LARGE-SCALE URBAN REGENERATION

AND SUSTAINABILITY:

REFLECTIONS ON THE ‘BARRIERS’ TYPOLOGY

WORKING PAPER 05/01

Rossa Donovan1∗, James Evans1, John Bryson1, Libby Porter2 and Dexter

Hunt3

1School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham

2Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham 3School of Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham

*Corresponding author

R.G. Donovan, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences,

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 5523; E-mail: r.g.donovan@bham.ac.uk

ISBN: 07044 25262

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences

Research Council grant no. GR/S20482/01.

© The University of Birmingham, 2005.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1

The typology of barriers............................................................................................................. 3

(i) Perceptual barriers ............................................................................................................ 4

(ii) Institutional barriers ......................................................................................................... 5

(iii) Economic barriers ........................................................................................................... 6

Birmingham’s Eastside: Planning for Sustainability ................................................................. 7

Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 11

Barriers to Achieving Sustainability in Eastside...................................................................... 12

Perceptual Barriers ........................................................................................................... 14

Institutional Barriers......................................................................................................... 16

Economic Barriers............................................................................................................ 19

Barriers Revisited..................................................................................................................... 21

Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 23

References ................................................................................................................................ 24

1

Large-scale Urban Regeneration and Sustainability:

Reflections on the ‘Barriers’ Typology

Abstract:

This paper explores the barriers to large-scale sustainable urban regeneration. Recent

research has identified a clear typology of institutional, perceptual and economic ‘barriers’ to

sustainability within regeneration projects. We provide a detailed review of this typology in

light of recent research in the area, and then apply it to a real-time urban regeneration

programme in the UK, currently being undertaken in Birmingham’s Eastside district. A

reflexive methodology was deployed that incorporated the views of practitioners into

questionnaire and interview design through a series of focus group meetings. The resulting

data suggest that the typology fits the concerns of actors within the Eastside programme, and

supports recent research in this area that emphasises the over-riding importance of economic

factors within regeneration partnerships. A key theme that emerges is the tendency for actors

to adopt tried and tested patterns of behaviour in the face of uncertainties surrounding the

interpretation and incorporation of sustainability into their agendas. This risk-averse

behaviour is highlighted by the barriers approach, which pre-figures failure by assuming some

ideal end-point for sustainability. We argue that the debate needs to shift from descriptive

barriers to more prescriptive enablers by focusing upon the potential opportunities that the

challenges of sustainable development offer. This approach is developed in a follow-on

paper.

Introduction

Sustainable development and urban regeneration constitute the two main strands of current

urban policy in the UK (DETR, 1999a; 2000). Their successful implementation is seen as

critical if UK cities are to attract economic development within a global context (Hudson,

2001; Oatley, 1998; Gibbs et al., 1996), and for the creation of sustainable civic and

commercial spaces capable of supporting socially, culturally and ecologically vibrant

populations (ODPM, 2004). Four aims support the British Government’s sustainable

development strategy:

2

“social progress which recognizes the needs of everyone; effective protection of

the environment; the prudent use of resources; and, the maintenance of high and

stable levels of economic growth and employment. These aims should be pursued

in an integrated way through a sustainable, innovative and productive economy

that delivers high levels of employment, and a just society that promotes social

inclusion, sustainable communities and personal well being, in ways that protect

and enhance the physical environment and optimise resource and energy use”

(ODPM, 2005: 2).

This vision of an all inclusive sustainable development is an ideal that requires major

alterations in the activities and perceptions of national and local government and private

sector organisations. Established working practices, technologies and perceptions of

profitability undermine attempts to integrate sustainability practices into urban development

schemes. This paper explores the barriers to sustainable development in the UK through a

detailed case study of Eastside, Birmingham, a major urban regeneration scheme.

Under an umbrella of policy initiatives the British planning system has been charged with

ensuring that future urban regeneration is sustainable (DETR, 1998; 1999b; DTLR, 2001).

The framework for achieving this has been large-scale, long-term design-led planning,

leading to the creation of urban regeneration teams; new configurations of public, private and

NGO groups that extend traditional planning functions spatially and temporally, requiring

high levels of collaborative planning (Healey, 1997) between organisations with different

characteristics, motivations, and resources.

However, a growing body of research suggests that the policy goals of urban regeneration and

sustainable development are failing to be integrated in practice (Couch and Denneman, 2000).

Within the literature this failure has most often been interpreted through the notion of

‘barriers’ to sustainability within regeneration projects. A clear typology of barriers has been

identified in recent research: perceptual (Cooper and Palmer, 1999), institutional (Rydin et al.,

2003) and economic (Gibbs et al., 2002). Existing studies have tended to explore one type of

barrier rather than explore all three types as they operate in the same regeneration project.

This paper applies this typology of barriers to a real-time urban regeneration programme in

the UK, currently being undertaken in Birmingham’s Eastside district. The so-called

‘Eastside’ project is a particularly suitable test case, representing a large-scale, long-term

3

development that is explicitly aiming to be a flagship example of sustainable regeneration

within the European context. We review the typology of barriers to sustainable urban

regeneration, and then explore the Eastside case study.

