Reducing Sprawl and Delivering an Urban Renaissance in England: Are These Aims Possible Given Current Attitudes to Urban Living?

In the UK, reducing urban sprawl and revitalising towns and cities have been dual, and related aims of the planning system and of urban policy for many decades (Healey, 1997; Jenks et al., 1996). However, since the late 1980s these aims have been given a new language: that of sustainability. The 'sustainable city' is characterised in English spatial planning by the idea of the 'compact city'. In physical terms, this translates to cities and towns which are contained, built at higher densities than current averages, and have a mix of uses (Jenks et al, 1996). This implies development processes which reduce sprawl by using urban, preferably brownfield, land rather than greenfield or edge sites.