Future of UK Cities: Climate, not Covid, is Cardiff’s biggest battle

Huw Thomas, leader of Cardiff Council, has little time for the global pandemic because he is fighting a bigger battle. “We’re all focused on Covid-19 and Brexit at the moment but I think they pale into insignificance with what’s coming down the line,” he tells EG’s Future of UK Cities event. “Let’s be blunt. Climate change is the biggest challenge we face as a civilisation.” The council approved a new environmental plan in October, which includes an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2030 – 20 years ahead of national targets for Wales and the rest of the UK. Central to the strategy is generating more energy through solar power and waste heat, building 1,500 sustainable homes across the city, a cross-city train-tram service, increasing tree coverage, redeveloping canals and using a former shipping container in Bute Park to grow the equivalent of 3.5 acres of food through hydroponics. “The city has to make its contribution to global carbon targets but also it’s about making the city a more liveable place to be,” he says. “We know there are concerns around air quality, around traffic levels in the city, all of which contribute to the need to take action on this agenda.” Thomas is adamant that the most controversial part of the plan – the possible introduction of a £2 congestion charge for motorists that would be used to fund the proposed metro and cut emissions – is still necessary. “The congestion charge made headlines when we published the transport strategy back in January, but it was simply opening up an honest dialogue about how we fund all of this,” says Thomas. “There hasn’t been that level of honesty in our conversations in the past and that’s why it takes so long to get infrastructure delivered,” he says. “Clearly the context that we are living in compared with January has changed. But the need for that infrastructure investment hasn’t gone away so it is still an open question to Welsh government and UK government. How will you back the capital city of Wales to deliver what it needs to deliver for the economy of the UK and Wales in particular?” Speeding ahead Thomas believes that, despite all of the economic problems caused by Covid-19 in the city, the global pandemic has provided Cardiff with the opportunity to accelerate its green agenda. “We’ve seen a drop in traffic during the crisis. What we need to do now as we move into the recovery and renewal phase is to capture some of that behaviour change so people can work more flexibly,” he says. Chris Potts, head of office planning in Savills’ Cardiff office, agrees that despite the destruction caused by the pandemic, it is creating possibilities to rethink and redesign the city centre along greener lines. “I think Cardiff has a great opportunity here,” he told the panel. “Ultimately, what you need to do is to make sure that your city centre is an attractive destination, it’s a place people want to be for lots of reasons, whether it is to shop, to work, to go to leisure entertainment. For Potts, the possibility of turning vacant buildings into much-needed sustainable homes in the city centre offers the potential to increase footfall in order to drive custom to struggling retail and hospitality businesses while also reducing traffic and congestion. “I think there is scope for a lot more residential in the city centre,” he says. “Compared to other core cities, the number of people who actually live in the centre of Cardiff is still relatively small. The whole repurposing debate had begun long before the current situation in terms of the retail sector and I think it is now broadening into other sectors like commercial offices.” Louise Harris, co-founder and director of Cardiff-based co-working business Tramshed Tech, goes even further. For her, successful buildings in future will not just be those that can be repurposed as sustainable homes, but ones thats can expand, contract and change use on a regular basis – further reducing the need for costly (and carbon-intensive) redevelopment. “The future is ultimately around buildings that are extremely flexible so that, as change is required, then those building owners and occupiers can look to mould those spaces to better suit the operations that happen within them,” she says. “We’ve traditionally built closed-office environments that are fixed for a certain business model. What we see from the companies that we work with is that they are businesses that need to flex and respond to markets. That’s really difficult for a business if you’re locked in an extremely long lease in a building that you can’t flex or adapt in any way.” Yet with many shops and offices in Cardiff reeling from the effects of the pandemic, could it delay its environmental plans and implement a more business-friendly agenda instead? No, says Thomas. “In terms of cost, the initial capital outlay may be higher but in terms of ongoing revenue costs there are ongoing savings through greater energy efficiency,” he says. “It’s a difficult balance but I think sustainability still has to be a central focus for Cardiff – and every city.” Picture © Shutterstock