The BURA SDF Suburban Regeneration Report

The ’older suburbs’ referred to in the report title are the pre-1970s, semidetached, low-density, low-rise homes with front and back gardens built away from urban centres. These areas are often characterised in terms of their residential characteristics but also often have local suburban civic and retail centres and, perhaps, some light industry and commercial space. In the UK all is not well in some of these areas. That, at least, is the conclusion of a handful of studies over the last decade. Specifically, problems have been noted in regard to lack of work, poor services, bland architecture, a lack of social and community cohesion, housing and environmental quality. This report by BURA’s Steering and Development Forum (SDF) cautions that studies about problems in some suburbs do not constitute evidence of a ‘suburban problem’. The evidence cited does not refer to an across-the board problem in the suburbs and nor does it provide evidence that some of the affected suburbs are more deserving, or as deserving even, than deprived inner-city areas, peripheral social housing estates or rural hamlets. Although some have pointed to there being no suburban regeneration fund there is also no reason to think that areas suffering from some combination of economic, social and physical problems will be treated harshly by Government funding allocations. The central thrust of this report is to look, by drawing on case studies from four continents, at the role that suburbs have played, do play and can play in the wider urban and regional context. What is wanted for suburbs and what is possible? It is only when these deeper questions are considered that proposals can confidently be put forward about the nature of regeneration that is desirable for suburbs that are genuinely in need of regenerative efforts. The central questions to be tackled, the ‘real regeneration challenges’ referred to in the title, are outlined below, along with the central findings.

Contact info

British Urban Regeneration Association
63-66 Hatton Garden
EC1N 8LE London
United Kingdom
Phone: 44 (0) 20 7539 4030
Fax: 44 (0) 20 7404 9614
http://www.bura.org.uk/Home.htm