Out-Law News 1 min. read
10 Nov 2015, 3:41 pm
In a report (60-page / 10.6 MB PDF) commissioned by Sheffield City Council, URBED, which won last year's Wolfson Economics Prize for a garden city design involving "taking a big confident bite out of the green belt", presented its vision for housing growth in the 15 km of land surrounding Sheffield city centre.
The report claimed that around 32,000 homes could be accommodated on existing brownfield land in the area and on brownfield land that was likely to become available over the 20-year plan period. It estimated that a further 18,000 homes could be created through urban intensification, including the reuse of car parks, the subdivision of large homes and increasing the density of council estates.
The authors recommended that the Neepsend and Attercliffe neighbourhoods be returned to residential use from their current low density commercial use, accommodating around 20,000 new homes.
URBED said the remainder of the 100,000 homes would have to be accommodated outside the conurbation's urban area. It said there was scope for the delivery of around 5,000 homes on fields on the edge of the built up area and in surrounding districts, but that such development "cannot easily be served by public transport or existing services". The authors, therefore, suggested the creation of large urban extensions in Mosborough, Waverley, Bassingthorpe, Oughtibridge and Stocksbridge, accommodating 25,000 homes.
The authors said that public sector intervention was required to enable the delivery of their plan. They suggested the introduction of a joint development corporation for Sheffield and Rotherham, with powers to plan development, borrow money and purchase land compulsorily.
The approach recommended in the report builds on URBED's award-winning garden city proposal that recommended the significant expansion of existing "mature towns" into the green belt, with sustainable urban extensions connected to the existing town centre by new tram lines or bus services. UK housing minister Brandon Lewis last year dismissed this approach as "urban sprawl" and said that it would not be taken up by the government.
Planning expert Elizabeth Wiseman of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The report by URBED offers Sheffield the opportunity to plan for significant growth in the city rather than development occurring on an ad hoc basis. However, it will be interesting to see whether the expansion proposed is supported by the government given their recent view that garden city proposals which increase the size of certain towns and cities are simply “urban sprawl” and recent green belt decisions which demonstrate their reluctance to develop in the green belt."