The final section reflects upon the typology of barriers. We argue that while it captures the

range of obstacles to sustainability identified by practitioners, it tends to highlight failures to

achieve some ‘ideal’ end-point for sustainability. By focusing upon the potential opportunities

that the challenges of sustainable development offer, the debate shifts from descriptive

barriers (and the language of failure) to more prescriptive enablers that are explored in a

follow-on paper (Donovan et al., forthcoming).

The typology of barriers

The dimensions of sustainability set down by the UK Government in its Sustainable

Development Strategy address social progress, protection of the environment, prudent use of

natural resources, and maintenance of stable economic growth and employment (DETR,

1999a). Moffatt identifies four related aspects: the elimination of poverty and deprivation; the

conservation and enhancement of natural resources; a broadening of the concept of

development to include social and cultural aspects; and the unification of economics and

ecology in decision-making (1995, p.27). This integrated and holistic concept has become

widely accepted, diverging from earlier definitions which focused more centrally on

achieving environmental goals (Elliott, 1994). Achieving sustainable development in UK

cities, then, requires policy and practical innovation that sits at the nexus of environmental

protection, social justice and economic progress. It is this notion of sustainability that

underpins this paper.

Barriers to achieving sustainability range from complex, cross-cutting (indeed, philosophical)

issues, through the specificities of governance and inter-organisational relations, right down

to the detailed practicalities of delivering the built form. Although each urban regeneration

project is in many ways unique in terms of the place in which it occurs, the specific problems

and aims involved, and the constellation of actors engaged in the project, the picture of

barriers to sustainability that emerges from the literature is remarkably consistent. For

example, the three barriers identified in the introduction (institutional, perceptual, and

4

economic) from high profile projects in the UK were identified in a study that examined the

barriers to implementing the ‘Clouds of Change’ initiative in Vancouver. Through interviews

with government officials and citizens, Moore (1994) identified three categories of barrier:

perceptual/behavioural; institutional/structural; and economic/financial. This consistency in

the identification of these categories is partly explained by the institutional frameworks that

support and drive the development process. These frameworks include perceptions of

profitability held by long-term property investors as well as acceptable profits margins

expected from the development process (Bryson, 1997). These categories provide a common

means of conceptualising barriers to sustainable development and are used in this paper to

reflect upon the barriers to achieving sustainability in Eastside. However, closer examination

of the typology of barriers reveals a number of complexities within each.

(i) Perceptual barriers

Perceptual (and behavioural) barriers to implementing sustainability concern definitions and

information, as well as deeper socio-cultural issues. Some authors point to a lack of

knowledge about and understanding of sustainability issues, both within decision-making

organisations, and the wider population (Moore, 1994; Mittler, 1999; Vigar, 2000). Lack of

information about key environmental issues can leave people unable to translate large

environmental issues into necessary alterations in personal or organisational behaviour. In a

study of environmentally sustainable transport planning in the UK, Vigar found that some

politicians were simply unaware that road schemes had environmentally detrimental effects

(Vigar, 2000). Other authors have noted a disconnection between people’s individual lives

and behaviours, with wider and even global problems, leaving people disempowered to act in

the face of such challenges (Moore, 1994; Mackay, 1999).

The sheer plethora of definitions of sustainability (one study counted more than 70 in

circulation – see Elliott, 1994) gives rise to debate and division, even amongst those who

advocate sustainability principles, about exactly what should be achieved and how.

Definitions range from the broadly conceived ideas encapsulated in the Brundtland report

(WCED, 1987), to more specific and technical meanings (Mebratu, 1998). The former are

useful to enable a greater integration of the different pillars of sustainability, yet they are

difficult to measure and open to interpretation (Pezzoli, 1997). The latter are useful to enable

implementation and monitoring of specific changes, yet they tend to reduce a complex

5

concept to a set of technical and proscriptive solutions. One schism particular to public-

private collaborations is that between ‘sustainable development’, more often used by private

industry as it retains an emphasis upon development, and ‘sustainability’, more often used by

public bodies, as it emphasises integration (Robinson, 2004).

This also points to a much deeper problem than merely lack of information to citizens and

governments. Here, failure to act is seen less as a problem of knowledge deficit, than one of a

gap between knowledge and action. Sustainability, as many authors argue, is integrally linked

to everyday production and consumption processes and indeed the way we conceptualise and

value growth (see Rydin, 2002; Reid, 1995). If achieving sustainability requires fundamental

changes to those social values and methods of social organisation and consumption, then this

challenges entrenched social and economic power relations, which are even more difficult to

change than individual behaviours. Much of this entrenchment is built into the economic

system. Most retail, office and industrial buildings in the UK are created by property

development companies and owned by institutional investors (life insurance companies,

pension funds etc). This means that developers’ profit margins and the long-term returns on

property investments are largely determined by the perceptions and actions of key

institutional investors (Bryson, 1997). Altering these perceptions is difficult as the developers

and investors must safeguard the interests of their shareholders as well as other key

stakeholders and are only able or willing to incorporate sustainable elements into the

development process as long as they do not impact on profit margins.

