Introduction

Chelmsford Diocese is rising to the challenges of expansion across Essex and East London:Regeneration

We are researching developments in all our areas and building our mission strategies.

Regeneration is global. New technology means things travel the globe fast. Big finance happens at the touch of a button. Populations travel as fast as a plane can fly.

Talk about global money today means real estate. We have already seen Canary Wharf spring from nowhere, a new city above and below ground. Global pressure has contributed to the decline of British manufacturing industry, leaving old (‘brownfield’) factory sites empty and ideal for property speculation.

Vast building projects are under way and more are coming. These will house the moving populations. They will provide offices from which to manage the new service industries. That means jobs and spending power.  Above all the buildings produce real estate profit for international capital.

One of the big policy issues is whether people are housed in dense communities, because that makes local schools, hospitals and other services more affordable, or in sprawling suburbs, which are more spacious but dependent on the car and, therefore, potentially less sustainable bearing in mind the pressures on oil supplies.

The government has sought to respond in a number of ways. In the year 2000 the Urban White Paper promised an ‘urban renaissance’. In 2003 the key document, ‘Sustainable Communities:  building for the future,’ was published. It designated four priority big building areas; two of these, Stansted & the M11 corridor and the Thames Gateway, are in our diocese.

We are the target for vast numbers of homes to house the changing population. The big questions are where this expansion will go and whether the homes will be supported by jobs and services.

Occasional research papers by Steve Williams, Thames Gateway Officer – Bradwell Area

Page last edited: 11/08/2009
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