reading

The intersection of urban regeneration and sustainability has long been separated at birth, with much of the research, policy and practice focused on linking the two through a greater understanding of environmental sustainability. Yet social sustainability, especially in an urban regeneration context, remains underdeveloped, theoretical and oversimplified when compared to the progress of the environmental movement. In their new book, the authors now look to break down more silos and explore the social sustainability side of urban regeneration.

The book highlights a range of best practice from the efforts of governments of major European cities to those of private investors such as igloo, and is honest about the challenges of isolating impact and developing indicators that measure the all-important ‘soft stuff.’ I am thrilled that the authors throw the lid open on the difficulties of past efforts which tried to apply a simplified triple bottom line framework to urban regeneration. They clearly highlight the need for a more sophisticated approach that understands the socio-economic needs and complexities of people, cities and investment.

Bill Boler, Director, Investment and Physical
Regeneration Business in the Community, UK

The 21st century will hold huge challenges for cities from cultural and social perspectives. Using case studies from across the EU, this book is an essential reference point for those seeking to understand the issues which need to be addressed.

Pooran Desai OBE, Co-founder, BioRegional
and Sustainability Director, BioRegional Quintain Ltd

This is a big book which raises big questions on a big subject – the challenge of achieving socially sustainable regeneration in European cities. It provides much important analytical discussion of – as well as empirical evidence about – this big idea at a European level based on good studies in five European cities – Barcelona, Leipzig, Turin, Rotterdam, and Cardiff. It clearly outlines the development of European thinking and policy about the issue. It also has important things to say about how to measure the elusive ideas implied in the concept as well as the principles and practices of delivery vehicles. Importantly it brings in the roles, contribution and views of the private sector – a critical player, but often absent in the discussions of these issues. The EIB has helped to fill an important gap in a crucial field. So has this book.

Michael Parkinson, Director of European Institute for Urban Affairs
and Author of State of the English Cities, Competitive European Cities:
Where Does the UK Stand? and The Credit Crunch
and Regeneration: Impact and Implications

Social sustainability is often treated as the poor cousin in evaluating the success or failure of urban renewal projects. This volume offers a comprehensive, systematic and authoritative overview of the scholarly literature and the practice models relevant to the topic. An illuminating overview of experiences with Europe’s Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds provides essential background to five carefully chosen case studies from which “best practice” conclusions are drawn. The book is essential reading for scholars and practitioners alike.

Steve Rayner, James Martin Professor of Science and Civilization,
University of Oxford and Director, Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities

Regeneration is a difficult task with multiple ambitions and multiple problems. This book manages successfully to draw from a series of case studies to bring out lessons for the slippery concept of social sustainability which will help guide practitioners both in setting up programmes and in monitoring their success.

Bridget Rosewell, Chairman, Volterra Consulting,
Chief Economic Adviser, Greater London Authority

This edition first published 2011
© 2011 Andrea Colantonio and Tim Dixon

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Colantonio, Andrea.

Urban regeneration & social sustainability : best practice from European cities / Andrea Colantonio and Tim Dixon.

p. cm. – (RICS research series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-9419-8 (alk. paper)

1. Urban renewal–Europe. 2. City planning–Europe. 3. Sustainable urban development–Europe. I. Dixon, Timothy J., 1958– II. Title. III. Title: Urban regeneration and social sustainability.

HT178.E8C59 2011

307.3′416094–dc22

2010029194

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDF [9781444329452]; Wiley Online Library [9781444329445]; ePub [9781444329469]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Acknowledgements

A significant part of the work presented in this volume was carried out during the EIBURS (European Investment Bank University Research Sponsorship) project entitled ‘Measuring the Social Dimension of Social Sustainability’ during the period from January 2007 to September 2009. In respect of the conduct of the work we owe a considerable debt to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for de facto making the publication of this book possible, and particularly Mateo Turro (former associate director at Projects Directorate, EIB) and his team for their support during the duration of the EIBURS programme. We also would like to thank the numerous project participants from the municipalities examined as part of this book for sharing their experiences of urban regeneration with us. In addition we wish to thank Professor John Glasson (OISD) for his valuable suggestions concerning sustainability assessment and monitoring indicators. We are also grateful to Dr Juliet Carpenter, Dr Robin Ganser, Austine Ng’ombe (OISD) and Venere Sanna, University of Rome, for their contributions to important chapters of this book.

At the more personal level, Andrea would like to thank his parents for their consistent and unconditional support, which they have given over the last few years. Further appreciation is expressed to Federica for the patience shown during the writing process of this volume. Tim would also like to thank his family for their love and support.

