Playing out of space: young people, cities and Manchester’s regeneration challenge
As Manchester’s skyline fills with cranes and glass towers, a quieter question is emerging at ground level: where are children meant to play?
Across the UK, policymakers are beginning to examine how the built environment shapes childhood. A House of Commons select committee investigated how planning, transport and housing policy affect young people’s health and development — and whether modern cities are squeezing children out of public space altogether.
The debate feels particularly urgent in Manchester, often described as the “powerhouse of the North”, where rapid regeneration is transforming neighbourhoods at speed. New apartments, offices and retail districts promise economic growth. But campaigners and researchers warn that child-friendly spaces are too often an afterthought.
Louise Whitley, a senior specialist in the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit who has worked closely on children and the built environment, said during an interview with NQ that access to outdoor play is not a lifestyle extra but a public health and economic issue.
“Even if you don’t have children, you want healthy taxpayers,” she said. “You want people who are physically fit and mentally well enough to work. The best way to secure that is to make sure children have space to get outside and exercise — not just be stuck on screens because it’s too dangerous or they get shouted at for playing out.”
Concerns about screen time and digital dependency often dominate conversations about young people. But Whitley says the problem is less about children choosing devices and more about the environments available to them.
“The research shows children don’t actually want to be online all the time. They want to be outside with their friends, the environment just means they can’t,” she said.
Traffic is one of the biggest barriers, said Whitley: “Cars and the amount of cars on the roads now play a massive part in how new developments are designed- more around cars than around the needs of children”.
For previous generations, streets functioned as informal playgrounds.
“Everyone played out together. You didn’t need money or a lift somewhere — the street was the equal space. That just doesn’t happen now because of cars and fear.”
The impact is not felt equally. Restricting phone use or encouraging outdoor play may be realistic for families with gardens or access to organised activities, Whitley notes, but is far harder for children growing up in high-rise flats or areas where green space has been used as development space.
She added: “What about all these kids that live in 18 story tower blocks? What are they going to be doing at home in the evenings when the parents work here? And they can’t just go out and play because their playground’s been built over.”
Some Manchester developments are attempting to address this. Giving evidence to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Joanna Averley, the government’s Chief Planner, highlighted Mayfield Park — a new six-acre green space near Piccadilly — as an example of putting public space first.
“The public realm, with a very significant amount of play, is coming before the development,” she said, describing it as the “glue” around which homes and offices will be built.
But as regeneration accelerates across the city, questions remain about whether such projects are the exception rather than the rule.
For urban planners, the stakes go beyond recreation. Research increasingly links outdoor play with physical health, social skills and cognitive development. In a country facing an ageing population and unstable employment prospects for younger generations, investment in childhood wellbeing may prove economically critical as well as socially just.
If Manchester wants to build a city fit for the future, Whitley suggests, it may need to look down from the skyline and back to the street.
Because for many children, the issue is simple: they are not choosing screens over the outdoors — they are running out of places to go.