Land Development

Applying Land Value Capture Tools-Report

How can communities harness the value of land to build better places? Some cities, notably in Northern Europe, have avoided the excesses of housing price inflation, congestion and pollution, and thereby kept land costs down. They have instead invested in making active travel and public transportation more attractive than an over-dependence on private cars. This paper summarises the theory of Land Value Capture (LVC) and its role in funding local infrastructure. Further references and examples are set out in Nicholas Falk’s policy paper for the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) with eleven recommendations for applying best practices in the UK.

URBED 40th

Events around the country, including Cambridge and Birmingham as well as Manchester and London, enabled the impact of URBED’s work to be reviewed by some of the leading practitioners we have worked with. Themes included the reuse of old buildings, the promotion of enterprise, town centre revitalisation, and housing. The results were filmed, and form part of an ongoing project to share experience and best practice in making cities work better for all.

Land Assembly

Winning a contract from the Greater London Authority enabled URBED to draw lessons from how cities in other countries assemble the land needed to build housing. Other related work on land value capture has been commissioned by the UK 2070 Commission under Lord (Bob) Kerslake., and by other bodies.

Smart Cities

A contract from a major Chinese housing developer, following on from visits to exemplary projects in England, reviewed the meaning and application of ‘smart growth’ principles to urban development. A presentation was given in Hangzhou, and the reports draw on case studies of seven cities that are in the forefront of the digital economy.

Cambridgeshire Quality Charter

A contract from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority involved assessing the value of Design Review, the meaning of social cohesion, and the most practical way of assessing the performance of new communities. A refreshed version of this influential charter will be published.

Climax City

Initial research by David Rudlin and Indian urban designer Shruti Parikh using figure ground plans to explore how cities have grown over time led onto a highly illustrated book published by the RIBA. The book shows how masterplans are rarely implemented as expected. The places we like best follow the principles of natural growth.

Affordable Housing

A contract from Shelter to advise their Social Housing Commission on international good practice resulted in thirteen illustrated case studies from Bilbao to Singapore and Zurich., and an analysis of published information on social housing in Europe.