Economic and Social Sustainability

In most cities and towns in the United Kingdom, housing estates became customary since the end of the World War II. They build houses in many greenfield and brownfields. Greenfield lands refer to lands that are underdeveloped and used primarily for agriculture while brownfield are lands previously developed for commercial use and reuse for residential housing. Housing in most towns in Cardiff has two descriptions: one, houses are turning flat and second, most houses are built in valleys or greenfields. Flat houses refer to apartments, which are growing in number by seventy percent.

People have no choice but to occupy a small apartment-type house with one-and-two-bedrooms unit. Due to the growing population, Cardiff with the rest of United Kingdom is facing housing crisis in the near future. Hence, the present trend in the housing issue in UK directly affects the environment, economic, and social sustainability of the country. The increase in the demand for housing has some effect on the environment.

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Since most greenfields turn to be residential areas, many lands intended for agriculture and natural reserve become extinct.

At present, greenfields housing development maybe sustainable as there is enough allocated sites for housing developments. However, with the increasing numbers of households due to migration, and the acute needs of housing, Cardiff is facing a potential shortage of green fields or agricultural land area. Thus, the council of Cardiff planned to construct brownfields housing on greenfields sites and greenfields housing on brownfields sites to accommodate different segment of the society. Due to the housing projects built in many agricultural lands, it affects largely the condition of the people.

Turrent noted, “Social sustainability requires that communities have access to employment, to healthy and safe environments, and mobility” (p. 28). As a result, the authors explained that the existing housing system suffers from poor employment prospect, under-performing schools, and the transport is too poor or expensive. Economic Sustainability This condition has an effect on the economic situation of the people considering the fact that aside from employment problem, the prices of houses are fast increasing yet their wages increase a bit slowly.

According to Richard Green, the price of houses in Cardiff is almost four times or sometimes five times of their salary (para. 2). The higher cost of housing is unsustainable compared to the average income. According to Geoff Marlow, almost one fourth of all family units in Cardiff have an annual income below 10,000 pounds, which roughly almost fifteen times compared to the price of a flat in the city, which is currently at 147,000 pounds. The discrepancy between the average price and the average wages is too wide.

In Monmouth shire in Cardiff, however, the price is five times the average earnings. Pauline Found and Nick Rich point out that economic sustainability has to do with the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness extracting earnings. It also concern on investing wisely to preserve development effort within and outside the company. Found and Rich emphasized that at the centre of economic sustainability is the making money through the managing prises and cost.

In the case of the housing sustainability in Cardiff, it appeared that the indication of its sustainability does not fit to what it really means. The wide discrepancy between the average household income and the average housing price as well as the rising rents in Cardiff indicate un- sustainability on the part of the consumers. The social impact of this according to Richard Green is that young households or perhaps any household whose income is average are unlikely to own a house. Green emphasized that this even worse in areas where the demand for homes is high but the wages are low.