Brownfield Reuse Policies and the Urban Renaissance – Exploring the patterns of change

A decade after the Urban Task Force published its report Towards an Urban Renaissance and the then Labour government set out its policy strategy in the Urban White Paper, this paper explores the patterns of change, specifically focussing on the consequence of the strategic reuse of brownfield land in England. One of the main objectives of this policy was to curb and contain long-established processes of counter-urbanisation and urban sprawl, while driving demand back into urban areas. The paper starts by describing the situation and processes of change up to this shift in policy and then continues to explore the consequences of these changes both for inner urban areas and wider city regions. The paper intends to use both statistics such as small area population estimates, as well as individual case studies to illustrate the quantitative and qualitative dimension of these changes. Finally the paper explores the potential impact of the recent change in government on the future of the urban renaissance project.