Briefing: Cities of clubs

The 2005 American Housing Survey reveals that 11% of residents on the west coast of the USA live in gated communities. The trend is not confined to America: just about all new housing built in China over the last 10 years is gated, with neighbourhood walls, guards, owner-governance structures, fees and neighbourhood management and investment plans based not on the municipal government model but on the model of the member-controlled club: hence the idea of ‘cities of clubs’. Residential club economics are compelling. There is, in principle, no reason why large parts of British cities should not evolve in this way. While this will happen piecemeal under current laws, urban land reform that allows neighbourhoods to opt-out of municipal ownership and governance of non-strategic local public goods, could fundamentally reshape British cities for the better. It would also spawn a multi-billion pound private neighbourhood management market and replace the long-waves of urban decay and renewal that are characteristic of public ownership, with a far more responsive re-investment regime.