Smart Growth UK is a coalition dedicated to promoting the "Smart Growth" philosophy in the United Kingdom. This approach to planning and development is a response to the challenges of urban sprawl, car dependency, and the erosion of countryside in a country with a high population density. It is based on a sustainable, holistic approach that blends traditional planning principles with modern environmental and social goals.
The Smart Growth Philosophy
The philosophy views planning, transport, and community development as interconnected challenges that must be addressed together. It contrasts with the low-density, car-dependent development that has been prevalent in the UK for decades. Its core principles are as follows:
- Urbanism and Compact Communities: Smart Growth advocates for a return to building compact, medium-density towns and villages. It favors traditional urban forms like terraced housing and mansion blocks, which use land efficiently and create a sense of place. This approach emphasizes permeability, making it easy for people to walk or cycle, and designs communities where essential services like shops, work, and healthcare are easily accessible without a car.
- Sustainable Transport: The coalition believes the UK's current transport system is overly reliant on high-carbon modes like cars and trucks. To address this, they propose a significant shift toward active travel (walking and cycling) and public transport. They specifically advocate for a "rail renaissance," which would include the electrification and capacity expansion of railways, as well as new public transport systems such as light and heavy rail.
- Transit-Oriented Development (TOD): A key element of the Smart Growth philosophy is placing new residential, employment, and retail developments around rail-based transport hubs. This strategy ensures that people have convenient access to public transport, reducing their reliance on personal vehicles.
- Anti-Sprawl: Smart Growth UK strongly opposes urban sprawl, which they argue is a wasteful use of land that destroys the countryside and its "ecosystem services," such as food production, flood control, and biodiversity. The organization believes that new housing should be concentrated in urban areas, at appropriate densities, to meet genuine housing needs—especially for genuinely affordable homes—rather than simply profiting from low-density, car-dependent developments.
Critique of "New Towns"
Smart Growth UK's publications, such as the article "New towns – a big threat to the countryside," argue that the UK's new towns are not a viable solution to the housing crisis. The organization critiques them on several grounds:
- Slow to Build: They argue that these large-scale projects are the slowest way to create new homes and will not deliver a significant number of units in the short term.
- Encouraging Sprawl: The coalition believes that new towns will not reduce the demand for other greenfield developments. Instead, they will simply add to the existing sprawl.
- Destruction of Farmland: Since most large urban brownfield sites have already been developed, the new towns are likely to be built on productive agricultural land, posing a serious threat to the countryside, especially in southern England.
The organization's efforts are aimed at influencing UK policy through committees to shift away from what it views as an unsustainable developmental mentality and to adopt a more balanced, community-focused approach to growth.
