Beyond the post-industrial city: Valuing and planning for industry in London

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges that planners face if industry is to survive and thrive in a growing 'postindustrial' city. It examines London, where the difference between the value of land for residential and industrial use, and the pressure to address the housing crisis, is leading to the rapid loss of industrial land and premises. The paper first explores the role of industry in a high-value city such as London, arguing that trends in manufacturing in advanced economies are increasing the benefit for firms of an urban location, whilst at the same time, cities continue to need industry if they are to be economically and socially resilient, sustainable and vibrant. The paper then explores current approaches to planning for industry in London, identifying impacts of a policy framework that anticipates and plans for its decline. Finally, it focuses on the question of how to plan for a productive and inclusive city: we explore the arguments in favour of integrating industry into the urban fabric as well as the benefits of separating land uses and retaining employment land designations, and reveal how urbanists are divided. We argue that if London is to continue to prosper, and meet the needs of all Londoners, then we need to strategically and proactively plan for industry in the city, to experiment with innovative ways of integrating it with other city uses, whilst protecting land for industry, where required. We put forward a critical research agenda to effectively meet this challenge in the future.

Manufacturing and cultural production: Towards a progressive policy agenda for the cultural economy

“…Many cities work from an outdated zoning system that does not recognize the changing shape of manufacturing nor cultural productiondespite the growing connections. As has been demonstrated in cities with strong property markets such as London, Melbourne, and New York, planning and rezoning around mixeduse land are part of a deliberate attempt to reshape the city for advances services, luxury residential, and upscale consumption (Ferm and Jones, 2016;Shaw, 2015;Shaw and Davies, 2014;Wolf-Powers, 2005). Cities target industrial lands for rezoning and redevelopment to maximize real estate values under the misperception that appropriate manufacturing land is in the outer suburbs and that central city industrial areas are no longer appropriate for manufacturing activity (Shaw and Davies, 2014).…”

Zoning for Jobs- Industrial Land Preservation in the Nation's Largest Cities

“…Land-use policy decisions in the putative "post-industrial" city is too often built on the assumption that urban industry is dead or dying (Ferm and Jones 2016;Gospodini 2006). But recent scholarship highlights the direct role that cities play in their own deindustrialization through their development priorities and land-use policies that favor redeveloping already occupied, productive industrial districts into new commercial and residential centers, whether the justification is to simply increase local property tax revenue or is reflective of the flawed implementation of a Smart Growth plan (N. G. Leigh and Hoelzel 2012;Rast 2001;Wolf-Powers 2005).…”

Keeping Blue Collars in Green Cities: From TOD to TOM?

“…The planning blind spot that presumes and facilitates the decline of urban industry thus clearly conflicts with the many indications that suggest urban industry remains strong, vibrant, and, indeed, vital to many urban economies (Lester et al, 2013;Ferm and Jones, 2017). When imagining new spaces of production here, we have in mind urban-scaled, advanced manufacturing activities that little resemble the iconic smokestacks of traditional industrialism.…”

“…This much is, by now, axiomatic. But the post-material assumptions and attendant political dynamics that marginalize and disadvantage urban manufacturing interests contradict emerging research highlighting the various ways many manufacturing firms thrive in cities and often help to fuel economic activity in other sectors (Ferm and Jones, 2017;Hatuka et al, 2017). In addition to employing over 12 million workers nationally (Leigh et al, 2014), specifically urban manufacturers in cities like New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many others utilize the relatively high population densities, and well-developed transportation infrastructures, supplier and consumer networks, and worker availabilities to bring diversity and dynamism to their local economies (Hatuka et al, 2017).…”