3. HOW POLICIES
FOR EMPLOYMENT,
COMPETITIVENESS, HOUSING,
TRANSPORT AND
PUBLIC SERVICES
SHOULD BE
INTEGRATED TO
FOSTER URBAN
REGENERATION; AND
THE ROLE
OF OTHER
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
AND GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES AND
THE REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES
3.1 The potential for success will be limited
without an holistic and integrated approach. Within Leeds partnership
working is fully established through the Leeds Initiative, the
City's partnership body, which has produced a 10 year strategy
to guide the development of the City. The Council has also taken
a lead role in establishing 16 Community Involvement Teams to
develop multi-agency responses through the Community Planning
process to deliver Best Value and respond to the modernisation
agenda. Effective partnership working has been the key to achieving
consensus across sectors on the City's long term goals and ensuring
commitment to delivering joined up solutions at city-wide and
community level.
3.2 Central Government and the Regional
Development Agencies need to work more closely with local authorities
to identify in clear and practical terms the role and contribution
of each within the region and sub-region. The co-ordination of
activity across Government Departments, a greater degree of flexibility
in funding regimes and joint working with local partners is required
to develop longer term strategies and programmes which address
issues in a coherent way to respond to local needs and circumstances
rather than stifle, distort or fragment efforts to regenerate
and safeguard urban areas from decline.
3.3 The current system of competitive bidding
for regeneration funds within short timescales is not geared to
promoting investment in the areas of greatest need and the involvement
of those communities at which investment is targeted. In fact
such processes can be damaging in terms of raising expectations
which cannot be met when bids are unsuccessful. The Council would
welcome the allocation of funds based on need and locally agreed
partnership strategies drawn up to address those needs within
a timescale which can achieve programmes to deliver quality and
value for money. Whilst strategies will need to reflect the national
and regional policy priorities, the funding arrangements will
need to be flexible enough to allow local authority led partnerships
to support innovation and locally determined solutions.
4. THE FUTURE
OF URBAN
AREAS SUFFERING
FROM LOW
DEMAND FOR
HOUSING AND
SOCIAL DECLINE
4.1 Changes in the local and regional economy
identified earlier mean that the traditional ways in which housing
needs are identified and new developments provided are being reassessed.
It has become increasingly important to identify the need for
housing on a regional and sub-regional basis, linking the requirements
for housing in Leeds to those in the surrounding areas. In order
to understand sub-regional and local housing markets, housing
and planning officers from the five West Yorkshire local authorities
are working together. The focus of their work is to increase co-ordination
of housing strategies and land-use planning as expressed in the
UDPs of each Council. Issues arising from the group are fed into
the work of the Regional Planning Forum, where Leeds represents
the interests of the Housing Services Advisory Group of the Regional
Assembly.
4.2 Whilst we have enjoyed success in promoting
the city centre as a destination for housing, there is evidence
of a progressive shift of households from the inner area and peripheral
Council estates to suburban areas and to outer areas of the City
resulting in a net out-migration. This in turn has led to evidence
of changing perceptions and patterns of use of the different types
of housing available in the city.
4.3 The Council's Housing Services Department
has been developing a research programme to provide a Model of
Area Demand. The model combines measures of housing demand with
indicators of social "health" to understand and respond
to major changes in the housing markets of Leeds. It has been
found that social factors (social exclusion, poor image and reputation
and a high perception of crime or fear of crime) are more powerful
determinants of demand for housing than are improved housing conditions.
The model will help inform future investment in a clear and consistent
way and will assist in achieving the Council's aim of implementing
a geographically targeted investment strategy which is both driven
by and able to influence the demand for housing. The proposed
Urban White Paper should recognise the factors which are both
"pulling" people to live in greener areas and "pushing"
them from inner areas and validate the approach to understanding
markets and assessing future housing demand.
4.4 To create and sustain confident communities
in which people wish to live requires integrated action between
Council Departments and between agencies. Local initiatives to
tackle social exclusion and develop and implement joined-up solutions
for areas suffering decline in Leeds will be achieved through
the Community Planning framework enabling local communities to
express their needs and initiate multi-agency courses of action
to meet them. The Council supports the Government's intention
to harmonise activity across Government Departments to tackle
social exclusion and has contributed to discussion of these issues
through membership of Policy Action Teams established to inform
the work of the Social Exclusion Unit.
