The Planner January 2017 by The Planner

JANUARY 2017 IS AIRBNB UNDERMINING HOUSING SUPPLY? // p.18 • BACK FROM THE EDGE: HULL, UK CITY OF CULTURE 2017 // p.26 • PUBLIC PLANNING CHARRETTES IN ST ALBANS // p.30 • GETTING 11 18 YEAR OLDS INTERESTED IN PLANNING // p.38

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CONTENTS

PLANNER 06 22

THE

JANU ARY

20 17

“I’VE RECONNECTED WITH THE ZEAL OF MY YOUTH AND THE ENTHUSIASM I HAD FOR PLANNING AS A 17YEAROLD”

NEWS

6 National parks face major development proposals

7 Irish minister fleshes out key parts of planning framework

OPINION

8 Local plans fail to address climate change 9 Scottish Government proposes fourfold hike in planning charges 10 90% of councils think government housing targets are ‘impossible’ 11 Welsh ministers want help in delivering new development framework

14 Chris Shepley: Manchester’s regeneration game is not over yet 16 Alexandra Jones: Planning policy is key to stemming brain drain 16 Ben en Stephenson: Steph How to kick-start kick-s stalled house b building in South Wales 17 Stefan Webb: Digital D tools can make pla planning more transparent 17 Cristina Howick: The housing white paper – a wish list

18 Airbnb has been blamed worldwide for undermining housing supply. Huw Morris reports 22 Editor Martin Read interviews 2017 RTPI president Stephen Wilkinson 26 Hull is undergoing a reappraisal, thanks to its designation as UK City of Culture 2017 32 St Albans city centre presents tough planning problems. Can a public charrette solve them?

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“WE ARE UNNECESSARILY LOSING HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN BEL BELFAST” ULSTER ARCHITECTURAL HERITA HERITAGE SOCIETY ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THREE HI HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN BELFAST, DAYS BEFORE THEY WERE W TO BE DISCUSSED FOR LISTING

COV E R I M AG E | PE T E R S E A R L E

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INSIGHT

FEATURES

34 Decisions in focus: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 38 Career Development: Being a ‘Planning Ambassador’

40 Legal landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: The pyramid theory of urban regeneration and paranormal plans

50 J ANU AR Y 2 01 7 / THE PLA NNER

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PLAN UPFRONT

Leaderr Painting a positive picture of planning as we enter 2017 – It is the editor’s lot to check back occasionally on major milestones, reports and anniversaries with a view to assessing the progress made in subsequent months. So it is that I looked back at this very column from 12 months ago to get a sense of how planning priorities may have changed. Of course, you’re probably ahead of me at this stage – because year on year, they haven’t really changed at all. As we entered the year of Brexit, Trump and the vague new sense of uneasiness triggered by those events, housing was still the topic seen as most likely to put planning on to the political frontline. (The government’s Starter Homes initiative was the event making the headlines as we moved from 2015 to 2016.) It’s diﬃcult to believe quite how much has changed since then. One referendum later and

Martin Read everything seems to have changed completely. Since Theresa May took over at No.10 we’ve seen planning policy back in the garage for further modiﬁcations while entirely new personnel have taken over at the Department for Communities and Local Government. And now, in an event likely to be happening just as this edition of The Planner lands, we have the May administration’s new white paper on housing to

contend with. Pressure to speed up the publication of local plans, the possible relaxation of building regulations and considerably higher housing targets are all likely to be making the news in January. And so, as a result, planning – and planning’s place in defining communities and affecting environments – is likely to be enjoying a higher national profile than it has had in quite some time. Of course, having planning and planners in the spotlight has got to be good news, and even before the tumultuous events of

“PLANNING – AND PLANNING’S PLACE IN DEFINING COMMUNITIES AND AFFECTING ENVIRONMENTS – IS LIKELY TO HAVE A HIGHER NATIONAL PROFILE THAN IT HAS HAD IN QUITE SOME TIME”

2016 there was a sense that now is planning’s time. With the continuing housing crisis as a backdrop, the theme was of planners taking back control of the agenda; of pointing with more vigour and conﬁdence to the importance of the role and the absurdities of others blaming the planning profession rather than engaging with it. New RTPI president Stephen Wilkinson is the latest to make a compelling case for planning (see page 22). As we enter 2017, we at The Planner intend to play our part with some fresh new content, of which more in coming months. For now, we encourage anyone using the spur of the new year to consider a fresh start to please visit http://jobs.theplanner. co.uk, where the latest job roles are advertised as well as useful and topical career development material. With planning connected to so much of the news agenda in 2017, let’s resolve to paint a positive picture of planning.

