There was a time, not too long ago, that adults lived by the motto that young people were to be seen but not heard. Now, we live in a world where this mantra has been flipped on its head.
Generation Z has quite simply had enough. They are organising among themselves a truly global movement, campaigning against the actions of the older generation, holding them to account on issues from climate change to social injustices.
Adults, supposed to be role models and vanguards of progress, are now turning to young people for their leadership and inspiration on how to tackle the world’s hardest questions and greatest challenges.
Those who attended EG’s Manchester Question Time will have observed this Greta Thunberg effect in action.
On a panel of speakers which included Manchester night-time economy adviser Sacha Lord, Get Living director of neighbourhoods, Ian Gibbs and Savills’ head of office, James Evans, sat Emma Greenwood, youth MP for Bury. As EG editor Samantha McClary said, Greenwood, who at 15 is not even old enough to drive a car, stole the show.
She offered a refreshing, but also crucial, view on how real estate affects young people – for better and for worse.
It was Greenwood who pointed out the specific regional challenges that property companies face in tackling sustainability issues. She also rightly noted that there is “no point” in regenerating Greater Manchester’s satellite towns if transport connections to and from these town centres remain, in her words, “shambolic”.
Her perspective made for a thought-provoking debate, forcing not only the panel, but those in the audience, to think about property’s impact on our world in a new way – through the eyes of a teenager.
Vive la dévolution
The audience was first made aware of Greenwood before she was even on stage. Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham delivered the opening speech of the evening, stating that Greenwood had grilled him on the issue of sustainability just a week before.
This issue was high on Burnham’s agenda, and he argued that devolution could be the key to solving Greater Manchester’s climate change challenges.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it… if we were freed up a little bit here, [could] we lead social change [and] also industrial change on the green agenda?” he said. “We are well placed to do that, and we’re actually ready to do that. Greater Manchester has set 2038 as our goal for carbon neutrality, 12 years ahead of the [rest of] the UK, and we’re ready to go.”
Property plays a big role in the local authority’s plans. According to Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s draft spatial framework, which outlines the region’s housing, employment and environmental plans for the next 20 years, all development should be zero-carbon by 2028.
“No new planning permissions will be given unless those buildings are zero-carbon, and not adding to the problem that we face,” said Burnham.
Also contained in that report is Greater Manchester’s housing plans. The combined authority, which encompasses 10 councils in the region, has a target to build 200,000 new homes in the next 20 years, but Burnham said there needs to be a “better way” of figuring out how this target can be met, citing retrofitting existing assets as one way of doing this.
He said: “We have got to stop doing the easy thing and building on those green spaces by the big roads and building homes that are out of the reach of many people.”
Challenges meeting the green agenda
Greenwood, however, was more sceptical of the council’s commitment to prioritising the green agenda.
She cited an old retail estate off Great Ancoats Street that has been left derelict for four years. The council has an opportunity to provide a “beautiful green space with an abundance of benefits”, but instead has submitted a bid to build a 440-space car park, said Greenwood.
“The last thing Manchester needs is another car park, especially on a road that [the council] is trying to pedestrianise,” she said. “The council’s priorities and investors’ priorities are still quite askew. The problem isn’t the lack of land, it’s the prioritisation of how you use that land.”
She added: “It isn’t a lack of opportunity, it’s the fact that people aren’t prioritising green spaces, and that needs to happen.”
Gibbs replied that providing green spaces has often been “pivotal” in the creation of Get Living’s new developments. However, he agreed with Greenwood that property needs to carefully think about how it should be re-developing car parks, as the demand for this space declines along with the number of people driving cars, and while greater accessibility to city centres and the rise in flexible working continues to have an effect on our commuting behaviour.
The problem isn’t the lack of land, it’s the prioritisation of how you use that land
– Emma Greenwood, youth MP for Bury
“We’re starting to think that [building car parks] has an end point,” he said. “We have to think quite broadly and very differently about how we develop some of these spaces[…] and I think public realm plays a part in that.”
However, Evans offered a more pragmatic view on the private sector’s approach to developing green areas.
“The reality is large-scale development is driven by the private sector,” he said. “There may be some degree of local authority involvement, with joint venture partners, but the private sector only develops where there is profit. Let’s be clear on that.”
He said there are two types of investors in the private sector. Those that are “driven solely by profit” and those who “have more patient capital, that will take 10,15, 20-year investment views. It’s that type of investor who is prepared to look at the larger benefit of a park or green space,” he said. “The private sector does need to make money, that’s the long and short of it. But hopefully with more of this patient capital, we’ll be able to see more green space coming forward.”
Evans also noted that GMCA’s plans to refuse any planning applications that do not propose carbon neutral buildings, coupled with the cost inflation the development market is experiencing, could see some developers actually avoid building in the Greater Manchester region.
“One of the greatest challenges to the development market at the moment is cost inflation,” he said. “It’s difficult to make things work, even in a city like Manchester. You’ve got to be creative and you’ve got to be bold in your designs, rents and values.
“Add in further inflation and an ambition to get to zero carbon… it further makes it difficult. I hope we get there, but people will have to be creative in the way they build buildings.”
Connectivity
Manchester’s ambition to ensure that new developments are zero-carbon by 2038 is understandable. Development is booming: you need only look out of the window to spot one of many cranes dotted across the skyline, marking out new schemes under construction.
Indeed, according to Deloitte’s 2019 Crane Survey, 44 new schemes started construction this year, significantly higher than last year’s 32 new starts and the average 21 new starts that have occurred between 2007-2018 in the city.
But this activity is not just limited to the city centre. Regeneration schemes are taking place across the towns that orbit Manchester, for example, Bolton Council’s £1.2bn town centre masterplan and the £1bn regeneration of Stockport town centre.
However, Greenwood said public transport links connecting these towns to the city centre is “shambolic” and a key barrier facing these schemes.
“It’s all well and good developing these satellite towns,” she said. “But if you haven’t got a good public transport system to allow people in these towns to come into the centre[…] then what’s the point?
“In the satellite towns, buses can be 20 minutes late, and never run to the timetable – I don’t think I’ve ever caught a bus that has come on time.”
This poor connectivity could affect the region’s aspirations to become greener, as people will resort to driving from satellite towns into Manchester instead of using public transport. “We can’t expect people to use public transport if it isn’t convenient, reliable and affordable,” she said. “And that’s one thing that we need to prioritise.”
Lord said that in order to really make progress on improving this connectivity, Greater Manchester needs to be able to take control of its own transport system. “It doesn’t make any sense that the suits in Westminster are making decisions that we know the answers to better than they do,” he said. “It’s a broken system.”
Future of Manchester
The issue of sustainability, and how devolution could help Greater Manchester achieve its zero-carbon ambition, dominated the conversation at EG’s Manchester Question Time.
It was also an opportunity for real estate to understand what the future generation, who its buildings will ultimately serve, wants from their surrounding built environment.
If Greenwood’s views are a barometer, key priorities for this younger generation include the provision of reliable and affordable public transport, sustainable development, and the creation of more green spaces.
Her perspective provides an important takeaway for the real estate industry. It should help the industry understand how young people view its commitment to climate change and give it the opportunity to demonstrate that it does not put profit before the planet.
Photographs by James White
The panel:
Keynote: Andy Burnham, mayor, Greater Manchester
Sacha Lord, night-time economy adviser, Greater Manchester
Ian Gibbs, director of neighbourhoods, Get Living
James Evans, head of office, Savills
Emma Greenwood, youth MP, Bury
Chair: Samantha McClary, editor, EG
For more on sustainability in real estate: EG Sustainability hub
