Explain the process of suburbanisation and describe its effects (8)

Explain the process of suburbanisation and describe its effects (8) 

Suburbanisation describes the growth of the suburbs through the decentralisation of population, industry and other business activities such as retailing. In the UK, large-scale suburbanisation was essentially a twentieth-century phenomenon, though it started in the late nineteenth century. Suburban development mainly comprised low-density housing and industry on greenfield sites.

The process of suburbanisation has resulted in the outward growth of urban development that has engulfed surrounding villages and rural areas. During the mid- to late-twentieth century, this was facilitated by the growth of public transport systems and the increased use of the private car. The presence of railway lines and arterial roads has enabled relatively wealthy commuters to live some distance away from their places of work but in the same urban area. The edge of town, where there is more land available for car parking and expansion, became the favoured location for new offices, factories and shopping outlets. Suburbanisation has led to the creation of residential estates – often with associated services: schools, GP practises, pubs, parks and playgrounds, etc. In a number of cases, the ‘strict control’ of the green belts was ignored (or at best modified) in the light of changing circumstances. More recently, there has been the development of new housing areas on ‘previously developed land’, leading to the infilling of large areas of private gardens and other open spaces in urban areas, such as school playing fields.

Consequently, suburbanisation had led to the urban sprawl, and loss of countryside amenity, like farmland and wildlife, in the rural-urban fringe. In England, between 1997 and 2010, around 150 km2 of greenbelt were lost to urban development and nearly 45000 houses were built in the suburbs. As more people began to commute back to inner cities, there were longer journeys to work, which in the past five decades have led to increasing problems of traffic congestion and pollution at peak times.

There has also been a demographic and economic decline of central urban areas- as population moves to the suburbs, and many services, such as retailing and office businesses have moved there too. Commercial activities in suburbs, however, offer greater accessibility as there is more space, and lower rents compared with more central urban locations which is a positive impact for the people there, as it also creates an increase in employment.