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Average net circulation 19,072 (January-December 2014) © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 17 Britton St, London EC1M 5TP. This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about planning issues and articles do not necessarily reﬂect the views of the RTPI nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in partww in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither RTPI nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed by Southernprint

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NEWS

Analysis { NATIONAL PARKS

National parks face major development proposals

national parks. Roads, quarries, tourist attractions and housing estates have been approved despite the test, according to research commissioned by the Campaign for National Parks (CNP), the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the National Trust. On their behalf, Sheﬃeld Hallam University looked at more than 70 planning applications for development in and close to national parks.

In the public interest

By Huw Morris Planners at the North York Moors National Park had serious reservations about the proposal for what would become the world’s largest potash mine by volume. It did not reach the highest bar for planning policy – the major development test. This clearly states that planning permission should be refused for major developments except in exceptional circumstances and where it can be demonstrated that they are in the public interest. Planners also found the economic benefits and the mitigation and compensation offered did not outweigh the extent of damage and clear conflict with the local

development plan. They advised that “the greater public interest is considered to be that of the statutory National Park purposes which protect the North York Moors for the beneﬁt of the nation”. Yet the proposal was approved by a single vote. The scheme, which includes a mine head at Dove’s Nest farm, Sneaton, with shafts up to 1,500 metres, may create up to 1,000 jobs. Campaigners say it could result in a 13 per cent reduction in visitor numbers and a loss of £35 million in direct tourism spending a year. It is a familiar tale of economic growth colliding with environmental protection – only this time at

The big problem is that interpretations of what constitutes major development and how it is implemented varies between park authorities. This opens the door to inadvertent policy

National parks and major development proposals Exmoor – fracking Lake District – new pylons, power lines and a nuclear power station proposed just outside the park boundary North York Moors – fracking Peak District – proposal to widen roads, fracking South Downs – application for oil extraction, fracking and proposal to widen roads Yorkshire Dales – quarrying and a large holiday complex

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shifts as authorities look at different local contexts and national significant with their interpretations. Part of the problem is vague but key phrases such as “public interest”, “national circumstances”, “national significance” and “exceptional circumstances”. True, the wording in the test has been amended over time in response to government planning policy changes and ministerial statements on its interpretation. But the research found little evidence that changes to major development policy have significantly affected national park decisions. Instead, decisions reflect central government’s agenda at any particular time and the challenge of supporting national parks while enabling local economic development. Amid the obligatory call for more guidance, campaigners demand that the government should reconfirm its commitment to national parks in the delayed 25-year plan for the environment and that protections are maintained when the UK leaves the EU. National park authorities should set out clearly in their local plan policies how the protection should be applied. Natural England should also publish an annual update on how the test is implemented. “It is essential the government confirms that protecting our national parks from damaging, inappropriate development remains a national priority,” says CNP policy manager Ruth Bradshaw. “These assets must be protected for future generations to benefit from.” I M AG E S | G E T T Y / A L A M Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