(ii) Institutional barriers

A key barrier to achieving sustainability that has been identified in many studies is the

requirement to integrate objectives and activities between and within institutions. The

majority of public and private sector institutions have been established to undertake a discrete

function rather than to support inter-linkages between functions (Moore, 1994; Mittler, 1999).

As a result, it is notoriously difficult to achieve inter-departmental, let alone inter-

organisational, cooperation in order to implement urban sustainability outcomes. Pinfield

noted that integrated decision-making ‘can challenge the status quo and run counter to the

power structures and cultures of many political institutions’ (Pinfield, 1996). A study of

implementation of sustainability policies in the City of Edinburgh identified that different

departments within the council had diverging agenda (Mittler, 1999). This problem has been

6

examined in terms of the capacity of institutions to cooperate and learn from one another (de

Magalhaes et al., 2004), and in terms of the governance of organizations that may facilitate or

hinder cross-institutional working in urban regeneration (Davies, 2004). Building upon

Rhodes’ work in the mid-nineties (1996), this debate has most recently focused upon the

importance of the state, and whether projects are best viewed as partnerships driven by local

government (Davies, 2002), or networks of actors operating relatively autonomously from the

state (Jones and Evans, forthcoming).

The cultures of organisations have also been found to operate as barriers to achieving

sustainable solutions. In a study of Hackney Borough Council, Jones (1996) found that an

entrenched ‘culture of blame’ within the organisation meant that officers were unwilling to set

targets for fear of retribution if they were not achieved. In local authority institutions political

support for change and innovation is crucial (Jones, 1996; Brugman, 1996). Further, as

Moore (1994) observed, the range of competing issues faced within organisations, and the

limitations of their jurisdiction, often serves to limit the extent to which innovation and

change can occur in order to allow more sustainable solutions and policies to emerge.

Public participation in processes that attempt to achieve sustainable urban development is

widely seen as crucial to the very achievement of sustainability itself. This is because

sustainability is by nature a set of value choices, and thus inherently political (see

Throgmorton, 2003; Beauregard, 2003; Rydin, 1995; Reid, 1995; Owens and Cowell, 2002;

Moffatt, 1995; and Sandercock, 2003). Some studies have noted that increasing alienation of

the public from political institutions and processes is serving as a major barrier to achieving

sustainability, because genuine public participation is increasingly difficult to engender when

there are weak linkages between governments and their constituents (Pinfield, 1996; Moore,

1994).

(iii) Economic barriers

These constitute some of the most tangible barriers to achieving sustainability, and range from

questions of structure through to the detail of funding arrangements and availability. The

growing disparity between rich and poor, in both global and local contexts, is highlighted as a

key barrier to achieving sustainability. Studies have shown that the relative wealth and

economic growth potential of a particular place can affect how sustainability is actually

7

defined (Counsell and Haughton, 2003). Other commentators also point to this factor

underpinning a greater concentration on economic growth at the expense of other aspects

(such as redistribution of wealth, or protection of the natural environment) (Pinfield, 1996;

Mittler, 1999). The health of the economy (whether national or local) is viewed by most

politicians as a fundamental policy issue, one that ultimately determines voting patterns

(Vigar, 2000). This further fuels an over-emphasis on economic development at the expense

of other aspects of sustainable development (Cooper and Palmer, 1999).

Significant financial barriers to implementing sustainability also arise, particularly in the way

arrangements for funding are made and the small amount of (usually public) funds available

to implement innovative solutions (Moore, 1994). Mittler (1999) found that groups seeking

to implement practical actions for sustainability were impeded because they would have to

compete against each other for scarce funds. Often, funding would be withdrawn too early, or

activities would have to cease because of funding insecurity. Smerdon et al. (1997) reported

that there were more than 66 barriers to the implementation of sustainable construction in the

UK. In the private sector especially, perceptions about the higher cost of sustainable

construction options often weighed against their decisions, such that more conventional

models are preferred. The bottom line often means that delivering enhanced sustainable

construction requires alterations to the mandatory regulatory mechanisms (planning and

building regulations) that are wrapped around the development process.

Birmingham’s Eastside: Planning for Sustainability

The three barriers must be understood as a simple conceptual framework for identifying

rigidities in the development process that undermine sustainability. These three barriers are

interrelated in complex ways and, in many cases, it is difficult to isolate perceptional barriers

from institutional and economic ones as all three barriers are combined in different ways

depending on the timing and nature of the development or regeneration project. Eastside

provides an unusual opportunity to explore these barriers in practice. Eastside is an urban area

of 170 hectares (420 acres) located immediately to the east of Birmingham’s city centre and

newly developed Bullring retail precinct (Figure 1). Until recently, this predominantly

industrial area had remained largely untouched by the regeneration initiatives undertaken in

Birmingham’s western quarters (ICC, Brindley Place and the redeveloped Jewellery Quarter)

8

since the 1980s (Bryson, 2003). Whilst heavy industry continues to dominate land use and

activity in the area, which has very few residents, Eastside bears the scars of de-

industrialisation and economic restructuring. The area includes the heritage precincts of

Digbeth and Deritend, and the canal system and River Rea are also prominent features of the

urban fabric (Figure 1).

