Sheffield City Council is looking to the future with the aim of strengthening the whole city, beyond current regeneration plans.

The Council commissioned planning and regeneration experts Deloitte to help it develop this wider strategy. This work has resulted in a proposed City Centre Strategic Vision. The main aim of the proposed vision is to:

Create a more liveable and sustainable city centre

The City Centre Strategic Vision proposes creating homes for thousands more people in the city centre itself. Creating permanent communities will mean the city centre is more vibrant, more viable and more sustainable. Encouraging more people to live here will ensure it is activated, populated and safe by day and night. This new population will help to sustain shops, restaurants, bars and a leisure offer, which can then be accessed by, and create jobs for, the wider city. 

Create distinct city centre neighbourhoods

The Vision proposes the expansion and creation of a series of distinctive neighbourhoods throughout the city centre. These neighbourhoods will have different roles supporting different people to ensure the city centre has something for everyone. There will be new residential neighbourhoods to expand the city centre population, as well as neighbourhoods which have a different primary role, such as commercial, learning or retail. The neighbourhoods will provide a mix of homes, public spaces, retail, entertainment, places to work and key services. They will connect with the city centre’s existing identity and create distinctive places that people want to feel part of.

The creation of new neighbourhoods should be guided by key themes, delivered through a number of principles or activities, designed to realise the vision for a strong, vibrant and thriving city centre in the 21st century.

The key themes are as follows: 

  To achieve this vision of a successful city centre, the strategy outlines ten guiding principles:

  1. Repopulate the city centre with 20,000 new homes over the next 18 years as well as provide the required services, such as schools and health facilities.
  2. Create jobs opportunities to attract and retain skilled people in the city.
  3. Improve connections to and between areas in the city centre. 
  4. Use existing distinctive architecture to give each area a unique character.
  5. Diversify the main retail area to include new uses to help the city centre adapt to a new, more varied role as a place to shop, relax, live, work and be entertained.
  6. Maximise the use of outdoor public spaces to encourage more people to use them. 
  7. Create distinct neighbourhoods aimed at those in different life stages (e.g. for families or young professionals). 
  8. Require all future development and activities to contribute towards achieving Sheffield City Council’s Net Zero Carbon targets, including enabling city centre residents to adopt low carbon lifestyles.
  9. Anticipate the evolving challenges likely to face city centres, and manage the city centre in a way that allows it to be ready to adapt as challenges emerge rather than following them. 
  10. Encourage public and private sector partnership working so that organisations, businesses and other groups with an interest in the city centre work together to create a successful city centre that benefits everyone.

Download the full ‘City Centre Strategic Vision’ document: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/618e7c6cbb553e1ee381540a/t/61dc033b465d877dcae728f0/1641808725335/SCC-Strategic-Vision_Final.pdf