Sustainable and livable cities

What were the major issues for this conference? How to make our urban environments safer, more attractive, more sustainable and more prosperous? What are the major problems?

A predominantly urban society across Europe that has become too polarised with too many people who are socially excluded, and with people leaving certain towns and cities (something we are experiencing too in Malta, particularly from our older historic towns)

The British, who hosted this meeting, outlined the steps being taken to counteract this.

Trying to prevent urban sprawl, creating safe, comfortable urban environments people want to live in, and most important of all, creating opportunities by narrowing the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest through a programme of urban renewal.

When we consider the livability and sustainability of towns and cities we must not forget the wider forces which are at work. The papers presented highlighted how economic globalisation and population migration have impacted upon European towns and cities.

Therefore we need to be flexible when implementing plans and policies for our towns and cities which are not in fact completely in control of their own destinies.

It is crucial to also incorporate a behavioural approach as a way of complementing more traditional techniques of urban design, housing policy, land use planning and fiscal management to promote social equity.

Important too - from the European experience at least - is the need to continuously monitor the effectiveness of plans and policies, not at the end of their term but as an ongoing process.

The conference also highlighted how difficult it is to gather reliable data on this behavioural perspective, particularly when one considers the complex environment which makes up a city. Currently behaviour is not given enough importance in the drawing up of plans, policies and strategies and we often end up with misleading results.

One example given was transport plans, which not only need to deliver enhanced mobility at an aggregate level, but also do so in a way which addresses social and environmental equity.

The importance of the economy and how it is performing underpins urban regeneration. Unless there is a sound economic system within which governments, businesses and individuals can function, more general systems of equity cannot be addressed. The conference discussed the effect of tax and fiscal systems particularly concerning land.

The second sense in which the economy is fundamental is that unless the various actors in a city have sufficient resources at their disposal they will be unable to promote social and ecological equity. These resources are primarily financial but are also human or natural resources. The conference also discussed how such resources can be made available.

The conference focused strongly upon the notion that as far as possible, these resources should be self-generated by cities and that cities should be self-financing.

Housing and urban regeneration

In some countries urban sprawl has been generated by illegal buildings and informal subdivisions of land. These areas often face serious problems of infrastructure provision, lack of security of tenure and the need for further improvement of buildings and living conditions.

Specific housing policies are required, both to integrate them into urban and social structures as well as to minimise the negative effects on the built environment. Such policies include assistance to low-income groups and credit and tax subsidies for housing improvement.

In many countries there is a marked trend towards encouraging and facilitating owner occupancy through various incentives. This disadvantages the rental sector and sometimes leads to its decline. It also impacts negatively on the younger groups of the population who do not have the means to become owner-occupiers.

Affordability should be tackled from a broader perspective, taking into account the redistribution of housing, minimum housing standards, life cycles of various tenure. Housing programmes should take into consideration the changing social structure of the population, and provide correspondingly for new needs, particularly those of an aging population.

Most housing programmes across Europe are generally oriented towards the first time acquisition of a dwelling. However governments use a wide variety of instruments to assist various population groups (such as tax deductions, tax relief on interest payments and general interest rate subsidies). Yet most of these subsidies benefit middle- and higher- income households and fail to help low-income groups.

Some outstanding issues for further research:

i) Insufficient attention has been paid to the role of private enterprise in improving the livability and sustainability of cities, and to the interaction between private enterprise and the State.

ii) Issues of multiculturalism and diversity continue to receive insufficient attention reflecting the general bias towards the physical and ecological dimensions of sustainability. Similarly, while issues of physical access such as transport receive a great deal of attention, social access is an area requiring more investigation.

iii) There has only been limited research into the ways in which the lifestyle choices and actions of individuals can lead to inequitable outcomes across society as a whole.

Even more significant, there is little hard evidence showing which tools and strategies have actually delivered provable improvements in social equity in urban settings. This hard evidence needs to be gathered and disseminated.