Young people are driving the 'urban renaissance' of city centres – report
City centres have witnessed an “urban renaissance” since the start of the century, with young people driving the increase in the number of residents, according to a new report by the Centre for Cities thinktank.
Between 2001 and 2011 the population of large city centres in England and Wales more than doubled, with the number of residents aged 22-29 nearly tripling to make up almost half of their total population.
Growth has been “primarily driven by the city centres of large cities” says the report, with increases in the number of high-skilled jobs appealing to young, highly educated, single residents, referred to as ‘millennials’.
The Urban Demographics: Where People Live and Work report analysis identifies four types of cities: London, large cities (population of 550,000+), medium cities (230,000- 550,000) and small cities (less than 230,000).
City suburbs – which are now home to 55% of the total population of England – grew by 8% between 2001 and 2011 (from 28.5 million to 30.8 million), compared with city centres, which grew by 37% (from 700,000 to 900,000 residents).
The number of high-skilled occupations has nearly tripled over 10 years in large city centres and has jumped by 47% in central London. Meanwhile, smaller cities have simply not been able to keep up with the high-skilled growth seen in large city centres and London, say the authors of the report.
The analysis recommends that the government should concentrate its strategies on developing small city centres to attract more high-skilled jobs and more residents.
However, the report also warns that London’s high housing costs are pricing out younger residents and students, and this has meant that the capital’s city centre population growth is slower compared with many places. In fact the population of London’s suburbs grew by 13% over the decade - more than twice as fast as the suburbs of other large cities.
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Students have also played a pivotal role in the growth of city centres, now accounting for a quarter of all residents in city centres. An example of this is Sheffield - most of the city’s growth between 2001-2011 can be attributed to the rising number of students.
Alexandra Jones, the chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “There’s been a lot of debate in recent years about the future of our high streets, but this report shows we need to look at city centres as places where people increasingly want to live and work, as well as being somewhere to shop. Policymakers can’t take this resurgence for granted – it needs to be supported and sustained … but the boom in city centre living also offers them big opportunities to spur on local economies. The best way to do that is by investing in our city centres, to attract more jobs and make them better places to live.”
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