The natural solution – unlocking the power of nature in city design and climate adaptation

Resilient cities: The future is now

In a cross-industry roundtable, hosted by Cripps, convened leaders across real-estate, urban planning, investment, infrastructure and insurance confronted the realities of climate risk and chart practical, scalable pathways needed to future-proof our cities and safeguard asset value.

Using the framework of The London Climate Resilience Review (2024), participants explored pathways for action across three key areas identified in the report:

• Blue and green infrastructure – see article below
• New development and retrofit – Rethinking resilience: Why London’s planning system must catch up with it’s ambitions
• Investing for change – Driving investment and change: Financing climate resilience in the built environment

As UK cities face mounting climate challenges and shifting urban demands, the need for resilient, nature-integrated development has never been more urgent. Across the country, local authorities, businesses, and communities are exploring new ways to embed nature into the fabric of city life. From rewilded parks to retrofitted homes, these efforts reflect a growing recognition that nature is not just a backdrop, but a vital part of the solution. This article explores key case studies, barriers to progress, and emerging strategies for scaling nature-led resilience across UK cities.

Case studies in developing resilience

Several pioneering initiatives offer blueprints for resilient development:

• KW Housing Portfolio is transitioning single-family homes away from gas dependency, aligning with the upcoming Future Homes Standard. Independent contractors are increasingly open to flexible, low-carbon solutions with some resistance from larger scale builders.
• Springfield Campus, University of Wolverhampton, transformed a 12-acre Grade II listed brewery into a £120 million super-campus for architecture and the built environment. It now hosts Europe’s largest specialist facility in this field.
• Aviva’s Access to Nature Fund supports projects like the Norfolk Rivers Trust, enhancing biodiversity and accessibility in urban green spaces. From pond-dipping trails to rewilding initiatives, these efforts reconnect communities with nature.
• The Cyan Lines in Manchester proposes a 100-mile blue-green corridor, integrating water and nature into the city’s infrastructure with funding and support from public and private sector collaboration.
• Mile End Park Regeneration in London used Section 106 funding to create a 92-acre linear park with earth-sheltered buildings, biodiversity zones, and revenue-generating retail spaces.

Barriers to progress

Despite promising examples, systemic challenges persist:

• Short-termism and competing priorities often stall nature-based projects.
• Siloed initiatives lack coordination, limiting their collective impact.
• Whole-life cost analysis is difficult in a volatile market, making it hard to build investor confidence.
  – Retrofitting remains underutilised. As of 2025, there are over 272,000 long-term empty homes in England alone. Incentivising retrofit and making it the starting point for development — through planning requirements and with incentives like VAT removal—could unlock significant housing and sustainability gains.

Emerging opportunities

Momentum is building around several strategic shifts:

• Mindset change: Moving from status quo to objective needs analysis—do we need to build at all?
• Operational improvements: Investing in ground-level skills and delivery capacity.
• Investor confidence: Strengthening ROI narratives with bold leadership from business and government.
• Local Authorities: Empowering councils to act as conveners across boroughs, while streamlining demands to avoid overload. Exploring effective use of carbon offset payments to local authorities
• GLA’s role: The Greater London Authority can serve as a “golden thread,” aligning stakeholders and setting priorities.

Scaling solutions

To move from pilots to systemic change:

• Modern urban design increasingly blends blue and green infrastructure with grey systems to create resilient, liveable cities to reduce climate risks (like flooding and heatwaves) and enhance public health and wellbeing. Develop a City Design Code or Playbook, enabling local authorities to interpret GLA’s strategy across a spectrum from full blue green to grey infrastructure.
• Recognise nature and carbon as interlinked—healthy ecosystems mean healthier people and this has a meaningful benefit and value.
• Establish a single cohesive authority within GLA to drive change.
• Prioritise action over perfection—scale good ideas and communicate them effectively.
• Engage insurers and legal experts to create investable models for natural assets.