future cities, future communities
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Slide 1 The Young Foundation 2010
Future Cities, Future Communities
Practical ways to make new places socially sustainable
SIX in the City, Singapore
September 17th 2010
Slide 2 The Young Foundation 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
Slide 5 The Young Foundation 2010
Partners and emerging work
Slide 6 The Young Foundation 2010
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
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Barking Riverside, East London – a large scale regeneration scheme that will house 26,000 people over the next 10 years
Slide 8 The Young Foundation 2010Barking Riverside, East London
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Testing new framework for designing in social sustainability Buckingham Park, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
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Wired neighbourhoods: exploring local social media and building social capital, Whitecross Street estate, London. Peabody Trust
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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
Slide 12 The Young Foundation 2010Malmö, Sweden
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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
Slide 14 The Young Foundation 2010
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?
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A framework for social sustainability
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Four key elements needed to create socially successful and sustainability new communities - alongside quality built environment, economic and environmental sustainability
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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
Slide 20 The Young Foundation 2010
•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
Slide 21 The Young Foundation 2010
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
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“… 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
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“ … most mixing across social groups
takes places between children. It is
these contacts … that provide
opportunities to meet and form
relationships.”CIH/JRF (2005)
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“ … 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
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• Community identity &
belonging
• Tolerance, respect,
engagement
• Pro-social behaviour
• Good design supporting
social life
2. Social and cultural life
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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
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“ … 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
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“ … the well connected are more likely
to be hired, housed, healthy and
happy”
Michael WoolcockThe Place of Social Capital
in Understanding, 2001
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“Food & photos”
Lessons from BalsallHeath and Haringey
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3. Voice & influence
• Giving voice and influence
at the planning stage
• Shaping opportunities for
influence
• Maintaining structures
and initiatives for the long
term
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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
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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
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Costs and consequences of failure
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Slide 36 The Young Foundation 2010
• 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
Slide 37 The Young Foundation 2010
•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
Slide 38 The Young Foundation 2010
• 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
Slide 39 The Young Foundation 2010
For more information about Future Communities contact:
[email protected]@youngfoundation.org
www.neveragainfuturecommunities.wordpress.comwww.futurecommunities.net
Slide 40 The Young Foundation 2010
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