Workshop 2: Where shall we live? – 28th April Rivergreen Centre, Durham
Background and Context
SUSTAINE, the independent champion for sustainable development in North East England, in association
with the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) and sustainability strategists Beyond
Green, recently delivered two technical workshops exploring how we can work towards achieving a
sustainable future for our region.
The first workshop considered how the need to lead more sustainable lives could shape the region’s future,
the kind of lives might we lead, what might need to change to make sustainable living attractive, new
economic and work opportunities that might emerge, and how the region as a whole, and communities
within it, might effect change.
The second of the two policy workshops explored the question: “Where shall we live?” Similar, to
Workshop 1, the session was intended to provide a forum for policymakers and stakeholders to consider
evidence from leading-edge sustainability practice and debate the implications, opportunities, barriers and
catalysts to practical sustainable development outcomes in the North East.
The specific aims of Workshop 2 were to explore:

How do homes, places and communities influence how we live?

If we need to live differently and can unlock new forms of prosperity by doing so, what does that
mean for how we plan, design and deliver new homes and neighbourhoods and how we
regenerate existing places?

How can development be about more than ‘housing’ and ‘jobs’?

How should different parts of the region respond?
The workshop was structured into two halves; the first half drew on keynote presentations and regional
respondents, whilst in the second half the workshop delegates explored the issues raised within themed
workgroups. The workshop concluded with plenary feedback and reflections.
Session 1: Setting the Agenda
Welcome and Introductions: Professor John Tomaney (CURDS); Martin Murphy (Sustaine)
Keynote Presentations and Regional Respondents: Tor Fossum, Malmo City Council; Tim Bailey, Xsite
Architecture; Tom Warburton, Homes and Communities Agency
Session 2: Themed Workgroups




Region-wide challenges and opportunities
Housing, place and lifestyle
Retrofitting sustainability in established neighbourhoods
Delivering sustainable development
Introduction
Professor John Tomaney welcomed everyone to the second of the two workshops and highlighted its
purpose to explore ‘how the places or communities in which we live can influence how we live’.
Martin Murphy (Sustaine) explained how a key objective of Sustaine is to facilitate debate around a holistic
view of sustainability and to generate a shared vision for the region. In this sense, Workshop 2’s focus on
‘where will we live’ and the role of ‘place’ should inter alia encompass housing, infrastructure, transport
issues etc. but also more abstract issues such as community and social cohesion.
Session 1: Setting the Agenda
Keynote presentation – Tor Fossum, Malmo City Council (delivered by Videoconference)
See weblink for Tor’s Presentation
Further links for information on Malmo and the Western Harbour Initiative
www.sustainablecities.dk/files/file/vhfolder_malmostad_0308_eng.pdf
http://www.malmo.se/sustainablecity
http://magnusonmedia.net/malmo_tidning/en/
http://www.malmo.se/English/Sustainable-City-Development/Bo01---Western-Harbour.html
Q&A with Tor Fossum
Q: How affordable is the housing in the Western Harbourside development? Is there a good private /
public balance or have they in effect just created a ‘middle class ghetto’?
A: There is a long-term aim to get a mixed population, but undeniably at the moment it is middle-class and
upwards. There plan is to begin by attracting the middle-class to build up the tax base, and then later build
more affordable housing.
Q: The developments seem to consist mainly of flats and apartments, whereas in the UK there is a culture
of people traditionally living in houses, so this may be hard to introduce here? Is there a different lifestyle
and younger population in Malmo that makes it easier to sell apartment living.
A: The development does actually offer a mix of houses and flats there, but this is a challenge of housing
density in cities with limited land.
Further comments from the workshop delegates:

With population increase and demand for housing we need to change people’s aspirations. People
like to move house more often – do we need to encourage them to take a longer-term view of
where they live to encourage energy efficiency measures?