London mayor publishes guide on building aﬀordable homes

Irish minister fleshes out key parts of planning framework Minister for housing and urban renewal Damien English (pictured) has spelled out the Irish Government’s aspirations for the new National Planning Framework (NPF), which will succeed the National Spatial Strategy. His comments came in a speech at a planning seminar organised by the University College Dublin. English said the framework, Ireland 2040, would differ from its predecessor in a number of ways, including that it would be a framework not in sole ownership of the government. “It will be approved by Dáil Éireann. It will be the definitive statement on the future strategic development of the country. And it will be more strategic and more concise than its predecessor,” he said. Three new regional spatial and economic strategies will be developed alongside the NPF. These will be prepared by the three regional assemblies and will coordinate their local economic development and planning functions. English said the NPF needed to “identify where and how our housing needs are best met and identify our regions’ key assets for economic development and job creation”. The framework would also “specify the location, delivery and funding of critical infrastructure and enhance the role of planning our sustainability and greenness”.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has published supplementary planning guidance that seeks to speed up decisions in the planning system and increase the levels of affordable housing. He has also set out a funding programme for how the £3.15 billion allocated to City Hall in the Autumn Statement will support the building of 90,000 affordable homes. Previous affordable housing investment rules were rigid, said Khan, including no investment for mainstream low-cost rented housing. After negotiations with the government, new rules mean investment in the capital can be spent on a mix of homes for low-cost rent and affordable home ownership. Therefore, the 90,000 affordable homes will be a mix of low-cost rent, shared ownership and London Living Rent (one-third of the average household incomes in each borough). Most of the homes will be delivered by housing associations under the condition that plans must include a minimum of 50 per cent affordable housing. Khan’s Draft Affordable Housing And Viability Supplementary Planning Guidance 2016 covers the threshold approach to viability appraisals and a specific approach to build to rent schemes.

New social housing regulator mooted The government has proposed that the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) social housing regulation function should become a separate public body. The recommendation is made in the tailored review guidance that considered the HCA. It aims to help improve its eﬃciency and provide “greater focus” to its house building work. The review suggests that the HCA is well positioned to help achieve national house building ambitions and to play a “vital role in creating a housing market for everyone”. The HCA should continue as a public body, added the government, with a “renewed and

He has proposed a build to rent ‘pathway’ through the planning system to increase the number of this type of housing and the quality of them. Its key principles include a clear deﬁnition of Build to Rent with guidance on how and when a covenant through planning should apply to a build to rent scheme. The suggested covenant is 15 years and longer tenancies, “ideally three years or more”, would be oﬀered. All homes in a development would need to be build to rent. Public consultation on the guidance will close on 28 February 2017. n The guide is on the Greater London Authority website: tinyurl.com/planner0117-londonplan

revitalised” purpose of supporting house building and increasing the supply of available land. But the government suggests that the HCA’s social housing regulation function should be a separate body, an administrative change that would not affect the regulator’s powers or operations. Gavin Barwell, housing and planning minister, said: “As a new standalone body, the regulator will ensure the social housing sector continues to benefit from strong, independent governance.” Julian Ashby, chair of the HCA regulation committee, said: “The decision to separate the regulator from the HCA will strengthen our ability to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes that meet a range of needs. A consultation into the proposal to make the HCA’s regulation function a separate body will run until 27 January 2017. n The tailored review can be found here. tinyurl.com/planner0117-tailored

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NEWS

Analysis { CLIMATE CHANGE

Local plans are failing to address climate change of resourcing “restricting the ability of planners to respond positively to pressures for development while meeting the challenges of environmental sustainability”.

By Laura Edgar England is “critically unprepared” for climate change. That was Hugh Ellis’s conclusion following the publication of a recent Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) report. The interim chief executive and head of policy at the TCPA said the severe weather that is aﬀecting on the country now means climate change “is not a 2050 issue, or a 2100 issue. It is an issue right now; the eﬀects are now and we need to respond”. And England is “critically unprepared in relation to the risks as we understand them now, absolutely critically unprepared over time”, he added. The report, Planning For The Climate Challenge? Understanding The Performance Of English Local Plans, considers how local plans published since the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was produced in 2012 are addressing climate change.

‘Complex and contradictory’ It aims to establish the extent to which mitigation and adaptation to climate change are reflected in local plan policy. Policy and legislation on climate change are poorly understood while the governance of climate change issues at a local level is “complex and sometimes contradictory,” says the report. “Local planning authorities are not supported by a national agency to secure national carbon dioxide emissions reduction objectives, while the specific challenge of flooding is reliant upon the support of the environment agency.” Although the NPPF does provide a clear approach to climate change, it also contains policy on viability “which prevents some key actions from being delivered”.

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Additional support and resources

“In practice,” Ellis said, “a clear political signal has been sent to local authorities to de-prioritise climate change and instead to focus solely on the allocation of housing land.”

