The lure of urban relocation

Regional development agency Yorkshire Forward sees growth in the number of people seeking the city lifestyle

Yorkshire and Humber is lucky to have many towns and cities which have a close proximity to water, and the region’s waterfronts are proving to be popular business and housing locations – especially for those who want the buzz of apartment living combined with the feel of a rural setting.

Projects being developed in Doncaster, Rotherham, Leeds and Wakefield as part of Yorkshire Forward’s renaissance programmes aim to make the best economic and social use of waterside spaces, ensuring that they are accessible to all.

Waterside business premises, such as the round Foundry media Centre located within the Holbeck urban Village next to the river Aire in Leeds, have been extremely successful.

And when developers on the housing phase of the Wakefield Waterfront project advertised apartments for sale before any work had even started, all were sold within four hours.

Even the surrounding areas of these waterside business parks are being developed with a feel-good factor in mind. Where once these locations would have been covered with traditional landscaped gardens, now reedbeds and other grasses are planted to attract wildlife and provide a haven of tranquillity in industrial areas for both workers and local residents.

Rural areas are also being given a new lease of life. Dreams of starting a business or working from home in a rural setting are becoming reality now that every telephone exchange in Yorkshire and Humber has been enabled for broadband. People from all walks of life are taking this option to work in a relaxing setting without the hassle of a tiresome commute at either end of the working day.

As new areas are opened up for development across the region, such as the area around the Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield airport, and work gets underway on business park sites at Colburn in north Yorkshire and Centrepoint in Grimsby, Yorkshire Forward will be encouraging planners and developers to build sustainability into their projects.
The recent updating of the planning regulations means that property professionals are having to adopt sustainable development principles. Yorkshire Forward can further influence this issue when it is directly involved in a development. The promotion of sustainability within the property development industry will be stepped up over the next six months as Yorkshire Forward works towards meeting its target of including at least 10 percent of recycled materials in new and refurbished building projects.

In the region’s urban areas, disused industrial and historical premises of all shapes and sizes, including landmark historical buildings like Lister’s Mill in Bradford and the round Foundry in Leeds, are being transformed to meet the demands of people wanting to live American-style, in apartments, but somewhere that has character or a sense of tradition.

Just as it has in other regions, high rise city centre living is continuing to grow in Yorkshire and Humber. Anyone visiting the city of Leeds for the first time in recent years could be forgiven for thinking that they had been transported to one of a number of cities around the world as new buildings grow ever taller and change the skyline.

But city living is no longer simply the domain of single people who want to live close to the nightlife. Alongside the major developments, chic city squares and pavement eateries have brought subtle changes, giving places like Leeds and Sheffield a real cosmopolitan feel that is helping to develop the evening culture, and attract people of all ages back into the urban centres.

With careful planning to provide adequate facilities, cities may once again become places where families choose to live.