Finally, both authors would also like to thank their colleagues for their support during the process of writing the book.

The material in this book is based on research conducted by the authors during 2007–2009 in the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD), School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University.

The research was funded under the European Investment Bank’s EIBURS research programme, which the authors would like to gratefully acknowledge. Further details of this research can be found at: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/oisd/sustainable_communities/index.html

Andrea Colantonio
and Tim Dixon

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the mark of property professionalism worldwide, promoting best practice, regulation and consumer protection for business and the community. It is the home of property related knowledge and is an impartial advisor to governments and global organisations. It is committed to the promotion of research in support of the efficient and effective operation of land and property markets worldwide.

Real Estate Issues

Series Managing Editors

Stephen Brown	Head of Research, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
John Henneberry	Department of Town & Regional Planning, University of Sheffield
K.W. Chau	Chair Professor, Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong
Elaine Worzala	Professor, Director of the Accelerated MSRE, Edward St. John Department of Real Estate, Johns Hopkins University

Real Estate Issues is an international book series presenting the latest thinking into how real estate markets operate. The books have a strong theoretical basis – providing the underpinning for the development of new ideas.

The books are inclusive in nature, drawing both upon established techniques for real estate market analysis and on those from other academic disciplines as appropriate. The series embraces a comparative approach, allowing theory and practice to be put forward and tested for their applicability and relevance to the understanding of new situations. It does not seek to impose solutions, but rather provides a more effective means by which solutions can be found. It will not make any presumptions as to the importance of real estate markets but will uncover and present, through the clarity of the thinking, the real significance of the operation of real estate markets.

Books in the series

Greenfields, Brownfields & Housing Development

Adams & Watkins

97806320063871

Planning, Public Policy & Property Markets

Edited by Adams, Watkins & White

9781405124300

Housing & Welfare in Southern Europe

Allen, Barlow, Léal, Maloutas & Padovani

9781405103077

Markets & Institutions in Real Estate & Construction

Ball

978140510990

Building Cycles: Growth & Instability

Barras

9781405130011

Neighbourhood Renewal & Housing Markets

Edited by Beider

9781405134101

Mortgage Markets Worldwide

Ben-Shahar, Leung & Ong

9781405132107

The Cost of Land Use Decisions

Buitelaar

9781405151238

Urban Regeneration & Social Sustainability

Colantonio & Dixon

9781405194198

Urban Regeneration in Europe

Couch, Fraser & Percy

9780632058412

Urban Sprawl

Couch, Leontidou & Petschel-Held

9781405151238

Real Estate & the New Economy

Dixon, McAllister, Marston & Snow

9781405117784

Economics & Land Use Planning

Evans

9781405118613

Economics, Real Estate & the Supply of Land

Evans

9781405118620

Management of Privatised Housing: International Policies & Practice

Gruis, Tsenkova & Nieboer

9781405181884

Development & Developers

Guy & Henneberry

9780632058426

The Right to Buy

Jones & Murie

9781405131971

Housing Markets & Planning Policy

Jones & Watkins

9781405175203

Mass Appraisal Methods

Kauko & d’Amato

9781405180979

Economics of the Mortgage Market

Leece

9781405114615

Towers of Capital: Office Markets & International Financial Services

Lizieri

9781405156721

Making Housing More Affordable: The Role of Intermediate Tenures

Monk & Whitehead

9781405147149

Global Trends in Real Estate Finance

Newell & Sieracki

9781405151283

Housing Economics & Public Policy

O’Sullivan & Gibb

9780632064618

International Real Estate

Seabrooke, Kent & How

9781405103084

British Housebuilders

Wellings

9781405149181

Forthcoming

Transforming Private Landlords

Crook & Kemp

9781405184151

Housing Stock Transfer

Taylor

9781405170321

Urban Design in the Real Estate Development Process

Tiesdell & Adams

9781405192194

Real Estate Finance in theNew Economic World

Tiwari & White

9781405158718

To my parents, Bernardo and Chiara

To my mother and to my wife (Rachel)
and son (Sam) for all their love and support.

The Authors

Andrea Colantonio is Research Coordinator at LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, London, UK. He is an urban geographer and economist who specialises in the investigation of the complex linkages between urban growth, sustainability and the geographies of development in both developing and developed countries. He has worked and researched in numerous international universities, and he is main author of ‘Urban Tourism and Development in the Socialist State. Havana during the “Special Period”’ (2006).