Sustainability became part of the agenda for Eastside through the efforts of key Council

officers and the successful bid for Objective 2 funding from the European Regional

Development Fund (ERDF), which required clear environmental targets to be set. Key

9

planning frameworks governing redevelopment of the area attempt to centralise the principles

of sustainability (Porter and Hunt, 2005). The down-scaling of the ring road broke the

concrete collar that separated the city centre from Eastside, and the pedestrianisation of the

boundary between Eastside and the centre stimulated investment and developer interest in the

area.

Figure 2 is a simplified diagram of the relative power relationships between the organisations

involved in the regeneration of Eastside. Birmingham City Council (BCC) and Advantage

West Midlands (AWM) form the nucleus of the regeneration process each playing a different

role in the process. AWM is the regional development agency, whose primary interest lies in

the economic regeneration of Eastside and the wider region. BCC has a conflict of interests as

it is responsible for regulating the regeneration process through the planning system but also

is concerned with facilitating successful economic development and ensuring some societal

gains in the form of an improved public realm and new opportunities for learning and leisure.

Both AWM and BCC own land in the area. An important role of AWM in the redevelopment

process has been in the acquisition of land to the north of the area through compulsory

purchase which has been necessary to facilitate the area-based regeneration. Groundwork, a

charity concerned with sustainable environmental regeneration, is focusing on environmental

aspects of the project. Groundwork is collaborating with BCC through the secondment of two

sustainability advisors that act as conduits for information and as catalysts for environmental

(though also social and economic) gains. In this way sustainability is intended to be kept at

the heart of the decision-making process. The sustainable framework for Eastside is being

forged through an on-going process of interactions between these three actors supported by

the Eastside Sustainability Advisory Group (ESAG). ESAG sits on the periphery of the

process, the purpose of which is to advise the sustainability advisors and BCC on

sustainability issues. ESAG is composed of 17 representatives of NGOs, environmental

charities and interested public bodies (e.g. EA) who have a common interest in promoting

sustainability in Eastside and beyond. Numerous NGOs and community groups also play a

role in the regeneration process though in many cases a minimal one.

AWM and BCC have encouraged property developers to invest in Eastside by creating an

overall planning vision for the area that provides opportunities to enhance profit margins that

might accrue from property speculation in this area. The developers have been outside the

planning framework but have engaged with BCC, AWM and other relevant public bodies

10

(Environment Agency, British Waterways) in an attempt to unlock development

opportunities.

Figure 2: A simplified representation of the relative organisational power structure in

the Eastside urban regeneration scheme. The inner ring represents the policy making

community and the outer ring represents the other actors involved in the redevelopment

programme. The arrows indicate the magnitude of interaction between the different actors.

The diverse network of key players and stakeholders described above represents a typical

cross-section of actors involved in many urban regeneration schemes throughout the UK. The

complex relationships and interactions between the key players and their stakeholders are

subject to pressure from many of the barriers already identified. This study uses this

organisational framework to explore the importance of the different barriers and enablers that

act at different temporal and spatial scales in the redevelopment of a city quarter such as

Eastside.

BCC

AWM

Sustainability

Advisors

Eastside

Sustainability

Advisory

Group

NGOs

Community Groups

Developers

Private landowners

Investors

Public Bodies

(landowners)

11

Methodology

A range of qualitative methods were used to access the opinions of key stakeholders in the

Eastside project focusing on barriers to sustainability. Core data were provided by

questionnaires and complemented by data obtained from workshops, semi-structured

interviews (Brenner et al., 1985) and institutional ethnographic material (Cassel and Symon,

1994) collected through attendance at meetings, seminars and workshops between June 2003

and March 2005. The questionnaire, based on the work of Moore (1994), was used to rank

the importance of different barriers to sustainable regeneration encountered thus far in the

Eastside development. The exact wording, format and content of the questionnaire was

formulated reflexively at workshops attended by key individuals involved in the regeneration

process drawn from Birmingham City Council, Advantage West Midlands and Groundwork

(Birmingham). A follow-up workshop explored the complete range of barriers encountered by

a larger audience of urban regeneration professionals taken from the same organisations. This

workshop was used to inform and revise the content of the questionnaire before it was

distributed to respondents. A copy of the questionnaire was posted in January 2004 to more

than 100 individuals directly involved in the Eastside regeneration initiative. The

questionnaire was returned by 20 respondents from 14 organisations in the public, private and

NGO sectors (Table 1).

Respondents were asked to rank the significance of each barrier (with reference to the

Eastside development) with a value from 1 to 5, where 1 indicated not significant and 5

indicated highly significant. Cumulative scores are given in this paper (i.e. 20% indicates not

significant and 100% indicates highly significant). Respondents were also asked to identify

the three most important barriers and to suggest any other barriers not covered in the

questionnaire. A series of interviews were then arranged to follow up issues highlighted by

the respondents in more detail. All participants were given partial anonymity so that only their

organisation is identified.

