ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how the distribution of housing emerged and the environmental impacts of contemporary housing policy before considering the key elements of a sustainable housing policy and considers the energy implications of housing. A sustainable – or compact – city organised in accordance with the principles of sustainable urban development would be a city where there was high-density housing, priority given to walking and cycling as transport modes with discrimination against cars and active promotion of public transport. The process of suburbanisation – the building of residential areas which related to the centre of the city – had begun with the railway, and the train and the car created many more suburbs in the twentieth century. The retreat from the city began in earnest in the 1960s, when the mass ownership of the private car made it possible to commute not just from suburbs but also from country areas to city employment.
