Greengage worked closely with Planit to support Hull’s City Centre Vision, an ambitious, sustainable 20-year strategy to guide investment and regeneration in the city centre.
Since its maritime heyday, Hull has faced socio-economic and infrastructure challenges, including climate-related risks, with significant flooding of areas in the city. However, within these challenges lies a city with great potential, incredible heritage and cultural assets, riverside setting, maritime history, and entrepreneurial residents and businesses.
Hull City Council commissioned Greengage to work alongside Planit’s Urban Designer team to reimagine the city centre. The aim was to create a prosperous, inclusive and liveable city. This includes thriving neighbourhoods, quality housing, enhanced shopping and leisure, accessible green spaces and a strong cultural and creative identity that celebrates Hull’s maritime story. The resulting City Centre Vision (CCV) sets out a spatial plan and investment roadmap shaped by strategic drivers including climate resilience, innovation, health, productivity, and re-establishing a residential population and strengthened workforce within the city centre.
Credit: Virtual Planit
Embedding sustainability, climate resilience and social value
Greengage embedded sustainability, climate resilience and measurable social value into the CCV, working with Planit’s Regenerative Design tool to develop and assess the most impactful interventions to shape the CCV’s key drivers. To achieve this, we undertook a comprehensive socio-economic and environmental baseline and supported a robust engagement programme.
- Socio-economic baseline: Greengage analysed demographics, diversity, health, education, crime, housing and economic activity. The study highlighted high levels of long-term sickness and disability, above-average economic inactivity, low qualification levels and limited youth engagement with education, alongside elevated rates of violent crime. These insights identified key social challenges and opportunities that directly shaped the CCV’s priorities and proposed interventions.
- Environmental baseline: Greengage assessed biodiversity, green infrastructure, climate adaptation, and carbon and energy performance. The baseline highlighted fragmented green spaces and poor connectivity, with existing blue-green infrastructure mainly along the river corridor. Climate analysis identified Hull’s high flood risk and heat island challenges, requiring sustainable drainage and resilience measures. The carbon review noted high energy demand and limited renewables, pointing to opportunities for retrofitting, district heating expansion, and low-carbon mobility to support Hull’s net zero carbon pathway.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Regular collaboration with the City Council Project Group, including senior officers and political portfolio holders, ensured key decisions were informed and aligned. Alongside this, two rounds of targeted stakeholder engagement (including ward members and MPs) and two major public consultations provided critical insights. These discussions highlighted priorities such as better accessibility and transport, more high-quality public spaces, an early-evening economy, and increased city centre living. One-to-one sessions with stakeholders enabled detailed collaboration on draft proposals, with many continuing to support the project, integral to the Social Value Framework.
- Social Value Framework: As part of the commission, Greengage developed a bespoke Social Value Framework for the city, enabling social value to be targeted where most needed, and clearly tracked as projects came forward. The framework used recognised opensource metrics and included city-specific actions, while remaining flexible for differing neighbourhood needs.
The vision: a connected, liveable and climate-ready city
The CCV promotes environmentally sustainable development aligned with Hull’s net zero carbon strategy. It addresses climate and biodiversity emergencies through targeted actions and proposes new neighbourhoods designed to reconnect people with the city, creating cohesive, connected communities with diverse amenities to support a resilient and liveable city.
Key interventions proposed include enhanced streetscapes, a sustainable transport hierarchy, mobility hubs linking places with active-travel routes, and improved public transport. These measures will help reduce transport emissions, increase climate resilience, improve air quality and create a more inclusive, accessible centre, supporting Hull’s Child Friendly City ambition. Additionally, new nature-rich, public green spaces have been planned along active-travel routes, with parks and play areas vital for wellbeing, activity, cohesion and strengthened biodiversity.
The CCV supports Hull’s net zero carbon strategy through reduced vehicle use, EV public transport and mobility hubs, retrofitting buildings to retain character and reduce carbon, applying new-build carbon standards, increased planting for carbon sequestration, and neighbourhood densities that enable district heating expansion and renewable energy use. Strengthened links to surrounding communities, key employment destinations, and major green and blue infrastructure corridors form a critical part of the long-term sustainability and liveability of the city centre. These strategies align with the emerging Hull Local Plan and support the wider regional priorities of the new Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Together, these interventions provide a clear roadmap for delivering a city centre that is healthier, greener, more inclusive and economically resilient, a place that celebrates Hull’s heritage while preparing it for a thriving future.
