جمعیت جدید در مرکز شهرستان بریتانیا: شواهد از تغییر اجتماعی از سرشماری و بررسی های خانگی

Encouraged by government policies to promote city centre living and to increase residential land use on brownfield sites, there has been considerable repopulation of the city centre. Through detailed small-area census analysis of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea, supplemented by household surveys and key informant interviews, the research points to a range of population characteristics and changes occurring in the British city centre. Certain characteristics such as a high proportion of lone person households, fewer children and low car ownership remain fairly consistent. However, substantial population expansion affirms that a large part of the population is “new”. Between 1991 and 2001, men came to outnumber women, and each of the city centres saw a relative expansion of its young adult population. The new residents have a higher appreciation than longer term residents of proximity to work and leisure facilities, and of the stylishness of city centre living. Most of the new residents rent their accommodation, generally in flats, and the predominance of renting is associated with a transient attitude to city centre residence among the new population. Socio-economic evidence indicates a striking rise in social status or gentrification in all the city centres investigated, especially where high status private housing developments encourage the trend. With policies promoting residential development, the city centre is becoming increasingly socially exclusive.

In city centres across the world, new central housing schemes are signs of an expanding central population. In the UK, just as elsewhere, there has been a marked turnaround from the concerns about loss of population from the city centre which had dominated the last few decades of the 20th century. Although some European city centres managed to retain a substantial residential population, this was not the case in most North American cities, and even in parts of the developing world city centre population losses were noted (Bromley and Jones, 1996, Champion, 2001 and Pacione, 2005). The population losses prompted policies to revitalise and repopulate city centres. Cities such as Denver and San Diego in the United States successfully combined retail regeneration with historic conservation and repopulation in the central area. In Britain, also, after decades of disinvestment, the late-20th century saw concerted attempts to regenerate and revitalise the city centre, not only by boosting retail and other service functions, but also by encouraging more people to live there

As a result of this research on cities of a varied size and regional status, it is possible to offer some generalisations about the population in the city centre, bearing in mind that every city centre is to some extent distinctive. Through detailed small-area census analysis of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea, supplemented by household surveys and key informant interviews in two of the cities, the research points to a range of population characteristics and changes occurring in the British city centre. The period investigated was defined by the censuses of 1991 and 2001, with change from the mid-1990s explored though the household interview surveys. The latter source was analysed to isolate the characteristics and views of the most recent city centre residents, those who had lived at their current address for less than five years, from those who were of long-term (more than five years) residence. In this way several striking features of the “new” city centre populations were identified which both confirmed and extended the findings from the census analysis. The research reveals the extent to which the city centre has acquired a new and distinctive population, connected with the new-found vibrancy which reflects ‘successful’ urban regeneration initiatives.