Government must shift focus While housing growth is vital it must be in the right place and to the right standards to deal with the future impacts of climatic change, he said. “The government must act to refocus the system to look at outcomes that will result in secure, resilient and low carbon places.” James Harris, policy and networks manager, RTPI, said planning has “a central role to play in creating places which minimise emissions and are resilient to environmental risk”. “Through the UK Climate Change Act, national planning policy and guidance, we have a strong framework for meeting these objectives. However, this research makes it clear that far more needs to be done to embed climate change into local plans.” RTPI research into the value of planning supports the ﬁndings of the TCPA report, with continual changes to the planning system and a lack

Harris said there has been an accumulation of court judgments, inspectors’ decisions and ministerial statements that serve to delay local plan preparation, and can result in a greater focus on housing need during the examination process. The abandonment of the Zero Carbon Homes policy and lack of clarity on the adoption of Sustainable Drainage Systems are examples of policy shifts that make it harder for local authorities to address climate change. “Additional support and resourcing will be necessary if planning departments are to engage in long-term strategic planning for climate change,” said Harris. n The report can be found here: tinyurl.com/planner0117-tcpa-climate

Planning For The Climate Challenge? makes a number of recommendations, including: • Re-prioritise climate change in the local plan system • Provide clarity in national policy • Deﬁne the scope of climate evidence in local plans • Encourage spatial planning over the long term – there should be greater emphasis on the need to plan for 50 to 100 years.

I M AG E S | S H U T T E RSTO C K / I STO C K

20/12/2016 15:09

PLAN UPFRONT

Scottish Government proposes fourfold hike in planning charges The Scottish Government has proposed that fees for major planning applications should be increased nearly fourfold. Proposals include a fee maximum of £125,000 for most categories of development (£62,500 for applications for planning permission in principle). Planning fees are now capped at £18,270, £20,055 and £30,240 depending on the category of development. The government said a rise is needed so that the service could move to full cost recovery. It has published a consultation paper setting out the proposals. The paper includes details of a reduced charge per housing unit or per 0.1 hectare for developments over a certain size to ensure that Scottish applicants do not pay more than they would in other administrations. “We will be considering wider changes to the fee structure, including scope for further discretionary charging taking account of changes to the planning system ﬂowing from the review,” explained the government. In the paper Repositioning Planning RTPI Scotland called for planning fees to fully cover the costs of processing applications. Craig McLaren, director of RTPI Scotland, said: “Currently only 63 per cent of costs are covered so the proposal goes some way to rebalanced this. We have also called for fees to be ring-fenced so that they are reinvested in development management. Properly resourcing the planning system is paramount given the 20 per cent reduction in staﬀ we have see between 2010 and 2015.” n You can read the consultation document here: tinyurl.com/planner0117-consultation

Belfast takes city deal bid to Stormont Belfast City Council has taken its bid to secure a city growth deal to Stormont. This follows a meeting in Westminster attended by chief executive Suzanne Wylie, Belfast MPs, senior political ﬁgures, local councillors, business leaders and investors. It aimed to address how the council would develop a plan to secure a deal for Belfast to boost the economy and create jobs across the city. The debate in Parliament Buildings focused on how Belfast could improve its competitiveness. The council said there was potential to use a “real partnership” and city devolution with the Northern Ireland Executive and UK Government to build on the city’s strengths to “become a modern, dynamic region”. Wylie said: “Belfast has always had a distinguished history as a pioneering city – it now needs to take its place as a modern, international city that can successfully compete with others in global trade networks. “Just like Manchester and Glasgow, we need to champion Belfast to have more powers to grow and prosper, to attract investors whilst also improving the lives of everyone in the city. “Belfast certainly has the assets, the opportunity and the political will to implement a radical agenda for change that will transform the lives of those living in the city and further aﬁeld.”

Planners must be creative about station renewal Planners need to be at the heart of the station regeneration process, and they must be ﬂexible and creative in their approach, an RTPI-TPS conference audience has heard. In April 2016, The Planner reported on the launch of the Station Regeneration Programme, a project between the Homes and Communities Agency and Network Rail to develop railway stations and surrounding land to deliver up to 10,000 homes around them. David Crook, assistant director of station regeneration at the Cities and Local Growth Unit, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, spoke to the audience about what planning can do for the Station Regeneration Programme.

