Building Competitiveness and Cohesion: The Role of New Housebuilding in Central Scotland's Cities

Abstract

This paper begins by mapping out the ways in which new private housebuilding may impinge on two of the key themes of contemporary urban policy, economic competitiveness and social cohesion. It then examines aspects of this relationship in more depth, drawing on evidence from Central Scotland. First, it considers the pattern of new housing provision in two adjacent city regions. Second, it examines buyers' choice of new housing per se and between higher density, urban locations versus lower density suburban locations for new housing. Third, it looks at the role of new building in promoting social cohesion/integration. A mixture of sources of evidence are drawn on, particularly surveys of residents of selected new housing schemes and existing neighbourhoods in Central Scotland, but also linked analyses of planning and market data. The conclusions draw attention to the significant role of new housebuilding in supporting city competitiveness and regeneration, at the same time as its rather uneven contribution to sustainability and balanced communities becomes apparent. This leads to some positive pointers for policy while recognising the inherent conflicts between different dimensions of social cohesion.