12

Table 1: Organisations which responded to the questionnaire.

Sector Organisation Activities

Public Advantage West Midlands

Birmingham City Council

British Waterways

Regional Development Agency

Local Authority

Inland waterways management

Private ARUP

Drivers Jonas

MACE

Natural Building Technologies

Sustainability consultancy

Commercial property consultants

Construction and project management

Sustainable construction technologies

NGO Birmingham Association of

Neighbourhood Forums

Birmingham and Black Country

Wildlife Trust

Friends of the Earth

Groundwork (Birmingham)

Localise West Midlands

National Urban Forestry Unit

Optima

Promote devolved decision-making

Nature conservation

Environmental campaigners

Environmental regeneration

Promoting sustainable local economies

Promoting the benefits of trees

Registered social landlord

Attendance at workshops, seminars and meetings held between decision-making networks

and wider participatory groups was used to conduct informal interviews and gather

institutional ethnographical material. Through this process it was possible to gain access to a

wide range of organisations and people actively participating in Eastside’s decision-making

process. The data gathered in this way has been used to place the barriers identified by the

questionnaires into context.

Barriers to Achieving Sustainability in Eastside

The methodology used allows direct comparisons to be made between the importance of a

particular barrier within each barrier group, but also between barrier groups. Such an

approach is useful because it allows barriers to be ranked according to their perceived

importance (Table 2). There are problems with this type of analysis as some of the individual

barriers are more important than others. The most important barriers relate to an emphasis on

economic growth, short-term decision making by politicians, government fear of unpopularity

and an absence of regulations. The first three factors reflect short-termism that would be

difficult to overcome without fundamental alterations to the economic and political systems.

13

Table 2: The relative importance of the twenty most important barriers arranged by

barrier type.

Economic. Perceptual. Institutional. 1.Too much emphasis on economic growth. (83%)

2.Short-term decision-making. (82%)

3.Unwillingness to pay for sustainability. (81%)

3.Government fear of unpopularity. (81%)

3.Lack of sustainability regulations. (81%)

6.Insufficient funding for sustainability in projects. (79%)

6.Too many competing issues to deal with. (79%)

6.Difficult to change established behaviour. (79%)

9.Insufficient information on costs and savings. (78%)

9.Professional mindsets. (78%)

11.Short political terms favour short-term goals. (76%)

12.Lack of a ‘champion’. (73%)

13.Insufficient information. (72%)

14.Time taken for planning approval. (70%)

14.Inability to charge for natural assets. (70%)

14.Unequal council-community power balance. (70%)

14.Weak decision-maker diversity. (70%)

18.Slow inertia of built-environment. (69%)

18.Poor information sharing. (69%)

20.Funds allocated to other schemes. (67%)

These types of alterations would be impossible, yet gradual incremental alterations might

result in enhanced sustainability. It is worth noting that all three barrier groups have barriers

that could be addressed by policy interventions and all contain barriers that reflect

institutional, economic and political practices that would be difficult to overcome.

14

Perceptual Barriers

Table 3: Respondents rating of the importance of perceptual barriers to sustainable

development in Eastside

Perceptual Barriers Total

(%) Perceptual Barriers

Total

(%)

1. Politicians prefer short term policies,

more likely to win votes 82

10. Decision makers are afraid to take

risks due to mistakes made in the past 68

2. Government/council afraid to make

changes that might be unpopular 81

11. Differences in opinion between

people making it difficult to reach an

agreement

67

3. Dealing with several issues while

under pressure favours the easily

solvable issues rather than the most

important ones

79 12. Catering for the needs of the

minority rather than everyone 64

4. People are happy to support a

sustainability initiative until it requires

them to change their behaviour/practice

79

13. Uncertainty about how to

incorporate sustainability results in

following accepted practice or only

making small changes

62

5. Professional mindsets that follow

accepted wisdom 78

14. Sustainability as a concept is

difficult to understand 59

6. Lack of a 'champion' for

sustainability issues 73

15. Competing issues - when two or

more issues compete it is sometimes

difficult to decide which one is more

important

59

7. Not enough information to base

decisions on 72

16. Individual issues are difficult to

understand 56

8. Things take a long time to change

within the built environment which

may frustrate short-term goals

69

17. Why be concerned about

sustainability in Eastside and not the

rest of the city

49

9. The belief that changes for the good

made by an individual will have little

effect so why bother

68

The responses indicate that the most significant barriers to achieving sustainability are

structural systems of governance, in that decision-making is perceived to be limited by short-

termist political strategies (1). There is a belief amongst respondents that politicians tend to

15

opt for policies that will provide results within their term of office, which can be a barrier to

achieving longer-term goals. For example,

“Many developers have no intention of being the managers of sites…they [planners]

should make a preferred choice for those developers who have a longer term interest in

the site” (New Economic Foundation, 2/9/04).

This is linked with a perception of risk-averse behaviour in decision-making generally,

whereby professionals are limited to certain kinds of mindsets and accepted wisdom (5) and

unwilling or unable to take new, possibly riskier steps (10). It also reflects the complexity of

the development process with some developers being concerned with short-term development

profits while others are interested in development as part of a longer term investment strategy.

