The Control of Urban Sprawl

It can be argued that the improvements in systems urban transportation in the late 19th century led to the first wave of urban sprawl in Britain. The last quarter of that century saw a dramatic fall in the density of new working class housing developments as the introduction of suburban railways, horse-buses and later, trams, permitted the colonisation of large areas of cheap land beyond the urban periphery. However, the dependency upon public transport routes tended to lead to a star-shaped pattern of urban growth that retained some access to the countryside through the 'green wedges' that remained between the growth corridors. Control of this urban sprawl was one of the earliest reasons for the introduction of town planning in Great Britain. The Housing, Town Planning Etc, Act 1909, for the first time permitted local authorities to prepare town planning schemes for land beyond the existing urban area that was liable to be developed in the foreseeable future. Although there was no attempt to limit the amount of land to be developed, land use zoning and controls over the density of development gave planners an opportunity to determine and manage the pattern and form of urban growth. By the end of the first world war, new housing policies were introduced to meet an acute housing shortage. The Ministry of Health for the first time subsidised the building of council housing (social housing) from central government funds. Influenced by the 'Garden Cities Movement' and the Tudor Walters Report (1918), the Ministry encouraged the building of large low density 'cottage estates' on the edge of major cities. Changing economic circumstances also led to a boom in speculative private housebuilding for owner occupation. These estates too comprised sprawling, low density, housing built on green field sites. These twin strands of residential expansion were both supported by and encouraged investment in urban public transport systems, most notably in extensions to the London Underground. By the end of the twenties there was growing concern and opposition to the unprecedented scale and extent of urban sprawl that seemed to be enveloping every city in the country. A new Town and Country Planning Act had been passed in 1932 but with little effect on sprawl. In particular, "there was one aspect of suburban development which caused particular public and political concern in the 1930s building boom. This was the tendency for arterial roads to be subject to ill-considered ribbon development of cheaper housing extending out well beyond the more continuous built-up areas. The practice saved the developers the cost of building proper residential roads, but damaged the scenic quality and undermined the efficiency and safety of main roads by mixing local and through traffic. It was disliked even by many of the right-wing opponents of town and country planning" (Ward, 1994, p48). The Restriction of Ribbon Development Act 1935, gave highway authorities specific powers to prevent this abuse. Nevertheless, neither Act had any significant impact on the total volume of urban sprawl, especially as around one third of the new housing was planned and developed by local authorities themselves and most of the rest was facilitated and controlled