Speaker
Description
The regeneration of historic industrial brownfield sites represents a critical challenge in urban planning, intersecting issues of market dynamics, heritage conservation, and public-private collaboration. This paper focuses on the role of market buoyancy in shaping public-private sector interactions during regeneration processes, emphasizing its potential influence on decision-making, negotiation dynamics, and project outcomes. This study seeks to explore how public-private collaboration responds to varying market conditions, aiming to enhance the understanding of how planning mechanisms can adapt to financialisation and market volatility.
This research forms part of my ongoing PhD thesis at the University of Liverpool, currently in its second year, with the aim of collecting all necessary data by July 2025. The research addresses the question: How does the influence of the public sector on the regeneration of historic industrial brownfield sites led by the private sector vary with the buoyancy of real estate markets, considering the decision-making behaviour of both the private and public sectors? The hypothesis suggests that in less buoyant real estate markets, private developers may exhibit increased confidence in negotiations, leveraging their positions to secure favourable outcomes. This dynamic will be explored through the lens of adaptive planning, regulatory frameworks, and heritage conservation.
The paper integrates findings from case studies in London (high market buoyancy) and Liverpool (low market buoyancy) to provide a comparative analysis of collaboration dynamics. Methodologically, it employs qualitative interviews with stakeholders—developers, city planners, and local officials—as well as quantitative analysis of market data and policy documents. This approach will allow for an in-depth exploration of how market conditions mediate public-private interactions.
Key areas of analysis include:
1. Market Buoyancy and Developer Confidence: The paper examines how market buoyancy could shape the confidence of private developers in negotiations, potentially influencing their strategies in securing planning permissions, navigating heritage restrictions, and accessing financial incentives. The study focuses on how these dynamics manifest differently in high- and low-buoyancy contexts.
2. Market Buoyancy and Planning Challenges: The study explores how varying levels of market buoyancy create distinct challenges for urban planning. It examines the pressures on public-private collaborations to adapt to fluctuating market conditions, with a focus on balancing immediate economic feasibility with long-term sustainability and heritage conservation objectives.
This research aligns with Track 15’s emphasis on the intersections of planning, governance, and property markets, offering insights into how adaptive planning and regulatory tools can foster equitable and sustainable urban development. By focusing on market buoyancy as a critical variable, this paper contributes to the discourse on financialization and its implications for urban regeneration, with preliminary conclusions expected in the summer of 2025.
References
brownfield regeneration, market buoyancy, public-private collaboration, industrial heritage
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
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