Letters on Liberty: In Defence of a New Suburbia

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2024 on Saturday 19 October at Church House, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

Open debate has been suffocated by today’s censorious climate and there is little cultural support for freedom as a foundational value. What we need is rowdy, good-natured disagreement and people prepared to experiment with what freedom might mean today. Faced with this challenge, the Academy of Ideas decided to launch Letters on Liberty – a radical public pamphleteering campaign aimed at reimagining arguments for freedom in the twenty-first century.

In his Letter – In Defence of a New Suburbia – retired councillor and housing expert Simon Cooke writes a defence of suburbia, challenging the sneering elitism of NIMBYs and city dwellers alike. Suburbia represented the triumph of the middle-class, he argues – a place built in their image, containing the things that made their lives good. A good suburb has soft edges – it provides for community and allows space for football, dog walks and throwing frisbees. If we are to sort out our housing crisis and provide the homes people want, he writes, we need to win the argument for why suburbia isn’t simply second best to city living, but the sought-after ideal for most families in search of freedom.

Join Simon and respondents to discuss the future potential of a new suburbia. Does the discussion about housing neglect a consideration for what kind of community people seek when looking for a home? Do the ULEZ or low-traffic neighbourhoods pose a new threat to the car-dependent suburb? Is it better to raise families in the quiet of suburbia, or does the hubbub of the city offer opportunities that are absent further out? And should we overcome our snobbery towards suburbia, if we’re to build decent homes for the millions of people who need them?

SPEAKERS
Simon Cooke
urbanist; former regeneration portfolio holder and leader of the Conservative group, Bradford City Council; author, In Defence of  a New Suburbia

Helen MacNeil
consultant architect, shedkm; founder, Honest Architecture (HA!) free-speech dinners

Shelagh McNerney
head of regeneration, Manchester City Council

Lord Kulveer Ranger
member, House of Lords; former director for transport policy, Mayor of London

CHAIR
Dr Michael Owens
urban planning consultant and lecturer; author, Play the Game