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The last two decades has seen a renaissance in some of the UK’s cities. Certainly, the growth in the service and digital sectors and associated economies of agglomeration fuelled demand in city centre office development, whilst at the same time companies recognised the advantage of locating at the confluence of public transport routes in terms of attracting staff. There was also an increase in city centre living and this created significant new residential investment.

In some ways, this growth in city economies slightly masked the disparities in regional growth. Urban renewal in cities such as Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol created an illusion of regional economic prosperity, but significant inequality remains within these cities and between different regions more generally.

The focus on ‘City Regions’ has also created divisions in economic development with the so-called devolution deals creating some autonomy for these areas (although less autonomy than the headlines suggest) with the non-urban areas missing out. This has recently led to Town Deals and now County Deals.

Despite the shiny new office districts and residential developments within even the most successful UK cities, there is much work required to create more inclusive city economies and create greater advantage for all. In other instances, some cities would not recognise the picture painted of an urban renaissance.

Some of the more pressing aspects required across the UK’s cities are set out below – and, as is often the case, the requirements of the UK’s city economies are redolent of the requirements of the UK’s economy as a whole.

Areas of opportunity
1. Investment and regeneration
Cities continue to offer opportunities to provide residential development and a sustainable location for business. Re-developing legacy sites within cities can relieve pressure on wider greenfield development but such redevelopment is often fraught with difficulty. There is an opportunity to revisit the investment delivery models available to regeneration professionals.

Whilst individual locations have successfully created various types of special purpose vehicle or investment approach to help the private sector deliver difficult schemes there is an opportunity to introduce a national fund that helps local authorities develop more innovative investment partnerships with the private sector to aid accelerated regeneration. At the current time, potential schemes are often constrained by local authority capacity in terms of capital or resource but there is an opportunity to harness greater input from the private sector in a manner that extends the role of organisations such as Homes England (and its predecessor Homes and Communities Agency) in England and equivalent in the devolved administrations.

There is also a need for more to be undertaken in setting the scene for private sector investment. Private sector investment may be attracted more successfully by a regeneration vision that points towards improved longer term rewards where high-quality public realm, green spaces, waterfronts and vistas are included within city redevelopment areas. It is clear to all that a higher quality working and living environment is created when urban form is carefully considered, but in the world of capital appraisals such work is difficult to justify because it creates few direct outputs.

The conundrum of supporting higher quality built environment schemes, but at the same time delivering a strong capital appraisal, could be partly addressed on the basis of leveraging future private sector investment into schemes – measured by physical and job outputs of number of residential units, workspace and future employment. Greater vision may be achieved by insisting that a certain percentage of all schemes involving the public sector have 10% (or a number to be determined) spent on the wider built environment and this is deliberately removed from the development appraisal.

Certainly, city centres can continue to offer substantial win-win opportunities if greater private sector investment can be attracted in to address the more intractable problem sites and at the same time include urban form. It is clear that the intensification of some development within cities, encouraging urban living and more business, can reduce pressures on transport infrastructure, improve living standards and as a result make our places more sustainable.

2. Redevelopment
Better still in terms of sustainability, more effort, imagination and planning support is required to repurpose many existing buildings in town and city centres. Repurposing can ensure that advantage is taken of the embedded carbon of previous development and retain the character of not only the building but also the local environment.

Where the work can be undertaken cost effectively there is also an opportunity to achieve results much more quickly than through major new regeneration schemes. As with all regeneration schemes, there are needs for inbuilt safeguards to ensure that the redevelopment is fit for purpose and sensitive to location – but post-pandemic this activity could offer significant benefit.