Teoría y práctica del diseño urbano para la reflexión de la ciudad contemporánea

245 Experiencias contemporáneas del diseño urbano New urban housing design in the UK Significant potential exists for house builders to benefit from inflationary gains in land value between buying the land and the eventual sale of the completed houses (or of uncom- pleted sites where land is traded). Because land costs are high relative to the cost of the completed houses in the UK, house builders’ profits can be substantially enhanced through land trading or through gains from the increase in the price of land. Hence, according to Barlow (1999), the main business strategy of UK house builders is focused on capturing infla- tionary gains from housing and land markets through skilful ‘opportunity identification’ and land dealing. The corollary is that much less emphasis is placed on improving the qua- lity of the houses being produced, and on achieving efficiency in the construction process through innovation or invest- ment in prefabrication and the like (Barlow, 1999). Carmona (1999) quotes figures that illustrate the low priority given to design by housing developers, claiming that design typically amounts to less than 1% of total costs, with marketing at 3% and interest on loans at 5%. With the emphasis on brown field land since the late 1990s onwards, the issue of land remediation and how this impacts upon the production of housing is particularly important. There is a view that the easiest brown field sites have already been developed (Gallent and Tewdwr-Jones, 2007; Punter, 2009; for example) meaning that those that remain have major problems in terms of bringing them meaningfully forward for development: contamination, poor access, weak demand, unsuitable locations, high costs for example (Gallent and Tewdwr-Jones, 2007). The key point is that for difficult brown field sites opportunities to generate profit from land specula- tion are reduced, with more onus on generating profit from the development itself. However, costs of remediation and the like can also put pressure on other aspects of scheme quality. ‘Opportunity space’ Tiesdell and Adams (2004) suggest that the more demanding (brownfield) regulatory environment has created an ‘oppor- tunity space’ for design and designers, compelling develo- pers to invest in design (see Figure 47). It is also the case that large-scale green field urban extension sites can be equally demanding, given the scale of investment required, and the need to incorporate significant community and other infra-