Sustainable Communities

The Government launched its Sustainable Communities programme in 2003 - see DCLG

This is intended to

• Address the problems of housing supply in the South East, primarily through the designation of four 'growth areas' (Thames Gateway, Milton Keynes/South Midlands, London/Stansted/Cambridge and Ashford)
• Address the problems of low demand and abandonment in housing markets in midland and northern areas through nine Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders
• Stimulate economic regeneration across northern England through the Northern Way strategy

English Heritage has already completed a variety of projects designed to support and help all those involved in the Sustainable Communities programme. In particular

• Our Historic Landscape Characterisation project helps planners and developers understand the significance of the local historic environment by drawing together several sources of data and information, so enabling better and more sustainable decisions about future development. Further details can be found in the Characterisation and Sustainable Communities section
• We have produced documents on Regeneration, Low Demand Housing and Local Strategic Partnerships to help local authorities and other bodies understand how the historic environment fits into the Sustainable Communities agenda and how English Heritage can help
• Given the strategic importance of the Thames Gateway, we have produced A Welcome Home (2004) and Growing Places (2005). These documents outline the role that the historic environment has played in shaping the Thames Gateway region as we know it today, and how it can help to enhance the development of existing communities and add value to the creation of new ones over the next few years. 

English Heritage is working to help create these sustainable communities in a variety of ways, all of which are covered in our Sustainable Communities 2005 Overview. For further details or if you have any further queries, please email the policy team.