future cities, future communities

The Young Foundation 2010

Future Cities, Future Communities

Practical ways to make new places socially sustainable

SIX in the City, Singapore

September 17th 2010


•A new international partnership between the Young Foundation, local authorities, government agencies and housing providers

•Exploring practical ways that new cities, towns and communities can succeed as communities where people want to live

•Build a practical understanding of what can be done to encourage the factors that promote the idea of community, social networks, engagement, belonging and long term stewardship

•Drawing on the best of what is known, and what is being explored, in the UK and internationally

What is a community?

The mainstream view

• Governance

• Social and Cultural

• Housing & the built environment

• Economy

• Environmental

• Services

• Transport & Connectivity

Source: Egan Review: skills for sustainable communities, 2004

• Physical boundaries to promote geographical identity

• Rules and laws specific to the area, e.g. car free areas

• Local myths & stories

• Visible leadership

• Strong social relationships, networks & bonds

• Rituals and rhythms

• Possibly shared belief system, e.g. garden cities, new towns, eco-cities

Our starting point: an alternative view


Partners and emerging work


Our partners

•Homes and Communities Agency•Local Government Improvement & Development•Barking Riverside, Barking & Dagenham, East London•Lozells & Handsworth, Birmingham•Buckingham Park, Aylesbury Vale•Peabody Trust (Whitecross Street & Lillie Road estates, London)•Malmö, Sweden


Barking Riverside, East London – a large scale regeneration scheme that will house 26,000 people over the next 10 years

The Young Foundation 2010Barking Riverside, East London


Testing new framework for designing in social sustainability Buckingham Park, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire


Wired neighbourhoods: exploring local social media and building social capital, Whitecross Street estate, London. Peabody Trust


Birmingham CC: Viewing lessons learnt

from Community Land Trusts & seeing if it

will work as a model for Birmingham.

Lozells and Handsworth

Exploring role for community land trusts to create local housing and build social capitalLozells and Handsworth, Birmingham

The Young Foundation 2010Malmö, Sweden


Building a business case for social sustainability

•Work for the Homes and Communities Agency•Review of international evidence to create business case and practical tools for understanding & “designing in” social sustainability in new communities•Aim to influence stakeholders involved in creating new places: master planners, local government housing/regeneration/planning departments, central government departments, architects, developers


Evidence base

•Review of international evidence and practical experience•Drawing on wide range of academic work, policy research, case studies and new town evaluations from UK, Europe, US, Egypt, Malaysia, China and India•What makes a flourishing community?•What works in creating successful new places?•What lessons can be learnt from the successes and failures of previous new communities?


A framework for social sustainability


Four key elements needed to create socially successful and sustainability new communities - alongside quality built environment, economic and environmental sustainability


Key findings from English new towns• World’s most sustained new town programme (1950s to 70s – 32 new towns created, 3 million residents)

•Often tensions between newly arrived and established communities• Can take up to 15 years before residents establish social networks (evidence from Telford)•Social infrastructure and local support networks are crucial – for success and community wellbeing•Financial models make early investment challenging –requires new, long-term partnership approaches

Social infrastructure

Social & cultural life

Voice & influence

Space to grow

Social infrastructure

Social and cultural life

Voice and influence

Space to grow

+ connection to local/ regional economy

+ green building, environmental

innovation, incentives for pro-environmental

behaviour


•Need for services and

support, not just buildings

•Early provision is crucial

•Lack of social infrastructure

affects community wellbeing

•Identity and reputation

1. Social infrastructure


1. Good quality housing2. Good schools3. Safe, clean, friendly neighbourhoods4. Community outreach workers5. Pre-school childcare6. Integrated social housing7. Neighbourhood staffing8. Supervised open spaces

JRF (2006)

What residents want from new communities


“… where these facilities were already

in place when people began to arrive,

the community came together and

networks were formed more easily.”

CLG, New Towns Review, 2006


“ … most mixing across social groups

takes places between children. It is

these contacts … that provide

opportunities to meet and form

relationships.”CIH/JRF (2005)


“ … planning for hard infrastructure

alone would never build a community

… it would only be done by a matrix of

formal and informal opportunities or

supported activities.”Cambridgeshire PCT (2007)

Cambourne, New Town Blues


• Community identity &

belonging

• Tolerance, respect,

engagement

• Pro-social behaviour

• Good design supporting

social life

2. Social and cultural life


1. Length of residence

2. Local character

3. A shared common history

Michael Young, New Earswick

Three factors necessary for sense of community

Feedback circuits

Family&friends

Power&politics

Economy

Religion and voluntary orgs

Home, neighbourhood &

physical environment


“ … you can’t ignore group

differences. You can’t pretend they

are not there as the old colour-blind

policies attempted to do. You have to

acknowledge difference.”Miles Hewstone, 2007


“ … the well connected are more likely

to be hired, housed, healthy and

happy”

Michael WoolcockThe Place of Social Capital

in Understanding, 2001


“Food & photos”

Lessons from BalsallHeath and Haringey


3. Voice & influence

• Giving voice and influence

at the planning stage

• Shaping opportunities for

influence

• Maintaining structures

and initiatives for the long

term


HafenCity, Hamburg

•Large-scale new residential & commercial quarter

•Uses principles of environmental psychology to ensure it becomes a place where people will want to work and play

• Appointed a sociologist to act as go-between and advocate for new residents


4. Space to grow

• New communities evolve slowly as social networks develop & populations age & shift

• Master-planning needs to be flexible and adaptable

• New communities need flexible use of land & buildings

• Informal spaces & temporary uses should be encouraged

• Local engagement & governance structures also need time to develop


Costs and consequences of failure


• High costs when communities fail – financial and social

•Issues for wellbeing of communities (isolation, mental

health, cohesion, fear of crime)

• Problems with community cohesion

• Stability, tenure and management

• Cost of inflexible social infrastructure

• Poor quality/inadequate facilities

Costs and consequences


•Social sustainability is an issue of public value –particularly now in context of global recession, population growth, rising housing demand

•Cost of prevention and failure far outweighs early investment to create new places that will work in the short term and for the long term

•Social supports are relatively low cost – Milton Keynes evidence indicates £700 per new household for social infrastructure


• Integrate thinking about social sustainability to professional practice across all agencies and stakeholders involved in creating new communities

• Put people first - change the way places are designed and built

•New financial models – change the focus on short term returns and focus on long term stewardship

Our challenges


For more information about Future Communities contact:

[email protected]@youngfoundation.org

www.neveragainfuturecommunities.wordpress.comwww.futurecommunities.net

mailto:[email protected]




http://www.neveragainfuturecommunities.wordpress.com/

http://www.futurecommunities.net/


About the Young Foundation

The Young Foundation brings together insight, innovation and entrepreneurship to meet social needs.

We have a 55-year track record of success with ventures such as the Open University, Which?, the School for Social Entrepreneurs and Healthline (the precursor of NHS Direct).

We work across the UK and internationally – carrying out research, influencing policy, creating new organisations and supporting others to do the same, often with imaginative uses of new technology.

www.youngfoundation.org

http://www.youngfoundation.org/

http://www.youngfoundation.org/

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