Vision and long-term planning make sustainable cities

Newcastle has extended its lead as Britain’s most sustainable major city, we announce today. What makes a city sustainable and what progress are our cities making?

Forum for the Future’s annual Sustainable Cities Index ranks Britain’s 20 largest cities on their environmental performance, quality of life and how well they are preparing for the challenges of the future.

Newcastle takes the top spot for the second year in a row, followed by the same four cities as last year: Leicester, Brighton, Bristol and London with only the smallest of margins between their overall scores, although their strengths and weaknesses lie in different areas.

These leading cities have not always performed well... it takes time, vision and long-term planning. What they have in common is high aspirations, strong governance structures and civic leaders who see sustainability as a priority. A supportive population also helps – Brighton has the UK’s first Green Party MP, while Bristol, Brighton and London all have green party councillors.

Since we started the index in 2007 most cities have improved in most areas. We look at 13 indicators – from air quality to action on climate change – and 11 have improved. The exceptions are employment, which has followed national trends, and provision of allotments, which has seen a slight decline potentially because urban space is at a premium and recent planning and development policy has driven inner city regeneration.

But it's the places that are improving faster than average that move up the ranks. Newcastle was eighth in 2007, Leicester has moved from 14th to 2nd in the same time and Coventry from 17th to 7th.

One disturbing trend that has emerged is the widening gap between the top and bottom performers. Those already performing relatively well are improving faster than others which have the furthest to go.

And none of Britain's cities can in any way be complacent. We have a long way to go to match the best from across the globe, such as Freiburg in Germany, Stockholm in Sweden or Whistler in Canada.

It’s important that cities now accelerate the speed of change to a low-carbon economy, and low-impact future, that supports the complexity and diversity of our collective and individual needs.