There is, Crook said, “very strong” National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and government policy support for delivering around commuter hubs and stations generally, and there is often very good local plan principal support for it too. He encouraged planners to support this, and to “really try to use it”. “What is really important about that is planners need to be at the heart of the process, but they need to be ﬂexible and creative as part of that process, not too regulatory,” said Crook. “I’m not saying that you just let everything go, that anyone can build anything as long as it is near a station. But you need to have that creativity and you need to look at the bigger picture.”

Crook told planners to fully understand their partners, to “really focus on outcomes, not process”, which is what he said makes station regeneration more than the sum of its parts. There are challenges at stations, such as contaminated land, but these could be overcome, said Crook. “The really diﬃcult thing, I think, is that it is making something more than just building houses, it is actually creating gateways to our towns and cities – and that it is where planners can really lead this.” n Information about the RTPI-TPS Transport Planning Network: tinyurl.com/planner0117-stations

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NEWS

Analysis { HOUSING ON SMALL SITES

90% of councils think government housing targets are ‘impossible’ By Laura Edgar Nearly 90 per cent of local authorities believe that the government’s housing targets are impossible to meet as a result of a lack of planning resources. That was the conclusion drawn from a recent survey forming part of research conducted by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) and the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU). It draws on the experiences of 91 local authorities and 108 SME builders across the UK. The government is aiming to build one million homes by 2020, but, according to Brian Berry, chief executive at the FMB, the target will not be realised unless more SME house builders can enter the housing market. Small Is Beautiful: Delivering Homes Through Small Sites suggests that 64 per cent of builders and 45 per cent of local authorities see cuts to planning departments as a barrier to developing more small sites. Additionally, the survey notes: • 55 per cent of councils said the quality of applications is often poor; • 79 per cent of SME builders said the planning system is too heavy-handed; and • 80 per cent of SME builders said local authorities do not proactively communicate or engage with them.

Berry said the availability of suitable small sites and difficulty getting planning permission on them are two of the biggest barriers SME house builders face. “In this research, both local authorities and SME builders identify underresourcing as a key barrier to allocating more small sites and getting planning permissions in place on them,” he said. Further to this, small sites are often dealt with entirely by inexperienced officers. For Berry, there simply are not enough senior and experienced planners to make the system work effectively. The untapped potential in large sites is difficult to unlock owing to pressures on resources and capacity, said Jonathan Carr-West, LGiU chief executive. “We need new approaches and new partnerships to build the homes we need. By working with a wider range of local builders, councils can stimulate local economic growth, while providing jobs and training for young people in the area.” Speaking to The Planner, Trudi Elliott, chief executive at the RTPI, said the institute is clear that if the housing crisis is going to be solved, “we need collectively to do everything better”. This includes the development of smaller sites and the encouragement of smaller builders. “The RTPI identified these in our 16

ways to solve the housing crisis. Other recommendations such as those on planning fees and SMEs are in both this report and ours. “The RTPI has consistently argued that the resources available to local authority planning departments, which our research shows have had some of the worst cuts in local authorities, are critical to the proactive role this report urges from them,” she added.

DELIVERING ON SMALL SITES The report, Small Is Beautiful, states that the homes needed cannot be built on large sites alone. In order to support housing delivery on small sites, the report recommends that: • Local planning authorities should be required to include in local plans a strategic consideration of the contribution small sites can make to housing delivery and how they can enable this to come forward. • Councils should pool and share staﬀ, skills and resources on a regional basis to be able to draw on the broadest range of skills and develop expertise in enabling small sites. • Central government should give councils the power to set and vary planning fees locally where extra revenue can be ringfenced and good service levels guaranteed. • Councils should seek to reduce complexity and uncertainty in the application process, by using coordinating codes, where appropriate, and through early engagement on key issues like conditions and s.106 obligations.