There is a crucial point here about the differences in land ownership between the UK and Sweden.
In Sweden the city acquired the land to develop – this would probably not be possible in the UK.
Regional Respondents
Tim Bailey (Xsite Architecture):
The story of Malmo is now well rehearsed, but its salient to try and learn lessons from its development and
future direction. The challenge for the North East is to identify transferable principles and bring these
together within a particular locality to demonstrate that we too can operate in a sustainable way. Crucially,
in contrast to Malmo, we lack a strong overarching regional political leadership. In the planning and
sustainability agenda, we need better and more effective collaboration between Tyne, Tees and Wear.
Rural, urban, and suburban living also needs to be better connected.
Key Message: In terms of transferability and learning from best practice we need to recognise that
barriers do exist. Three principle challenges for the North East are: funding, public ownership of land and
the governance of planning and development.
Within our region, we have great examples of initiatives, such as the Byker Wall, which could have
championed as new and innovative ways of living - but we have let them drift. Important lessons can also
be learnt from the initial success and principles of our new towns like Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee, but
again the housing there is already becoming outdated. But we do keep creating new initiatives; a positive
current day example is that of the Teesside Digital City. This initiative has created new forms of virtual
working which offer new geographies of living and working with sustainability dividends. We do, therefore,
have examples in our region of innovative thinking alongside far-sighted investment.
Tom Warburton (Homes and Communities Agency):
The most striking element of the Malmo case study is that ‘they’ve done it’.
Important characteristics of Malmo’s success includes: the role of the young population; inflow of
migrants and the economic opportunities brought by the building of the bridge with Copenhagen.
Key Message: In terms of transferability and learning from best practice, we know that it is technically
possible to replicate the building which has occurred in Malmo. However, the key challenge remains one
of finance – accessing the credit and the cost implications. Even so, the bigger issue for the North East is
to make the existing housing stock is sustainable. The existing housing stock is where the majority of
people will live in the future. Again there is a huge financial cost linked to this and we need to access
public funds.
John Tomaney (CURDS):
Malmo is a genuine success story and one is which the North East can learn and take inspiration from. In
particular, their approach to this is not a trade-off between the social or economic and environment – they
have tried to get the maximum benefits in all of these areas from their development
Key Message: For the North East, perhaps we need not focus so much on the outcomes but more on the
processes involved. Distinctive elements of Malmo’s processes include the openness, the role of
leadership and strong institutions (they’ve had a regional assembly / government in the region since
1997).
.
Session 2: Themed Workgroups
Group 1 – Region-wide challenges and opportunities (reported by Hope Mulengwa, One North East):
This group touched upon many of the issues developed in Workshop 1 and tackled broader discussions over
the extent to which the region is sustainable and how can communities be brought together.
The group recognised that much transformation needs to occur around the North East’s economic and
community settlement system which was developed around industries that either no longer exist or are
waning.
To facilitate and support this transformation the region needs to develop and champion more flexibility in
planning and development schemes – to be innovative and perhaps even take more risks.
Group 2 – Housing, place and lifestyle (reported by Susie Vernon, Beyond Green):
The discussion in this group centred on the need for cultural change as a central agenda. A key challenge is
to develop more accessible and effective forms of engagement and communication, to persuade people
about the merits of sustainable living. Whilst sending these messages through the school system is
important, we need to concentrate more on the existing adult population whose behaviours are shaping
the immediate future.
There is a need to link the technology and (social) processes together – so look at not just the energy
production system but also energy use. For instance transport needs to get a better public-private mix. We
need to think of levers and mechanisms to force the private sector to make these changes, but as
importantly convince people to use public transport options.
Group 3 – Retrofitting sustainability in established neighbourhoods (reported by Steve Robson, ANEC)
In terms of the sustainability agenda the lack of priority attached to the retrofitting of housing and
communities need to be redressed. However, the enduring challenge is of financing this retrofitting
activity, especially large scale retrofitting and updating - with many new-build options proving much
cheaper, if less sustainable in terms of community development. The group recognised that there is little
prospect of public money plugging the gap in the immediate future and therefore innovative solutions –
planning and finance – need to be developed. At the same time, smaller scale retrofitting can often prove
to be cheaper and more sustainable solutions (e.g. installing showers in people’s homes are often in
practice more effective energy efficiency measures).
In a similar vein to the point raised by Tim Bailey on the potential of previous planning initiatives in the
region, people talked about ‘desert estates’ that were built with local services and transport links but these
have declined because not enough people used them. This requires new socio-economic models of living
and working and recalibrating what people value in these domains.
Finally, the group reported that there are some good examples of retrofitting occurring in the region but
these aren’t being communicated and replicated widely. We need to know what ‘sustainability’ actually
looks like.
Group 4 – Delivering sustainable development (reported by Stuart Dawley, CURDS)
Several key themes emerged as part of a broader discussion on ‘delivering sustainable development’,
including:

The region must develop better and higher ‘minimum standards’ for developers to meet. This
should not simply be seen as a ‘stick’ in the development process, but all stakeholders, planners
and developers can respond to the ‘carrot’ of being leading edge and pioneering in the aspirations
of developments – as part of a positive and constructive process. First, there needs to be blanket
ratcheting up of minimum sustainability standards across the board in the region. Second, certain
projects and programmes may seek to develop higher level standards which create economic
opportunities for developers because of their leading edge requirements. We need to better
facilitate developers collaborating together to spark new and innovative solutions (e.g. Gateshead
Staithes). This may mean strong and innovative leadership from planning authorities to better
shape and incentivise the market. Some working examples include developing consensus based
‘concept statements’ for overarching principles for local authority development policy

Identifying strategic localities is also a key objective. The group discussed whether the recent
downturn could create a new window of opportunity for rethinking our approaches to
development strategy and policy and perhaps look towards targeting strategic areas and sites for
‘pilot initiatives’. Indentifying strategic locations would require clear parameters and measures
based on need and potential. Focusing limited resources on fewer strategic sites and programmes
may help ‘champion’ the agenda and practice.

Political leadership needs to be developed – especially for communicating long-term visions and
benefits. This is a small region with a number of bodies where local authorities regularly
collaborate, so the region is well equipped to achieve this.

