![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_BRJB20220106GeorgeFerguson-08JPG.jpg\")
Former Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson (Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n“Let\u2019s not despair – good can come out of this ‘perfect storm\u2019”Former Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson (Image: BristolLive)<\/p>\n
The sudden stop in the drive to build high-rise flats on Bristol\u2019s industrial sites has been welcomed by the city\u2019s former mayor, who said he was \u2018heartened\u2019 to discover that a \u2018perfect storm\u2019 was putting the brakes on<\/a> the construction of tall residential buildings in the city. George Ferguson said he had been \u2018battling my successor\u2019s stampede into high-rise housing\u2019, saying it was doing \u2018damage\u2019 to established Bristol communities.<\/p>\n The architect, who was Bristol\u2019s first directly-elected mayor back in 2012, said the city should take the opportunity to switch to a different philosophy of building thousands of homes, and that \u2018good can come out of this perfect storm\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, Bristol Live reported that major property developers<\/a> who were leading the drive to build thousands of new homes in high rise flats on industrial sites from St Pauls and Fishponds to St Judes, Temple Meads and Bedminster<\/a>, were discovering a \u2018perfect storm\u2019 of economics, increased regulation and bureaucracy, and increased costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Developers across the city had paused starting work on major new housing projects, others had said their original plans were no longer economically viable<\/a>, and one industry expert said he didn\u2019t expect any large-scale projects to be completed for four years.<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest indication of the switch being flipped on Bristol\u2019s high-rise housing boom came when an industrial estate between Bedminster and Temple Meads was sold to an investor who wanted to keep it as an industrial estate<\/a>, despite the fact the city council had drawn up a \u2018development brief\u2019 for as many as 1,500 new homes to be built there<\/a>.<\/p>\n That industrial property investor was prepared to pay more for the land off Mead Street than any property developer – with the increased costs in building large-scale high rise developments making it not economically viable for developers to buy it.<\/p>\n Mr Ferguson – who served one term as directly elected mayor of Bristol, before losing to Labour<\/a> \u2019s Marvin Rees<\/a> in 2016 – said he was delighted to discover that the tide appears to be turning in the housing market in this way, and that we need to solve the problem of needing to build thousands of new homes in a different way.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol’s high-rise housing boom stopped by ‘perfect storm’<\/a>READ MORE: Building up or building out? Do we solve Bristol’s housing crisis with skyscrapers or new suburbs?<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was heartened to read this,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been batting on about my successor\u2019s stampede into high rise housing and the damage it is doing to established Bristol communities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the product of a simplistic knee-jerk reaction to solving what is a desperate housing crisis, while we should have learnt from the mistakes of the past and created sustainable mixed use communities where families can live, thrive, work and play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems that every city landowner has been encouraged to apply for monocultures of high rise residential development without an understanding of what makes for good high density living or a sound city economy. High density does not have to mean high rise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Many of the issues now facing property developers stem from increased regulation on high-rise buildings. New laws mean any residential building over 18m tall has to have two staircases, as a consequence of the Grenfell fire tragedy, and a new Government body overseeing building regulations was set up under-resourced and has since become over-run, with lengthy and expensive delays in giving the go-ahead to projects after they have obtained planning permission.<\/p>\n George Ferguson said he has \u2018always been astonished\u2019 the rules were so lax in the first place. \u201cHigh rise buildings may have their place in city planning – but since the demise of real city planning we have allowed the financiers and developers to lead with little or no consideration for our historic areas or long term outcomes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cGenerally the real cost of these buildings are left for others to pick up, as has too often been the case with the post-Grenfell cladding scandal. As an architect trained in the 60s and subsequently President of the RIBA I have always been astonished that in the UK we have been able to build tall buildings with a single means of escape – what has proved to be a murderous policy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n But if the new regulations mean it is not economically viable to build high-rise blocks of flats anymore in Bristol, that\u2019s a positive thing, Mr Ferguson said.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s look at the positives of the situation Bristol finds itself in. We need places for real work, so the story could be that the city centre industry is saved,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has become increasingly difficult to find central sites to make things with a presumption of housing pricing-out all industry,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Victory for campaigners as council terminates development partner from major regeneration site<\/a>READ MORE: New Bristol ‘build-to-rent’ apartments almost \u00a32,000 a month<\/a><\/p>\n The answer is to build low-rise but just as dense, he said. \u201cOf course we need amenable places for people to live, which can be provided with up to five or six storey development defining communal streets and spaces – thereby avoiding the on-cost of building above 18 metres with all the additional regulations, and yet producing equivalent densities,\u201d Mr Ferguson said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is interesting that the Hill Group are developing a site adjacent to the Tobacco Factory on Raleigh Road which was promoted by the agents as blocks of flats<\/a> but are building predominately streets of houses<\/a>. If this is the outcome of the \u2018perfect storm\u2019 maybe we should be delighted?<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2_TCBR221224MeadStreetBRI.jpg\")
The land at Mead Street outlined in orange, which is being sold by estate agents Cushman & Wakefield. The Totterdown houses are in the bottom right overlooking the site, with Temple Meads station in the centre right and St Mary Redcliffe School on the opposite bank of the New Cut River Avon in the centre left of the image(Image: Cushman & Wakefield)<\/p>\n![\"first](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2_JMP_SWA_020921_Castle_Park_View_068_JPG.jpg\")
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees on the roof of the new Castle Park View 26-storey tower block (Image: John Myers)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_TCR_BRI020823BoatyardBRIjpeg.jpg\")
The unfinished Boatyard development on Bath Road in Totterdown(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Brabazon-The-Hangar-District-couple-on-streetJPG.jpg\")
(Image: YTL)<\/p>\n