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PLAN UPFRONT

WMCA awards devolution funding to Coventry The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has approved devolution funding for a mixeduse scheme in Coventry. Plans include retail, residential and leisure facilities such as a cinema. The approval of up to £98.8 million effectively gives Coventry City Council the go-ahead for the scheme for the south of the city centre. This follows on from WMCA’s decision to allocate £7 million to the creation of industrial units at Kingswood Lakeside, near Cannock. Bob Sleigh, WMCA chair, said the decision is an example of how the region’s devolution deal is beginning to have a “real impact”. “Yes, we are here to set policy – but we are also here to make a difference to people’s lives in ways they can see and feel, with more jobs, a growing economy and better quality of life. “Supporting projects on this scale is key to that aim.” George Duggins, leader of Coventry City Council, added: “We’ve got ambitious and exciting plans for City Centre South, which will include new shops, a cinema, homes and a new car park that will transform the area around Bull Yard, Shelton Square and Market Way. “Coventry people have waited too long for improvements to the city centre. But this cash is a real boost and will mean we can crack on and select a developer. “We said we would make sure that our residents felt the benefits of our membership of the combined authority and this is the first cash boost, with more to come.”

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Welsh ministers want help to deliver new development framework The Welsh Government has issued a general call for evidence and notiﬁcation of projects to help it deliver the new national spatial framework – the so-called National Development Framework (NDF). The administration said it would welcome evidence on the role and scope of the NDF. Ministers want views on national issues the framework should address (areas for growth, infrastructure requirements and managing national assets). They also want views on:

The government also wants details of projects that: • Deliver the government’s planning objectives; • Are of national importance; • Can support the delivery of wider projects and initiatives as part of a joined-up and coordinated plan; and • Could not be dealt with at regional or local level. Roisin Willmott, director of RTPI Cymru, said: “The NDF provides a valuable opportunity to provide a strategic approach to the delivery of important infrastructure which is needed at a national level. This will help the government, investors and communities alike to ensure we deliver the right infrastructure in the right places. “This is an opportunity for everyone to input and support the establishment of this important approach for Wales.”

• How the NDF can maximise the opportunities from new development and the management of assets to ensure the planning system supports delivery of the government’s key strategic objectives; and • The NDF’s role in shaping the new-look regional strategic development plans and local authority local development plans.

Scottish Budget backs affordable homes, city deals and digital infrastructure Finance secretary Derek Mackay used the country’s Budget statement in December to announce investment in new and existing infrastructure projects to support sustainable economic growth. The headline measures included a commitment to complete the Queensferry Crossing, over £470 million direct capital investment to begin delivery of 50,000 affordable homes and over £140 million for energy efficiency programmes to help deliver Scotland’s climate change targets. The announcements also involved over £100 million investment in digital and mobile infrastructure, including support for the commitment to deliver 100 per cent broadband access by 2021. Mackay highlighted substantial funding for

strategic transport projects and city deals. He said the administration would “further develop the city region deals we have agreed with Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen and make progress with deals for the Edinburgh City Region, Stirling (and Clackmannanshire) and the Tay cities (Perth and Dundee together with Angus and the north of Fife). “We will also encourage regions facing economic challenge to identify and deliver a vision for inclusive growth, beginning with the proposals being developed by the three Ayrshire councils.” Mackay revealed he had signed with Dundee City Council the ﬁnancial agreement to allow the so-called Dundee Central Waterfront Growth Accelerator initiative to go ahead, supporting economic growth in the area – and 500 jobs.

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Martin Taylor — As planners, we get a lot of stick from politicians and the press for the developments we allow and the ones we refuse, so it is good to see planning officers, local councillors and a planning inspector all united in banning people from the green belt. Admittedly, in this case it is only three people (and a short piece of Kraken tentacle), but at least it is a start. Soon, hopefully, we will be able to ban all people from enjoying the green belt. The people in question? Pirates. Yes, pirates! And they could have been very threatening indeed, waving their swords in a hostile manner. To be fair, they couldn’t actually wave them as they were stationary, being made of fibre glass. But the planning system has stood firm in seeing off this attack on the ‘openness’ of the green belt. And I say ‘Hurrah!’. For goodness’ sake, what was the developer thinking in applying for an adventure golf course in the green belt next to an existing driving range, golf clubhouse and car park? If it had gone ahead, it could have attracted families to enjoy said green belt. Imagine the outcry! The golf club could have been invaded, not just by the pirates but by a horde of women, children, teenagers, young dads, even workingclass people. Ebenezer Howard must be turning in his grave. I’m sure the last thing he intended was for people from urban areas to get out into the green belt and enjoy it as some sort of clean air recreational lung. Obviously, the green belt

Two minutes with… Garrett Carr

GARRETT CARR is a lecturer in creative writing at Queen’s University Belfast, a successful children’s author and a maker of alternative maps of Ireland. His book The Rule Of The Land; Walking Ireland’s Borders will be published by Faber & Faber in early 2017.

