Towards an Urban Renaissance was a report written by the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
's ''Urban Task Force'' chaired by
Lord Rogers of Riverside and published on 29 June 1999. It examined the question of how 4 million projected new homes over 25 years, might be accommodated in the UK without further encroachment into the
green belt
A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...
or other areas of countryside.
[ Urban Task Force]
The review leading to the published report was commissioned by the then Deputy Prime Minister
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
in 1998, to identify the causes of
urban decline and establish a vision for Britain's cities based on the principles of design excellence, social well-being and environmental responsibility.
Participants included
Peter Hall.
''Towards an Urban Renaissance'' resulted in the
Our Towns and Cities – the Future – The Urban White Paper' published in 2000, and was influential in the revised
Planning policy guidance note 3: Housing (PPG 3) which was also published in 2000.
Rogers published an independent update titled ''Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance'' in 2005.
The report is seen as a milestone in the development of
New London Vernacular, an responsive architectural style observed in London from about 2010 onwards.
Key recommendations
*Design-led urban regeneration process and the designation of special urban policy areas.
*Reform of the planning system and involvement of local people in decision making and neighbourhood level.
*The building of 60% of new housing as schemes on
brownfield land
In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...
.
*Better use of existing housing stock.
*The relaxation of
Local Planning Authority
A local planning authority (LPA) is the local government body that is empowered by law to exercise urban planning functions for a particular area. They exist in the United Kingdom and India.
United Kingdom
Mineral planning authorities
The role ...
's standards relating to density and separation distances between dwellings
*The better integration of housing with highways (relaxation of parking standards and designing the roads around the housing rather than the housing around the roads).
*Improve
non-car transport.
*Better quality design.
References
External links
''Towards an Urban Renaissance (1999)''''Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance: The Urban Renaissance six years on (2005)'
''Our Towns and Cities (2000)''
Town and country planning in the United Kingdom
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