A regeneration scheme the size of Eastside will have within it a range of developers and

investors each with slightly different motivations for working in the area.

Respondents perceived that the nature of decision-making within urban regeneration schemes

such as Eastside hampered the achievement of sustainability. Pressures associated with

dealing with several competing and complex issues at once tends to favour the most easily

solvable problems first (3), and the level of uncertainty around sustainability (13) and its

perceived competing issues often work in the same way (15). This is partially linked to a

perceived lack of leadership on sustainable urban development (6), confirming the findings of

Birmingham City Council’s Peer Review European Sustainable Urban Development

(PRESUD) study (BCC, 2003). As a result, decision-makers are perceived to be generally

averse to the less familiar decision-making processes and outcomes required to achieve

sustainability.

The study showed that people are generally in favour of sustainable initiatives, seeing them as

intrinsically good. However, this support usually evaporates when it requires a change in their

behaviour (4). This applies to both individuals, who might, for example, prefer the luxury and

solitude of using their car rather than using public transport, and corporations who might use

organisational constraints as an argument against changing their procedures. Related to this is

the belief that there is little point in changing one’s behaviour if nobody else is prepared to

change theirs (9) and that the amount of difference that one person can make is not considered

to be significant so there is little point in changing one’s behaviour.

16

Institutional Barriers

Table 4: Respondents rating of the importance of institutional barriers to sustainable

development in Eastside

Institutional Barriers Total

(%) Institutional Barriers

Total

(%)

1. Regulations which do not insist on a

higher standard of sustainability 81

5. Lack of information (or knowledge

or skills) sharing between different

agencies

69

2. Short political term favours short-

term initiatives rather than long-term

goals

76 6. Lack of clear government policy 63

3. Unequal balance of power and

resources between local government

and community organisations

70

7. The departments (e.g.

local/national government)employed

to implement change aren't the most

suitable

59

4. Decision-makers tend to have the

same background therefore tend to

make the same judgements and

decisions

70

The absence of regulations which insist on a higher standard of sustainability was considered

by respondents to be a major institutional barrier to the sustainable development of Eastside

(1). This is apparent from recently completed buildings (e.g. Bullring, Millennium Point) and

those due to start (e.g. Masshouse). As a representative of Crest Nicholson, one of the main

developers involved with Eastside, stated, “We need to be forced to do sustainability”

(26/10/04). By contrast, BCC’s developer selection process for City Park Gate was based on

a 50% weighting for design and sustainability. Whilst it is too early to tell whether this will

have a major impact on the final building, at the early planning stage, there was some

evidence of progress in the planned implementation of sustainability principles (Porter and

Hunt, 2005). BCC as land owner has been able to force developers to incorporate sustainable

design and technology into the design of City Park Gates. This reflects the Sustainable

Buildings Task Group belief that

‘Higher standards of building design, output and process to improve sustainability

of performance will not come through repeated application of traditional

17

techniques and thinking. They call for an innovative approach from all concerned,

and the sensible commissioning and application of research work throughout the

industry’ (DTI, 2004: 13).

Respondents considered that there should be better regulations for all aspects of sustainability,

not just buildings. A sustainability checklist for developers has been produced by the Building

Research Establishment’s (BRE) Centre for Sustainable Construction (BRE, 2002) which is

designed to help developers and local authorities assess the environmental, social and

economic issues associated with a development with a view to achieving either good or best

practice. Such toolkits can be an excellent means of overcoming some of the barriers to

sustainable development and provide decision-makers with a practical framework for

achieving success. While not perfect, the checklist is described by the authors as ‘a significant

first step’ in helping decision-makers assess the three pillars of sustainability in proposed

developments. Though such toolkits exist, national government regulations do not insist on

their use although local government could adopt them as Supplementary Planning Guidance,

though this is not the case in Eastside.

The relationships between the different agencies operating in Eastside were seen as being

important for a number of reasons. A common perception held by respondents was that an

unequal balance of power and resources existed between the local government and

community organisations in Eastside with the balance of power and resources being in favour

of local government (3). As one consultant stated, “the City Council does its consultation

through consultants rather than directly [with the public] which results in the opinions, wants

and needs of the public being filtered out” (ARUP, 15/2/05). Returning to issues of

governance, these views seem to support Davies’ (2002) view of regeneration as a set of

partnerships with a strong local government, rather than Rhodes’ (1996) ideal of networks in

which the local government is merely another actor in the process.

The movement of information around the networks was perceived to be a barrier with some

agencies refusing to share or only limiting the knowledge they share with others (5).

Furthermore it was considered that, in some cases, these agencies were not the most suitable

for implementing the change that they were employed to do (7). Respondents also perceived

that the relative homogeneity of decision-makers in terms of their background and outlook

18

could prove a barrier to sustainability (4), as accepted wisdom and standard methods provided

easy fallback positions within institutional structures.

One example that was highlighted was the lack of imagination in achieving mixed-use

developments, particularly in terms of residential construction,

“There are lots of small flats being built in the city centre instead of other house types.