It is clear from both workshops that there are many best practice initiatives and case studies
occurring within the North East. But these need to be better recorded, analysed and shared. Whilst
it is important to look beyond the region for inspiration, we could also benefit form auditing the
many stories and cases within the North East which could help inform ‘best practice ‘across and
within our sub-regions. Organisations such as Sustaine are well placed to lead on developing this
evidence base.
Plenary Reflections and Discussions
Neil Murphy (Beyond Green)
Looking across the two workshops Neil indentified a danger of over-focusing on physical spaces and
buildings. We need a bigger notion of place, and the culture of places. How do you change the culture of a
place? For example, in Copenhagen the leadership comes from the institutions (that are not prisoners of
the culture). Also the role of the city council was paramount in Malmo, showing the different institutional
capacity for change they have in Sweden. Localities need to set out a vision and then work out how they
are going to get there. There is high density living in the UK already, so we shouldn’t get hung up on the
type of housing needed, its all about the quality. Land is treated as a commodity in the UK – we need to
move away from the mentality where both public and private look at land in terms of how they can make
money out of it. However, there are cultural similarities as well as differences between Sweden and the UK.
A key message therefore is that the process is the paramount challenge, addressing the ‘how’ of getting
things done.
Appendix: Pen Portraits of invited speakers
Tor Fossum
Educated as an architect from the Technical High School of Trondheim Norway. He has been working with
the City of Malmö since the year 2000, as a project manager in a number of national and European
projects. Firstly under the Local Investment Programme for sustainable development, with responsibility on
environmental information and communication on the Bo01 project in the Western Harbour which he has
followed since the start. With a great knowledge of research, follow up and results of the measures taken.
Later in the SmartLIFE project (with Cambridgeshire and Hamburg) as responsible for the sustainable
refurbishment of Malmös SmartLIFE centre - Helix, , and a number of projects such as the SECURE project
with a focus on energy action plans and responsibility for a benchmark study on sustainable urban
development projects in Europe.
He has also been project leader for the development of the City of Malmös Programme for Ecological
Construction launched 2002, and recently the new “Environmental Construction Programme South” a joint
program together with neighbouring city Lund.
Tor Fossum is currently administrating a national funding scheme for the latest development in the
Western Harbour, Fullriggaren, and leading the environmental work in the “Developers Dialogue project”
in Hyllie, where 14 developers will construct 1700 new homes.
He is also taking care of a large number of international expertise that come to Mlalmö to learn from the
experiences from the Western Harbour and Augustenborg through lectures and guided tours.
Tim Bailey
Born in Hartlepool in 1964, Tim graduated from Newcastle University in 1986, before going on to take a
further degree in Architecture at the same institution, completing in 1990.
Starting work for Browne Smith Baker in 1990, gaining his RIBA Membership in 1992 and becoming a
partner in 1997, he left in 2000 to start his own company, xsite architecture, which became a Limited
Liability Partnership in September 2008. www.xsitearchitecture.co.uk The practice has developed a line of
work that is wide ranging and tries to remember that people and their experiences are central to how
society unfolds. This approach has meant we have been involved in building projects like Tyneside Cinema,
Woodhorn Museum, Queen’s Hall Hexham and Globe Gallery and arts projects like Tyne Salmon Trail 2007
(http://www.commissionsnorth.org/showcase/portfolio/372), Dott07 2007 (www.dott07.com) and Barnard
Castle Vision 2008/9 (http://www.commissionsnorth.org/showcase/portfolio/378).
He was Chairman of Northern Architecture www.northernarchitecture.com from 1997 until 2006.
Tom Warburton
Tom has recently joined the Homes and Communities Agency as the Head of Strategy, Programme and
Performance in the North East Office. Working to Pat Ritchie, the HCA’s Regional Director, Tom is
responsible for the HCA’s investment programme across the North East of England.
Prior to joining the HCA Tom worked at One NorthEast, the Regional Development Agency for the North
East of England, for 10 years. He has extensive experience in economic development, housing and planning
in the North East.
Appendix 2: List of Registered Delegates
No
Surname
First Name
Organisation
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Anderson
Antoniou
Bailey
Best
Boyes
Boyne
Brown
Byers
Clear-Hill
Colling
Corker
Cowie
Cripps
Davidson
Dawley
Dillon
Drury
Douglas
Eastick
Ebbatson
Ellis
Errington
Feist
Fellowes
Gough
Greenwood
Harris
Histon
Holyoak
Hornsey
Jain
Jeynes
Jobey
Johnston
Jones
Lilley
Lowther
MacCallum
Mains
Marques
Marston
McDonald
Karen
Maria
Tim
Nic
Samantha
Nicola
Ian
Edward
Hugh
Valerie
Stuart
Paul
Jonathan
Gill
Stuart
Paul
Glyn
Allan
Alan
Matthew
Craig
Barry
Mike
Andrew
Tina
Melanie
Wayne
Julia
Deborah
Phil
Shruti
Sara
Steve
Sheila
Alan
Sara
John
Michelle
Chris
Pedro
Michael
Stephen
Homes and Communities Agency
Durham County Council
Xsite Architecture
CPRE North East
Civil Engineering, Newcastle University
Association of North East Councils
Sustainable Heating Solutions UK Ltd
Newcastle University
Northumberland County Council
Colling Construction Ltd
Gateshead Council
Northumberland National Park Authority
Community Energy Solutions
Northumbria University
Newcastle University
North Tyneside Council
Tyne & Wear Housing Partnership
Northumbria University
North Tyneside Council
Tyne & Wear City Region
Gateshead Council
Government Office for the North East
Government Office for Yorkshire and The Humber
ACEVO
Spence and Dower Architects
Stockton on Tees Borough Council
Sedgefield Borough Homes Ltd
North Star Housing Group
South Tyneside Council
Northumberland County Council
Sustaine
South Tyneside Council
S.A.J Transport Consultants Ltd
Gateshead Council
Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre
Northumbria University
Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit
Groundwork North East
Northumbria University
Newcastle University
Soil Assoc/Federation of Cityfarms & Community Gardens
Durham County Council
44
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
Megginson
Merridew
Mortimer
Mulengwa
Murphy
Murphy
Namdeo
Nichols
O'Brien
Peacock
Podevyn
Richards
Robson
Schmuecker
Schuder
Schulz
Shaw
Siddall
Sloan
Stevens
Stirling
Straughan
Stretton
Struzaker
Thomson
Thubron
Tomaney
Townsend
Vallance
Vaughan
Vernon
Waggott
Wainwright
Warburton
Ward
Woolf
Young
Claire
Tanya
Shirley
Hope
Martin
Neil
Anil
Rob
Peter
Lynda
Martin
Pete
Steve
Katie
Ingo
Carol
Sue
Anna
Andrew
John
John
Carol
Neil
John
Kirsteen
Kevin
John
Alan
Paul
John
Susie
Andrew
Andrew
Tom
Karl
Craig
Rosemary
Association of North East Councils
Northumberland County Council
North Tyneside Council
One NorthEast
Sustaine
Beyond Green
Civil Engineering, Transport
Newcastle City Council
Tyne & Wear City Region
4 Housing Group
Northumbria University
Groundwork North East
Association of North East Councils
IPPR North
Natural England
Northumberland County Council
RuCANNE
North East Cultural Agency Partnership
Bridging NewcastleGateshead
JSA Regeneration Ltd
North Tyneside Council
Stockton on Tees Borough Council
Durham County Council
Newcastle University
One NorthEast
Endeavour Housing Association
Newcastle University
University of Durham
Newcastle University
Forestry Commission (retired)
Beyond Green
Northumbria University
South Tyneside Council
Homes and Communities Agency
Newcastle University
Community Renewable Energy (CoRE)
Stockton on Tees Borough Council