Why cities need denser housing

Increasing density in our cities is often the source of heated debate in conversations about tackling the housing crisis. Previous Centre for Cities research has found that few of the UK’s urban neighbourhoods have the level of density found in other European cities. This means there is scope to increase density in UK cities, and in particular in residential neighbourhoods, and would bring many benefits: allowing cities to accommodate new residents without expanding and improving cities’ transport accessibility and planning.
However, increasing density is not easy to achieve with local residents concerned that densification will alter and threaten the nature and shape of their city. There are also many technical complexities of densification, meaning unless a city has in place an overarching plan to increase densification across its length and breadth, it will take decades for it to become more compact.
Join us for this panel event to discuss why denser housing is important to our cities, how to challenge perceptions of increased density and how the UK’s low density housing is affecting the UK’s productivity.
Speakers
Cllr James Lewis, Leader, Leeds City Council
Phil Mayall, Managing Director, Muse Places
Dr Nancy Holman, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Director of Planning Studies at LSE
Anthony Breach, Senior Analyst, Centre for Cities
Chair: Andrew Carter, Chief Executive, Centre for Cities