The indicator used by the government to prescribe housing needs is density which is

greater for the city centre than the suburbs. This is the wrong way round, there should

be larger houses in the city centre (and therefore a lower density) to ensure mixed

housing” (New Economics Foundation, 7/10/04).

The danger from a sustainability point of view is that rather than creating communities that

are viable in the long-term, such design principles create homogeneity of tenure, as “these

small flats are likely to be corporate-buy-to-lets and second homes” (ibid). The problem of

decision-makers reverting to established methods of working and design underpins a number

of structural issues, but also resonates with issues raised in the previous section concerning

the importance of pre-established perceptions in interpreting sustainability. This point is

returned to in the next section.

19

Economic Barriers

Table 5: Respondents rating of the importance of economic barriers to sustainable

development in Eastside

Economic Barrier Total

(%) Economic Barrier

Total

(%)

1. Economic growth is often seen as

being more important than social or

environmental issues

83

5. The planning system takes a long

time to approve an application which

inhibits the inclusion of innovative

features

70

2. People or companies are unwilling

to pay for the luxury of sustainability 81

6. The inability of any institution to

control and charge for the use (or

abuse) of a natural asset

70

3. Not enough money to fund

sustainability initiatives at all, or only

in the short-term

79

7. Existing regeneration funds are

already allocated to other initiatives

preventing new schemes happening

67

4. Many people don't know how

much it costs to build a sustainable

building and how much money it will

save them

78

8. The benefits of sustainable

development may be city-wide,

while the costs are paid by a few

people

59

The most important economic barrier to sustainable development was a belief that decision-

makers perceived economic development as being more important than social or

environmental issues (1). This was the most significant barrier found during this study and

supports the findings of Mittler (1999) and Vigar (2000). Closely related to this was the fact

that people (i.e. the taxpayer) or companies involved in development were not prepared to pay

for sustainable features viewing them as luxuries rather than necessities (2). For example,

“Speculative builders still don’t see the benefit of building in sustainability” (New Economics

Foundation, 15/2/05). The bottom line considerations that drive private companies lead to an

inevitable preference for designs that maximise profit margins on invested capital. As a

representative from Groundwork claimed, “developers would rather have separate entrances

for private housing and pay for social housing elsewhere” (Groundwork, 7/10/04).

The lack of funding to support sustainability initiatives at all, or only in the short-term (3),

was also seen as a major barrier to sustainable development. This is particularly true for the

proposed Eastside Library development, where lack of funding currently jeopardises a

20

sustainable exemplar project. Discussions with one senior Birmingham City Council officer

revealed that while it was relatively easy to get capital for a project, securing revenue to

sustain that project was more difficult (BCC, December 2003). While it is important to have

funding available to pump-prime sustainable development projects, it is also vitally important

that funding is available to perpetuate those projects and this funding should come from the

public sector (as it can be directed to the right areas) rather than leaving it for the private

sector to take the initiative.

Respondents considered that inadequate information was available in relation to the cost of

building a ‘sustainable building’, and how much money is likely to be saved during the

lifetime of that building through reduced energy and water usage (4), reiterating the findings

of the European Green Building Forum (EGBF, 2004). This represents a major disincentive

for developers who construct buildings to sell on to long-term institutional investors. As a

representative of the New Economics Foundation remarked: “Investors are unlikely to want to

buy a ‘novel’ building to generate a rental income if they are unsure of the running costs (i.e.

specialist maintenance needs) when contracting out management duties or, more rarely,

managing these themselves” (New Economics Foundation, September 2004). Given this “it is

important that we get a fiscal value for the different elements of sustainability that will stand

up in court” (representative of AWM, 25/8/04).

The shortage of planning officers experienced in sustainable design acts as a barrier to the

approval of buildings that have been designed with unfamiliar elements that support

sustainability. Planning approval is likely to take longer for buildings that incorporate novel

technologies (5) especially if building control officers are inexperienced in such technologies.

Planning delays increase the overall cost of a development project as the developer must

support the interest on borrowed capital as well as the opportunity costs. Delays encourage

developers to avoid risk by submitting conventional designs. In this way, the planning system

can be considered to be a significant barrier to sustainable housing (Wheeler, 2003), building

and development.

The inability of any institution to control and charge for the use (or abuse) of a natural asset

was considered to be important as a barrier to the sustainable development of Eastside (6). As

there is no institution that monitors (or charges for) the release of pollutants, such as CO2, to

the atmosphere, there is no incentive to reduce those emissions. As one respondent

commented: “if energy prices were higher people would insist on more energy-efficient

21

buildings which, in turn, would result in reduced CO2 emissions and would enable CO2

emission reduction targets to be more easily met,” (representative of ARUP, March 2004).

While energy prices remain low then there is no incentive to change the way buildings are

designed. Whilst it is possible to buy electricity produced from a renewable source through

the national grid it is more expensive than that produced from other methods. With the

relatively high costs of renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, this type of

behaviour is likely to continue unless higher standards are enforced in Eastside or until

current energy supplies can no longer meet demand (Rogers and Hunt, forthcoming).