Tim Dixon is Director of the Oxford Institute of Sustainable Development (OISD) and Professor of Real Estate in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at Oxford Brookes University. With more than 25 years’ experience of research, education and professional practice in the built environment he is a qualified fellow of the RICS and of the Higher Education Academy, a former member of SEEDA’s South East Excellence Advisory Board, as well as the editorial boards of five leading international real-estate journals. He has worked on funded collaborative research projects with UK and overseas academics and practitioners and his personal research interests revolve around (i) the sustainability agenda and its impact on property development, investment and occupation, and (ii) the impact of ICT on commercial property and real-estate markets. The research is based on a strong interdisciplinary approach, which incorporates policy and practice impacts, and futures thinking. He is also a member of the CORENET Sustainability Working Group, and a member of the Steering Group for the ‘Future of Cities’ Research programme, based in the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University. In 2009 he was awarded Honorary Fellow status of the Institute of Green Professionals.

Contributing Authors

Juliet Carpenter is Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Sustainable Development (OISD) at Oxford Brookes University. She is a specialist in urban regeneration, in particular the evaluation of EU Structural Funds related to sustainable development and regeneration. Her particular research interests lie in the application of a holistic approach to regeneration, and its contribution to sustainable communities.

Robin Ganser is Professor in Spatial Planning at the University of Applied Sciences, Luebeck, Germany, and former Senior Lecturer in Spatial Planning at Oxford Brookes University. He has worked on funded interdisciplinary research projects mainly in the UK and in Germany but also with partners in the USA and in China. His research interests include urban and rural regeneration, brownfield development and spatial planning for sustainable development – the latter with a particular focus on planning instruments and management of planning processes.

Austine Ng’ombe is Research Assistant in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at Oxford Brookes University. Austine is a Land Economist and before joining Oxford Brookes he worked as a Provincial Lands Officer in the Department of Lands in Zambia. His research preoccupation is an exploration of the dynamics of land tenure in both developed and developing countries, informed by the emerging science of complexity.

Venere Stefania Sanna is Visiting Researcher at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD) of the Oxford Brookes University. In addition to her expertise in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics, her research interests include regional and local economic development issues, regional and urban competitiveness and theories and methods for socioeconomic research.

Foreword

Sustainability is arguably one of the most over and inappropriately used words in the English language, the net result of which has been a dilution of the sustainability concept. Multiple interpretations of sustainability by authors, researchers, policy makers, journalists and other commentators prevail and while broad consensus may appear to exist there is considerable debate on the objectives, goals and instruments to be used in advancing the sustainability agenda. Politically, sustainability is perceived to be good, though, in reality, policy action to advance the sustainability agenda frequently lags both the evidence base and public opinion.

The fusing of urban regeneration with sustainability to produce the hybrid concept of sustainable urban regeneration reflects the evolutionary journey and different phases of regeneration. This is well illustrated in the UK, where over thirty years of urban policy has produced an evolving and changing definition of regeneration. There is increasing recognition that regeneration, if it is to be sustainable, must adopt a long-term multi-faceted approach, addressing unemployment, enhancing educational attainment, and reducing crime as well as transforming the urban fabric through infrastructure provision, improved housing and the redevelopment of derelict land and buildings. The focus on sustainable regeneration does not, however, mean that all previous regeneration policies and tools were unsustainable. Indeed, the contrary may be apparent with schemes initially considered to be merely property driven or development-led regeneration meeting sustainability objectives in terms of investment performance, employment locations and wider goals. Output evaluations suggest the attainments of regeneration initiatives have been considerable, though the question remains as to how these outputs contribute in achieving sustainable regeneration. Regeneration initiatives have often been highly successful in realising their objectives but very often failed to understand or tackle the root causes of deprivation.

The major criticism of regeneration has been the failure to close the socioeconomic gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the national average. Despite a multiplicity of innovations and attempts to address the components of urban decline, a combination of poor investment and inadequacies in urban policy have consolidated symptoms of social polarisation, economic hardship and environmental deprivation in many inner-city areas. This has led to a refocus upon social issues in regeneration which are sometimes perceived to be the ‘softer’ or less tangible side of regeneration and which require new metrics in the assessment and measurement of objectives. Scale is important, with social sustainability frequently interpreted at the neighbourhood level and based on limited goals. For instance, while it is recognised that well-designed mixed-use developments on brownfield sites are fundamental to the creation of sustainable communities and the realisation of housing targets, there has been a tendency to over simplify the interpretation of mixed use, resulting in pockets of schemes rather than regenerating areas.

