Policies designed to reduce the need to travel by building high-density housing on brownfield sites increase journey lengths because these homes are not located in areas of employment growth.
Findings from research into urban growth at five universities suggest there will be a 43% growth in car kilometres in the wider southeast England, despite policies to contain urban development and encourage modal shift to public transport.
Making ‘compact cities’ with new homes built around public transport hubs the norm would at best secure ‘a small’ reduction of vehicle kilometres and a 1% cut in carbon emissions.
But such ‘town cramming’ policies would reduce space standards and have an economic cost to the region of £30bn, around £20bn due to the insufficient supply of new dwellings, as well as to increasing congestion within urban areas.
By contrast, planned expansion of urban areas along transport corridors in areas of economic growth at medium densities would, according to the universities, have ‘a net economic benefit’.
However, the report into the five-year, £1.5M SOLUTIONS research project acknowledges that this benefit would be ‘highly dependent on the ability of attracting basic employment to the new settlements’.
‘Financial incentives would be needed to make this a ‘practical proposition’.
Marcial Echenique, the SOLUTIONS research leader, and professor of architecture at the University of Cambridge, said: ‘This is not a plea for sprawl. It is an argument for well-designed, new, 21st century suburbs.
‘Letting cities expand is essential if middle and low-income families are to achieve their dreams of houses with gardens.’
The final report for the SOLUTIONS project, or Sustainability of land use in outer neighbourhoods, is available online. www.suburbansolutions.ac.uk
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