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City centres should stay ‘young, free and single’

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11 January 2006

British city centre residents are predominantly young, single people, and most city centres cannot be made ‘family friendly’ places to live, according to new research published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Centre for Cities. The research examines the growth of city centre living outside London.

The report says planners and developers should turn their attention to the ‘doughnuts of deprivation’ in nearby inner suburbs. These areas are the priorities for regeneration, and can better accommodate the schools, healthcare, parks and shops that people want when they start families.

The report shows that city centre living grew significantly over the past 15 years. In total, around 30,000 people now live in the centres of Manchester and Liverpool. City centre housing markets have seen huge growth and remain a good long term bet, but a slowdown looks likely in the short term.

People living in the centre of cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Dundee are twice as likely to be single as the average Briton. Around two thirds are aged 18 to 34, compared with a quarter nationally. Half the people of working age living in Liverpool’s city centre are students. More than one third of working residents in Manchester and Liverpool city centres walk to work, compared to a national average around one in 10.

There is a ‘conveyor belt effect’ in city centres, with most people staying only a few years. A third of residents move in or out each year, around three times higher than the national average.

ippr focus groups show that shops, bars, cafes, being able to walk to work and the city centre ‘buzz’ are the main attractions. Retail, leisure and nightlife were far more important than art galleries and concert halls.

Max Nathan, Centre for Cities Senior Researcher and report author, said:

“Young, single people have led the return to the city. Britain’s distinctive, young-adult driven model of city centre living has enduring appeal – for the time being. But families and older people prefer neighbourhoods with houses, parks, schools and healthcare. This is a great opportunity for planners and developers to improve deprived areas near the centre, rather than passing on the cost of family infrastructure in city cores.”

Tom Bloxham MBE, Chairman of Urban Splash said:

“The city centre living phenomenon has been with us over 15 years now. But as city centres have recovered, many areas nearby have stayed the same. Regenerating these inner ring neighbourhoods is the big priority for the decade ahead.”

Download City People: City Centre Living in the UK, by Max Nathan and Chris Urwin

The report will be launched in Liverpool today (Wednesday) with Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council and Tom Bloxham, Chairman of property development firm Urban Splash.

Notes to Editors:

The report identifies three typical city centre dwellers:

1) Young professionals who are well qualified and career focused, earning a good salary and renting rather than owning their flats. They spend most free time dining and drinking out and have a preference for convenience shopping

2) Students and people living student-type lifestyles who have low incomes but are happy to spend and borrow

3) Low qualified young adults, single-mothers and single pensioners who have low incomes and who work in the service sector or depend on benefits.

The report tracks a long post-war decline of city centre populations and then a resurgence over the last 10 years:

Manchester’s city centre population fell by 73 per cent between 1961 and 1991 but grew by nearly 300 per cent in Manchester between 1991 and 2001, from 3,500 to a total of 10,000 people
Liverpool city centre wards lost around half their population between 1971 and 1991, but Liverpool’s city centre population grew around 40 per cent between 1991 and 2001, from 10,000 to a total of 13,500 people
Dundee’s city centre population grew nearly 100 per cent between 1991 and 2001, from 1,500 to a total of 2,900 people.

The growth of higher education during the 1990s brought thousands of students into British city centres. Total student numbers rose over 30 per cent between 1995/6-2003/4 but over 60 % in Manchester and Dundee.

A first wave of office, loft and warehouse conversions has expanded to include large numbers of new-build studio and one or two-bed flats, aimed at the buy-to-let market. Nationally, 20 per cent of Britons live in flats or apartments but 62 per cent do in Liverpool city centre and 78 per cent in Manchester city centre. In Dundee city centre, a massive 95 per cent of people live in flats. City centre housing markets have seen explosive price growth but there are signs this is now coming to an end. Over the first half of 2005, price growth was flat or negative, the volume of sales and rents fell and many investors became less interested.

See the Centre for Cities Discussion Paper Faulty Towers? for more details on the prospects for city centre housing markets.

The Centre for Cities is an independent urban research unit, based at the ippr. Launched in March 2005, it is taking a fresh look at how UK cities function. Tom Bloxham MBE is the Chair of the Centre for Cities’ Steering Group.

For more information about the Centre for Cities got to www.ippr.org/centreforcities

Contacts:

Matt Jackson, ippr Senior Media Officer, 020 7339 0007 / 07753 719 289 / m.jackson@ippr.org

Max Nathan, Senior Researcher, ippr Centre for Cities, 020 7470 6172 / 07977 190 141 / m.nathan@ippr.org