“Cities that grow, change,” said one of EG’s panellists at a MIPIM discussion around what the UK can learn from international peers.
The need to address the climate crisis, changing requirements post-pandemic, and new needs from infrastructure were all on the agenda – and as with all of our MIPIM panels, you can hear the full conversation on the EG Property Podcasts channel, or click the player below.
Here are some of the highlights, as Manchester’s Joanne Roney and Porto’s Ricardo Valente offer contrasting views of how their cities are bringing the voice of the youth into the built environment, and the World Green Building Council’s Cristina Gamboa offers her thoughts on the role of the private sector in driving change.
Vibrant cities
Joanne Roney, chief executive, Manchester City Council
“Twenty years ago, 3,000 people lived in the centre of Manchester. Now we are at 100,000 and it’s growing. We had high density as a strategy – build high, populate the city, keep the city vibrant. Supporting that great vibe of Manchester needed people. But those people who have moved in over the last 20 years have got married, had children, and now are saying, ‘we’d like some houses, not flats, and we want green space’.
“Cities that grow change, and we have to work out the blend of voices. You have to have long-term planning and long-term vision, but constantly refresh it as new products come to market, as new design comes in. I am really pleased that in Manchester we have opened the first park in the city centre in 100 years, at Mayfield. We are really pleased that we have 15,000 homes being built in north Manchester, homes being built by opening up the river.
“Young people want a vibrant city centre. They want to walk. [Most] don’t want cars, but those who want cars want EV charging points in every home. We hear those voices, we continually refresh it. We are honest and open about the competing pressures and we put forward plans to try to balance those different needs. That’s how you keep a vibrant city that changes and grows.”
Elephant in the room
Ricardo Valente, city councillor, Porto
“We have a different problem – we are losing population. Portugal is one of the most elderly countries in the world. We will lose 25% of our population by 2050. Porto is one of the oldest cities in the country, and we are the city with the highest amount of monoparental families, at 43% of families. We have a lot of demographic challenges, and the problem is the youth is basically the minority. That’s a problem when you are talking about the future, you’re talking about it to whom?
“That’s the elephant in the room, the way we can bring young people to engage in the political agenda and to look at the community as a community. If the youth is not able to think about the community and if it is closed in itself, it will lose the political battle. The relevant thing is to put young people on the political agenda, bringing them the sense of community. We are here together, we will change together.
“In Porto, the biggest challenge is how are you able to change a city that is 2,000 years old? We are older than the country. Our streets are the same way as they were 2,000 years ago. When you talk about electric vehicles, it’s close to impossible [in the city] because of the infrastructure. We have a lot of challenges. We are trying to tackle it with a lot of investment.”
Partnerships enabling policies
Cristina Gamboa, chief executive, World Green Building Council
“We are still not planning for the future. We are sometimes doing the same things we have done for the last 50 years. But the resiliency conversation around climate impact happening now has enabled more awareness on mitigation too, and it’s becoming more prevalent in the agenda.
“I am an optimist at heart. I’m going to tell you the good story, and the good story is around partnerships enabling policies. The private sector needs to lead in terms of embracing an agenda of green growth, of creating quality jobs, of creating opportunity for innovation and delivering higher quality assets, all sorts of infrastructure under a systemic approach. It’s not only buildings, it’s about integration with transport infrastructure. But with that, the public sector does have to give a vision of where it’s going, so it can inspire confidence in the private sector to invest in that direction, and through the good ambition loops that feedback into each other.”
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