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Britain invented the modern industrial city in the nineteenth century. But by the late 20th century most British cities had become basket cases. Today London overshadows the rest of the country, as the UK's only 'world city'. No other large country is anything like as economically and politically centralized. This concentration of power damages Britain's economy and fuels the sense of discontent felt by the millions of people for whom the capital seems like another planet. Yet it is cities that are fuelling economic growth around the world. Mike Emmerich looks at the DNA of cities and how it expresses itself in their institutions, governance, public services, religion and culture. He argues that the UK needs a devolutionary ratchet, allowing major cities the freedom to seek devolution of any area of public spending that is not inherently national in nature (such as defence). Cities should have powers to raise some of their own taxes including business, property and sales based taxes and to increase them. He calls for sustained investment in transport and infrastructure, and also training. An innovation-centric industrial policy would also have an emphasis on the social fabric of cities and - crucially - their institutions.
Why did Britain's cities, once the engines of the industrial revolution, decline so severely? What needs to be done if our cities are once again to be the drivers of our economy? This book answers these questions, looking at the lessons of the last two hundred years. .
In this paper the Government announces an increase in capital spending plans by £3 billion a year, from 2015, which means an additional £18 billion of investment over the next parliament. The Government is taking a long-term approach to infrastructure, to overcome decades of short-term decision making and uncertainty in funding, financing and failures in delivery. Plans include over £70 billion of investment in transport, over £20 billion in schools and £10 billion in science, housing and flood defences. Specific commitments include funding for HS2, the biggest programme of investment in roads since the 1970s, and superfast broadband provision will be expanded so 95 per cent of UK premises will have access to superfast broadband by 2017.Action is being taken to provide the support needed to enable up to £100 billion of private sector energy investment, including through the further roll-out and extension of the UK guarantees scheme. Lessons on successful project delivery will be learnt from the Olympics and similar examples.
Uneven distribution of life is a dominant feature of the city. Major social, economic and spatial divisions are apparent in terms of income and wealth, health, crime, housing, and employment. This text offers an introduction to current processes of urban restructuring, geographies of division and contemporary conditions within the city. The geography of Britain's cities is the outcome of interaction between a host of public and private economic, social and political forces operating at a variety of spatial scales from the global to the local. A deeper understanding of the nature of urban division and of the problems of and prospects for local people and places in urban Britain must be grounded in an appreciation of the structural forces, processes and contextual factors which condition local urban geographies. This book combines structural and local level perspectives to illuminate the complex geography of socio-spatial division within urban Britain. It combines conceptual and empirical analyses from researchers in the field.
Throughout the twentieth century architectural models served as the miniature playgrounds in which the future of Britain’s built environment was imagined, and in drawing from the evidence provided by those models today, this book considers how architects, planners, and civil engineers thought about that future by presenting a history of yesterday’s dreams of tomorrow, told through architectural models. Focused not on the making of architectural models but rather the optimistic and utopian visions they were made to communicate, this book examines the possible futures put forward by 120 models made by Thorp, the oldest and most prolific firm of architectural modelmakers in Britain, in order to reveal a century of evolving ideas about how we might live, work, relax, and move. From depictions of unbuilt city masterplans to those of seemingly ordinary shopping centres and motorways, the models featured trace a progression of the architectural, social, political, technological, and economic influences that shaped the design of Britain’s buildings, transport infrastructure, and its towns and cities during a century of relentless change. Illustrated with over 130 photographs, this book will appeal to academics and historians, as well as anyone with an interest in architectural models and the history of Britain’s twentieth century built environment.
Many British cities were devastated by bombing during the Second World War and faced stark economic dilemmas concerning reconstruction planning and implementation after 1945. How did politicians, civil servants and local authorities manage to produce the cities we live in today? Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities examines the underlying processes and pressures, especially financial and bureaucratic, which shaped postwar urbanism in Britain. Catherine Flinn integrates architectural planning with in-depth economic and political analyses of Britain's blitzed cities for the first time. She examines early reconstruction arrangements, the postwar economic apparatus and the challenges of postwar physical planning across the country, while providing insightful case studies from the cities of Hull, Exeter and Liverpool. By addressing the ideology versus the reality of reconstruction in postwar Britain, Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities highlights the importance of economic and political factors for understanding the British postwar built environment.
The New Towns Programme of 1946 to 1970 represents one of the most substantial periods of urban development in Britain. This book covers the story of how these towns came to be built, how they aged, and the challenges and opportunities they now face as they begin phases of renewal. The New Towns provide lessons for social, economic and environmental sustainability which are of great relevance for the regeneration of twentieth century urbanism and the creation of new urban developments today.
Automobility and the City in Twentieth-Century Britain and Japan is the first book to consider how mass motorization reshaped cities in Japan and Britain during the 20th century. Taking two leading 'motor cities', Nagoya and Birmingham, as their principal subjects, Simon Gunn and Susan C. Townsend show how cars changed the spatial form and individual experience of the modern city and reveal the similarities and differences between Japan and Britain in adapting to the 'motor age'. The book has three main themes: the place of automobility in post-war urban reconstruction; the emerging conflict between the promise of mobility and personal freedom offered by the car and its consequences for the urban environment (the M/E dilemma); and the extent to which the Anglo-Japanese comparison can throw light on fundamental differences in cultural understanding of the environment, urbanism and the self. The result is the first comparative history of mass automobility and its environmental consequences between East and West.
This superb study explores the imaginative transformation of the city by African, Asian, Caribbean and South Pacific writers since the 1950s.
Since the early 1990s there has been a global trend towards governmental devolution. However, in Australia, alongside deregulation, public–private partnerships and privatisation, there has been increasing centralisation rather than decentralisation of urban governance. Australian state governments are responsible for the planning, management and much of the funding of the cities, but the Commonwealth government has on occasion asserted much the same role. Disjointed policy and funding priorities between levels of government have compromised metropolitan economies, fairness and the environment. Australia’s Metropolitan Imperative: An Agenda for Governance Reform makes the case that metropolitan governments would promote the economic competitiveness of Australia’s cities and enable more effective and democratic planning and management. The contributors explore the global metropolitan ‘renaissance’, document the history of metropolitan debate in Australia and demonstrate metropolitan governance failures. They then discuss the merits of establishing metropolitan governments, including economic, fiscal, transport, land use, housing and environmental benefits. The book will be a useful resource for those engaged in strategic, transport and land use planning, and a core reference for students and academics of urban governance and government.