Arguably, for social sustainability to be achieved, regeneration needs to be bolder and encompass larger swathes of cities and embrace not only employment and environmental issues but the wider provision of hospitals/medical centres, schools and leisure facilities. This requires a new understanding of regeneration and partnership delivery vehicles. In a post-recessionary environment, the challenges are immense and will require new structures between the equally constrained public and private sectors. For the latter the need to show its socially responsible investment credentials and the search for alternative asset classes, as interest in the traditional sectors of retail and office property wane, socially sustainable regeneration may look increasingly attractive but appropriate policies are required and the private sector will want assurances of sufficiently attractive risk-adjusted returns.

The social-sustainability agenda is complex and will be instrumental in shaping the future development of our cities and towns over the coming decades. This book, in drawing together the knowledge base on the subject, through generic considerations and best-practice examples, is a major contribution in raising the level of debate on the understanding and interpretation of social sustainability.

Professor Stanley McGreal
Director of the Built Environment Research Institute,
University of Ulster, April 2010

Contents

The Authors

Contributing Authors

Foreword: Stanley McGreal

All chapters authored by Andrea Colantonio and Tim Dixon unless otherwise stated

PART I SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND URBAN REGENERATION

1 Introduction

Background and context

Urban regeneration and social sustainability

Aims and objectives

Methodology for the research

Case study selection

Outline of the book

2 Social Sustainability and Sustainable Communities: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Introduction

What is social sustainability?

Traditional and emerging themes and dimensions

Sustainable cities and communities

Conclusions

3 Metrics and Tools for Social Sustainability

Introduction

Impact assessment and social sustainability assessment

A brief overview of sustainability indicators and social sustainability tools

Traditional social indicators versus emerging social sustainability indicators

Conclusions

4 Urban Regeneration: Delivering Social Sustainability

Introduction

A question of definition

Evolution of urban regeneration policy

Responsible investment practices

Institutional involvement in urban regeneration

Partnership models

Integrating and measuring social sustainability in urban regeneration

Conclusions

PART II SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE URBAN REGENERATION IN EUROPE

5 Integrated Urban Regeneration and Sustainability: Approaches from the European Union
Juliet Carpenter

Introduction

The EU policy framework

The Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund to 2006

The URBAN Community Initiative

Structural Funds 2007–2013

Conclusions

6 The Future Regeneration of Roath Basin, Cardiff Bay
Tim Dixon and Austine Ng’ombe

Introduction

Historic perspective

Regeneration policy: Cardiff Bay

Policy and context: Recent developments

Regeneration of Roath Basin

Conclusions

7 The Regeneration of La Mina – Sant Adriá de Besós
Venere Stefania Sanna and Andrea Colantonio

Introduction

Urban development and decline

The policy context

Urban regeneration and partnership arrangements

Social sustainability

Conclusions

8 The Regeneration of Turin and Porta Palazzo

Introduction

Urban development and decline

The policy context

Urban regeneration and partnership arrangements

Social sustainability

Conclusions

9 The Regeneration of Rotterdam and the ‘South Pact’

Introduction

Urban development and decline

Policy context

The regeneration of South Rotterdam and partnership arrangements

Social sustainability

Conclusions

10 Leipzig East and the Socially Integrative City (‘Soziale Stadt’) Programme
Robin Ganser

Introduction

Policy context

Funding structures

Partnership arrangements

Social sustainability

Conclusions

PART III BEST PRACTICES IN URBAN REGENERATION: CONCLUDING PERSPECTIVES

11 Towards Best Practice and a Social SustainabilityAssessment Framework

Introduction and context

Best practice in social sustainability monitoring systems: igloo’s SRI system

The social sustainability assessment framework

Conclusions

12 Conclusions

Introduction

Setting the scene: From distressed urban areas to regenerated urban areas?

Socially sustainable urban regeneration policy

Best approaches and practices to implement and monitor social sustainability

Public–private partnerships and emerging urban regeneration delivery vehicles

The future of urban regeneration: Moving out of recession and retaining the social dimension

Appendices

1 Interviews conducted as part of the research processand fieldworks

2 Vancouver’s quality of life and socialsustainability indicators

3 The evolution of sustainable developmentmetrics initiatives by governmentaland institutional organisations

4 Main CSR and social capital initiatives,tools and techniques

5 Assessment of igloo’s SRI policy objectives

6 List of comparative baseline basic indicatorsfor La Mina neighbourhood (2001)

Bibliography

Index