Buttress’ Post

Happy Friday everyone! This morning, I read the British Land document on brownfield urban regeneration (linked below) highlighting the massive potential to deliver housing, jobs, and economic growth through the use of brownfield sites.   𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: 💡Brownfield development could unlock 1.3 million homes and 1 million jobs across the UK by 2035. 🏡An impressive 79% of people in areas like Camden, Manchester, Newham, and Cambridge support redeveloping brownfield land, especially when the benefits, like affordable housing, green spaces, and community facilities, are clearly communicated. 🪴Brownfield sites are often viewed by communities as "wasted potential" — unsightly, unsafe, or polluted. With the right policy changes and early, meaningful engagement, these spaces can be transformed into vibrant, sustainable neighbourhoods.   𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: Projects like Canada Water (with 3,000 new homes and extensive community facilities) and Grand Union (bringing 3,350 homes, jobs, and public spaces to life) are prime examples of how brownfield regeneration can breathe new life into urban areas.   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Brownfield regeneration may be a Win-Win-Win scenario. Developers get to deliver exciting & impactful projects, councils are a step closer to hitting their housing targets, and communities gain improved amenities, job opportunities, and affordable housing.   Any thoughts on how to maximise this opportunity or unexplored downsides of brownfield development?   Article Link - https://lnkd.in/g4zSc2ye   #UrbanRegeneration #BrownfieldDevelopment #Sustainablity #AffordableHousing #CommunityEngagement#planning

Historic buildings can pose significant challenges in town centres when they are unused and unmaintained. However, they also offer some of the most interesting potential for regeneration, with listed buildings creating the backdrops to some of the UK's most innovative schemes. From understanding options for these spaces and developing detailed schemes to working with community groups to develop appropriate governance and management structures, Reimagine Place can support you to actively explore the potential of your listed buildings and apply for funding to breathe fresh life into these exciting spaces. Hayden Ferriby, Matt Baker, Laura Bell

New research reveals urban YIMBYs are key to delivering Government housing ambitions. The report, commissioned by three leading UK developers, highlights positive attitudes towards urban development as British Land, Landsec and Berkeley Group Plc encourage the government to embrace urban development and densification or risk missing its 1.5 million homes mission. New research from leading UK community engagement platform Commonplace investigates the public’s attitude to brownfield development across four major urban areas to identify what people want to see from development in their local areas. The results were clear: far from being anti-development, urban communities are overwhelmingly made up of ‘YIMBYs’ (‘yes in my backyard’). 60% of those polled in Cambridge, Camden, Manchester and Newham had strongly negative views of currently underdeveloped brownfield sites, viewing them as ugly, dirty and unsafe. 73% saw the underutilisation of these sites as a wasted opportunity that needs to be harnessed - for example, to deliver more affordable housing, public spaces, and green places. Read more! 👇 https://lnkd.in/gaDdcMCq #MemberMonday

🏗 🏡 🌳 In the last few months we've completed our latest round of assessments of the impact of regeneration on Woodberry Down and Grahame Park - and started work on new projects in two new (for us) estates, Clapham Park in Lambeth and Cambridge Road in Kingston-upon-Thames. As housing policy shifts and we focus on how to build more homes we can learn from our work on regeneration schemes - developing policy for the future to create homes and communities, building on local areas' social and environmental assets. We have long-term ongoing relationships with these places, communities and agencies. We've been in South Acton and Woodberry for nearly a decade. The measurements we use most often – ability to influence, belonging, strength of relationships with neighbours, social integration and community cohesion, wellbeing, loneliness, fear of crime and financial precarity – are central to social impact strategies that focus on place and community. We have been looking at the impact of estate regeneration programmes that started over 15 years ago. They are the products of their time and the imperatives that drove past housing policy. As well as lessons for each area there are important messages for regeneration programmes being developed today. We believe we need to pay more attention to: 🎉 safeguarding the social and environmental assets of local areas, to build on what is protective and supports people to thrive in what can be difficult circumstances 🌇 meeting the needs of residents in different circumstances including people without housing or employment security  🛶 raising our collective game to minimise the negative environmental consequences of demolition and rebuilding, making better decisions about the balance between social, environmental and economic trade offs. There are transferrable lessons for housing policy. Investment today has to work for the future of communities and neighbourhoods and avoid the mistakes of the past. Full blog here https://lnkd.in/ebqUzbZJ #socialsustainability #estateregeneration #newhomes #wellbeing

Transferrable lessons for housing policy from our work on regeneration schemes over a decade. We need to pay more attention to: 🎉 safeguarding the social and environmental assets of local areas, building on what is protective and supporting people to thrive 🌇 meeting the needs of people in different social and life circumstances  🛶 raising our collective game to minimise the environmental consequences of demolition and rebuilding, making better decisions about the balance between social, environmental and economic trade offs. New blog below ...

In case you missed it: our CEO Sam Veal explained how a considered, community-led approach to placemaking can help local authorities solve societal challenges as we develop housing for the future. Read the article to find out how we can revitalise heritage through the creation of people-centred neighbourhoods to shift perceptions of overlooked suburban areas to support the housing agenda: https://lnkd.in/ejy_Xt6d

🔓 Planning for impact... Over the decades, we've seen an astonishing rate of transformation, not only across the city region, but in the nation's approach to planning as well (if not quite at the same pace). We've seen regional planning, neighbourhood planning and most recently in our city, Greater Manchester Combined Authority's adoption of the sub-regional Places for Everyone plan. Whatever the scale, forward planning is intended to deliver on town planning's big mission: achieving sustainable development in economic, social and environmental terms. But, across this variety, it's development frameworks that we hold most dear, in part for their... ✅ Highly effective nature ✅ Quicker preparation despite greater detail ✅ Fostering of public-private collaboration ✅ Influence for councils' regeneration ambitions Intrigued? Read on in Part One, Chapter One of EK Unlocked... ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/es4K3HRr #ekunlocked #planning #housing #housingcrisis #greatermanchester #salford #manchester #gmca #placesforeveryone Original image credit: One Heritage

Victoria's OCP: Can City Planning Bridge the Divide? This is a short article to bring awareness to the community about the importance of the Official Community Plan that City of Victoria BC has been working on. Equity compels the performance of social contracts. Traditionally, urban planning has balanced the interests of (a) the state, such as politicians and decision-makers; (b) capital, such as corporations, landowners, and real estate developers; or (c) the public. However, I’ve seen rising concerns about how these interests perpetuate inequality in our communities. What can the OCP bring to those underrepresented groups and communities at the margins of these planning proccess? Let's talk.

British Land, Landsec and Berkeley Group have commissioned a report that highlights positive attitudes towards urban development they're encouraging the government to embrace urban development and densification - or risk missing its 1.5 million homes mission. The report reads: 'The results were clear: far from being anti-development, urban communities are overwhelmingly made up of ‘YIMBYs’ (‘yes in my back yard’). 60% of those polled in Cambridge, Camden, Manchester and Newham had strongly negative views of currently underdeveloped brownfield sites, viewing them as ugly, dirty and unsafe. 73% saw the underutilisation of these sites as a wasted opportunity that needs to be harnessed - for example, to deliver more affordable housing, public spaces and green places.'

Sheffield: The Re-Invented City With a robust population increase, a thriving economy expanding at a rapid pace, and a dynamic housing market experiencing sustained appreciation, the city offers significant investment potential. Read more about Sheffield's resurgence here: https://bit.ly/4j20xhz