5. THE CONSEQUENCES
FOR THE
URBAN RENAISSANCE
OF HOUSING
AND BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT ON
GREENFIELD SITES
5.1 The Council has been concerned that
further development in peripheral locations ie in and on the edge
of the city, could worsen the "flight" of people out
of inner areas. It has met the target set by the Government of
meeting 60 per cent of the city's need for housing through the
use of brownfield or re-used sites.
5.2 However, the relationship between the
availability, capacity, distribution and location of suitable
sites within urban areas and their impact upon the need for greenfield
sites in peripheral locations needs to be properly understood
and examined. Within this context, the White Paper needs to make
specific recommendations underpinned by the necessary analysis
and policy guidance. This is especially significant, in the context
of co-ordinating strategies for land use, transportation and regeneration.
Central to this approach also, is the need to devise options and
solutions, which are sustainable and appropriate to local circumstances.
5.3 There are perceptions that successful
urban renaissance will negate the need for "additional"
land in greenfield locations. This assumes that land availability
and capacities within urban areas are sufficient to meet current
and future demands for development. Realising this ambition is
clearly a priority, in securing the appropriate scale and form
of development within urban areas. However, the need for greenfield
development may be regarded as an option, where justifiable, as
part of a sequential approach within the context of an overall
strategy for an urban area. The Proposed Urban White Paper therefore
needs to include specific guidance on these issues.
6. HOW PLANNING
AUTHORITIES SHOULD
BE ENCOURAGED
TO BRING
ABOUT THE
SPEEDY RELEASE
OF BROWNFIELD
SITES TO
FOSTER CREATIVE
URBAN DESIGN
6.1 The need for innovation and a Partnership
approach, are key elements in facilitating this process. However,
these aspirations need to be underpinned with the necessary tools
to address practical issues, such as, the often fragmented nature
of patterns of land ownership and the provision of the necessary
infrastructure. Such tools therefore need to include the positive
encouragement of and resources to use CPO powers by local authorities,
as a basis to unlock the potential of brownfield and under used
land within urban areas.
6.2 Within this overall context "creative
urban design" has a key role to play in seeking to re-energise
the vitality and viability of urban areas. Urban Design is therefore
an important dimension of the maintenance and enhancement of local
distinctiveness and a "sense of place". However, without
regard to wider environmental, economic and social issues integral
to urban areas, together with the scope of the "new duty
of well being"—it is essential that urban design is
not merely perceived and promoted as an isolated solution but
as a positive tool and as part of a wider policy framework. The
Proposed White Paper therefore needs to make these linkages clear.
7. POLICIES RELEVANT
TO TOWNS
AND SUBURBS
AS WELL
AS CITIES,
INCLUDING THEIR
BOUNDARIES
7.1 The Urban Policy White Paper needs to
provide an integrated overview of policy that is sensitive to
local circumstances, local distinctiveness and local communities.
A single city region will include many different environmental
and social conditions and diverse communities and settlements
with their own distinctive roles. Strategies for the renewal of
the city-regions must support and enhance these different but
interdependent roles.
8. WHAT ADDED
VALUE A
GOVERNMENT WHITE
PAPER SHOULD
PROVIDE IN
ADDITION TO
OTHER GOVERNMENT
ANNOUNCEMENTS ON
URBAN POLICY
8.1 The White Paper needs to provide a consolidated
position as part of an integrated framework. This in turn needs
to facilitate a "joined-up" approach to link economic
(the maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth
and employment), environmental (effective protection and the prudent
use of natural resources) and social (progress which recognises
the needs of everyone) issues.
8.2 As major centres of population and consumption,
the White Paper should "add value" to informed decision
making within urban areas, with a view to guiding the sustainable
future of communities. Consequently, the White Paper should not
provide an overall strategy but a practical framework for delivery
in the short, medium and longer terms, in achieving sustainable
cities and communities. The White Paper should therefore provide
a basis to move towards a "future position" in steering
progress. Such an approach in turn should embed a framework to
link local action with global responsibilities, in order to stabilise
and redirect impacts within acceptable limits. Sustainability
and the need for sustainable development therefore needs to be
at the heart of the White Paper, as a focus for translating principles
into practice, rather than as an implicit concern.
12 January 2000
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