Traffic removal and land value capture

As Birmingham, Brighton, Edinburgh, York and other UK cities act on the opportunity to create new traffic-free city centres, Hamish Stewart, co-founder of London Car Free Day, argues that the value of the land released should be captured for social good.

We are living in an urban age. By 2030 over 60% of the global population will live in cities. The trend towards intensive urbanisation across all continents has major implications for humanity, and for climate change.

How we manage our growing cities will determine our future prosperity and wellbeing as a species. Here in the UK, cities like London, Manchester, and Birmingham and their peers have a unique opportunity to lead the world towards a more sustainable future of traffic-free city centres and climate resilient infrastructure. The role of urban form in determining public health outcomes is clearest in London and other UK cities which are failing to improve the worst air quality in Western Europe. Globally, the WHO estimates attributes 4.2 million deaths every year to exposure to outdoor air pollution.

Emissions from the transport sector are also a major driver of climate change, accounting for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 3 By leading the transition to traffic-free city centres, UK cities can demonstrate how more efficient land use can drive more equitable and prosperous urbanisation at the global scale.

Around the world, cities are economic engines of growth and prosperity, but more efficient, equitable land use is required for cities to live up to their potential as centres of human flourishing. That is why it is so important to see Edinburgh, York, Birmingham and other leading UK cities consider a future of traffic-free city centres. The future health of the planet depends on it.

By 2030, the world is likely to add new urban areas the size of Mongolia, or six times the area of the UK, over 1.5 million square kilometres. Much of this expanded area will cover prime agricultural land. According to Yale University “the conversion of earth’s land surface to urban uses is one of the most irreversible human impacts on the global biosphere.” Between 30%‐60% of this total area will be concreteroads and parking. As a result of this inefficient approach to land use and a preference for great stretches of empty concrete in cities, urban expansion is one of the primary drivers of habitat loss, species extinction, and the destruction of prime agricultural land. The destructive approach to urban form and land use that has defined twentieth century urban life is based on the design of cities for the internal combustion engine vehicle rather than for people. This is finally starting to change.

Traffic-free city centres and the future of net zero urban landscapes

Car Free Day in London

© Mickey Lee

The way we choose to design and build our cities is fundamental to the transition to net zero emissions and more equitable cities with world-class, climate resilient infrastructure. This transition requires a massive investment in new public transport infrastructure and housing. Overcoming vested interests in the fossil fuel status quo will require phenomenal political leadership. At the same time, acceleration of the transition to traffic-free city centres and zero emissions transport systems represents a great opportunity to drive economic growth and improve environmental health outcomes for all citizens.

The land use transition opportunity – a simple approach to boosting public finance

In today’s cities, dominated by private cars, road surfaces and parking take up an average of 30% of urban land. In North American cities and UK cities following an American urban design matrix, roads and car parks can account for up to 60% of the total urban land surface. Thankfully, most UK cities are compact, many with medieval town centres that are ideally suited to traffic-free land use patterns. The greatest opportunity of all in going traffic-free is the land that is freed up for alternative uses as new public parks, public realm, affordable housing and commercial space.

At the same time as urban land is wasted as empty parking and road space; the UK lags its G7 peers in infrastructure investment. This shortfall is felt most acutely in cities. Yet political capture of tax policy means that national council tax rates are highly regressive and based on 1991 land values, depriving cities or a core source of investment finance. A dysfunctional and highly regressive property tax system will never finance the infrastructure that UK cities so desperately require. In response to the twin challenges of climate action and infrastructure finance, the mayors of London and other UK cities seek advice from investment bankers on how to raise money with new structured finance vehicles.

The answer to boosting municipal finance for investment in climate adaptation and infrastructure, however, could be much simpler than further financialisation. A new land value taxation system, applied to vacant property across the UK, and to newly productive land converted from car parks and roads to residential and commercial use, could be transformative for public finance. This could be started with a focus on road user charging and the conversion of on-street parking and car parks in all UK city centres to more productive uses. By ensuring that local authorities participate in the value uplift of land conversion and rezoning in a systematic way, public finances will be better positioned to support long-term growth.

Housing as a case study on the land use conversion opportunity

Car Free Day in London

© Mickey Lee

One of the clearest opportunities for a land use transition is from parking to new housing. Across the ten largest UK cities, over 100,000 homes could be built on land currently devoted to parking. Much of this land is currently owned by local authorities, who would benefit from rezoning and the associated land value uplift. In spite of the clear opportunity for London to convert some of the 6.8 million parking spaces across the city to higher value uses, political inertia is strong. So cities like York and Birmingham could lead the way for London to follow, starting with a systematic transition from parking to housing.

London’s opportunity to lead the way

London is one of the world’s densest, most dynamic global cities, yet roads still make up 80% of the public space. On-street parking alone takes up an area larger than the Borough of Southwark, consuming around 8000 hectares of land. So far, Amsterdam is leading the way, with plans to transition over 10,000 parking spaces to alternative uses. Edinburgh, Birmingham, Brighton, York and Oslo are all moving ahead with plans to pedestrianise their respective city centres. With a little ambition, the 2020s could be the decade that UK cities lead a global transition to traffic-free city centres, the application of land value taxation and a new climate resilient, equitable model for urban growth.

By Hamish Stewart