Half of the respondents considered that the allocation of existing regeneration funds to other

initiatives (7) was either very or highly significant as a barrier to new sustainability initiatives.

Clearly, this barrier is linked to points (2) and (3) in Table 4. In the wider context, Eastside is

a small part of the East Birmingham and North Solihull regeneration zone, one of six

regeneration zones in the area. A significant proportion of regeneration funding for these

areas comes from the European Regional Development Fund Objective 2 programme, which

has sustainability outputs attached to it. These outputs include: the remediation of brownfield

sites; promotion of energy and water efficient designs; measures to promote local sourcing

and recruitment; and waste reduction and recycling schemes (Ecotec, no date). The outputs

are mostly environmental and therefore do not cover the provision of affordable housing and

the involvement of the community in the decision making process, issues which are

particularly relevant to a ‘sustainable’ Eastside.

Barriers Revisited

The typology of perceptual, institutional and economic barriers seems to fit the range of

challenges to sustainability identified by urban development practitioners. Like many other

studies that focus on the range of factors preventing sustainable development, this study

indicates that the fundamental requirement for economic growth continues to drive key urban

regeneration decisions, even when sustainability is generally upheld as a laudable principle

within that process. In Eastside, as in other areas, the push to restructure an old industrial

urban economy, thereby creating jobs and improving investment in the physical fabric of the

city, tends to constitute a barrier to other public policy agendas. Economic imperatives

exacerbate the institutional and perceptual barriers to sustainability, as actors fall back into

established ways of working and designing rather than trying to engage with the plethora of

22

possibilities that sustainable development offers. For example, where sustainability does play

a role in Eastside it is in a rather limited application of technologies to the built form to

enhance the environmental performance of individual buildings. On this understanding, truly

sustainable urban development, according to the definitions provided by Brundtland (WCED,

1987) and the UK Government (ODPM, 2005) outlined earlier in the paper, will never be

achieved.

A key theme that emerges across the barriers is the tendency for actors to adopt tried and

tested patterns of behaviour in the face of uncertainties surrounding how to interpret

sustainability. This risk-averse behaviour is highlighted by the barriers approach, which

suggests that there is an ultimate end-point of sustainability that it is possible to reach. This is

not the best approach with which to facilitate the integration of regeneration and sustainability

agendas, especially in Eastside, which aims to be a European model of best practice as it pre-

figures failure by assuming some ideal end-point for sustainability. This tendency to judge

projects a failure particularly afflicts environmental commentators because there is an inbuilt

disciplinary emphasis upon environmental considerations (Couch and Denneman, 2000;

Hanson and Lake, 2000), which are so often the least influential aspect of sustainability tools

in practice.

Given this analytic bias in the barriers typology, it is necessary to disengage from the

language of ‘barriers’ that permeates research in this area, and re-frame them as opportunities.

In this context it is worth noting that sustainability is an active on-going process. The

completion of the Eastside regeneration project is only the end of the beginning of this area’s

sustainability agenda. This means that the buildings and open spaces need to be actively

managed to ensure that they maximise the benefits that will come from developments in

sustainable technologies as well as management practices. By focusing upon the potential

opportunities that the challenges of sustainable development offer, the debate shifts from

descriptive barriers (and the language of failure) to more prescriptive enablers and the

‘actually existing sustainabilities’ that link it to ‘actual practices rather than… guiding

principles’ (Krueger and Agyeman, in press, p.1). Indeed, this approach is more in keeping

with the tenets of sustainable development itself, which does not aim to offer a ‘one size fits

all’ model, but rather, emphasises the need to interpret its principles in relation to local needs

and contexts. This approach is developed in Donovan et al. (forthcoming) by exploring how

23

opportunites to enhance sustainability can be applied in practice in an urban regeneration

scheme such as Eastside (Donovan et al., forthcoming).

Conclusions

This paper used a range of questionnaire and interview data to explore the typology of

barriers through a real-time urban regeneration programme in the UK. The typology of

perceptual, institutional and economic barriers reflected the range of challenges to

sustainability identified by urban development practitioners. Like many other studies that

focus on the range of factors preventing sustainable development, this study indicates that the

fundamental requirement for economic growth continues to drive key urban regeneration

decisions, even when sustainability is generally upheld as a laudable principle within that

process. The economic imperative exacerbates the institutional and perceptual barriers to

sustainability, as actors fall back into established ways of working and designing rather than

trying to engage with the plethora of possibilities that sustainable development offers. On this

understanding, sustainable urban development, according to the definitions provided by

Brundtland and the UK Government outlined earlier in the paper, will never be achieved.

However, we argue that the typology of barriers may not be the most suitable tool with which

to approach sustainable urban regeneration, especially in Eastside, which aims to be a

European model of best practice, because they pre-figure failure by assuming that some

‘ideal’ end-point for sustainability exists. By focusing upon the potential opportunities that

the challenges of sustainable development offer, we argue that it is necessary to shift the

debate from descriptive barriers (and the language of failure) to more prescriptive enablers

capable of capturing innovative best practice. The next paper (Donovan et al., forthcoming)

develops this approach.

24

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