Development dampener

Hardly a week passes when a new mixed-use development under construction springs up, promising smart new homes, offices and leisure facilities.

Usually, we find ourselves stuck in front of temporary traffic lights seemingly permanently on red, to allow construction vehicles safe passage to the site, or dodging men at work irritatingly waving ‘stop-go’ signs like children with a new rattle.

In my own area of north London, there are several such developments on the go, all of which will add strain to the local infrastructure in terms of traffic, demands on the health services, water supply and other valuable resources.
Investor appetite for commercial real estate continued unabated last year with a record £48.5bn of investment deals, according to DTZ – albeit that the consultants think the market may have peaked.

But infrastructure is buckling in certain areas of the country, especially the south east, where new homes, offices and other buildings are springing up.

Token improvements agreed when seeking planning permission for projects do not always take into account the real added load to local infrastructure.

It seems that the roads are more congested than ever; London’s Tube is increasingly crowded, uncomfortable and scandalously hot in the summer; the rail network is unreliable and health services are cracking up under the strain of a growing and increasingly demanding population.

The government must bite the bullet and build many more roads, rail, health facilities and make more infrastructure improvements than they are currently doing.

The rate of new developments is outstripping the infrastructure needed to support them and urgent action is required.
Indeed, this is something economist Kate Barker recognises in her Land Use Planning Interim Report, commissioned by the Treasury.

She notes that major infrastructure projects are taking longer to get approved than the need for democratic consultation justifies.

Her report notes that, “there may be diseconomies of scale that occur when density rises beyond the capacity for urban infrastructure to support it. Congestion may occur in excessively dense areas, reducing productivity and impeding growth.”

The population of England expanded from around 43 million in 1951 to 50 million in 2004. Current projections suggest the population will grow to 56.8 million by 2031, when there may be 435 people per square kilometre.
Barker says demographic changes, such as an increase in the proportion of single-person households, will also affect demand for space.

But it does not take Einstein to work out this is unsustainable without corresponding improvements in infrastructure.
Commercial development provides employment and supports the development of new enterprises where planning delivers effective infrastructure and regeneration.

Barker rightly points out that “the delivery of infrastructure is often vital.”
The British Chambers of Commerce says some businesses are choosing not to expand or to move out of an area because of transport failures, and 46 percent of businesses attribute a lack of investment in their region to the transport infrastructure.

These issues clearly must be addressed.