Tell us about your forthcoming book The Rule Of The Land “It’s a portrait of Ireland’s border region, a postTroubles look at what this landscape could mean in the 21st century. I followed the 300-mile border from end to end, including sections where I had to canoe, and I made maps exploring many aspects of it – its history, its architecture, geology and natural life. I started the book before Brexit, and suddenly now the border has taken on an extra significance.” What do these maps reveal about people and place? “What I started discovering along the border was the unofficial border crossings. These are beyond the planning realm; so many of them are just a few neighbours getting together and deciding to hammer some planks together and make a bridge. These connections are like desire lines in urban planning – when people wanted to visit their cousins or a neighbouring village and were confronted with the

should be preserved for the few lucky enough to live in it. The developers argued that such a use would encourage new people to play golf in the green belt and contribute to the survival of the golf course as a viable business. But quite rightly, the inspector ignored

border, they just found their own way around it.” Why did you start making maps? “I was inspired by the work of cartographer Tim Robinson, who has made maps of the Aran Islands, and his idea of taking a deep look at a very small place. I wanted to look at places that were not already elevated in Ireland’s culture, that were more marginalised and maligned. By looking at the border, the idea was to take this almost forgotten landscape and open it up, to show it as an active region as opposed to just a troubling and divisive symbol.” Should the planning system be more led by the way people use space in reality? “There is a natural flow to things, like water, and planning needs to take this into account. There were plans to build a footbridge in between the Ormeau and Albert bridges in Belfast, offering a safe pedestrian and cycle route over the physical barrier of the River Lagan. These plans

such tosh. Now, thanks to the planning system, the green belt has been saved from the pirates and anyone else who is not a white, middle-upper class male golfer. And when the golf course closes for lack of suﬃcient member and non-member

showed a logical response to a people-centric problem – but they were dropped. I think the natural human urge to connect and take the shortest route to where people want to go should be given proper emphasis. If this had happened in this case the bridge would still be under way – and indeed, would have been built years ago.” Are there other areas that you are interested in mapping? “I’m looking to begin a book on Belfast, which is where I live. A lot of the anxieties and difficulties of urban living are exemplified here. The city is very disconnected in the way that it has been carved up, and knitting the city together is a painfully slow process. Lots of cities have their architecture of security, but here, because of the Troubles, you find more extreme examples of the same themes.” n Garrett Carr was talking to Martha Harris. Find out more about Garrett’s work and new book, and view his maps at www.garrettcarr.net/

players, we will get rid of these people too. Only then can the green belt revert to its rightful status as overgrown land with derelict buildings, and most importantly – no people! Martin Taylor MRTPI (Appeal Ref: APP/G5180/W/3152323)

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Transforming planning and building J ANU AR Y 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

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15/12/2016 17:49

CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Manchester’s regeneration game is not over yet Bit of a kerfuffle in Greater Manchester at the moment about the green belt. One of many unusual features of that GB, which is only about 30 years old, is that those who concocted it are still alive. I am aware that, in contemplating planning history, it’s fine to admire such luminaries as Abercrombie and Ebenezer, but not to take too much notice of more recent work. That’s why ministers keep making the same mistakes. I’m also aware that it is conventional these days to write the Greater Manchester Council from history, indeed to recoil in horror at its mention. Despite this, I shall not be prevented (all too briefly) from blowing the trumpets of those involved, especially as I was one of them, nor from describing the importance of that particular green belt, which changed perceptions and altered national guidance. In the 1970s the ‘inner city’ was not yet a thing. Regeneration was not a buzzword. The term ‘brownfield land’ was not invented until 10 years later – in Strathclyde, as it happens. But some people had observed the hollowing out of American cities, and bothered that it could happen here. For Manchester this was a big worry and the structure plan set out to change it. A string of policies sought to limit residential and other uses round the conurbation’s edges and to get people to think about investing in the middle. Other metropolitan councils did the same, and it’s hard to exaggerate what a big

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"IT IS FINE TO ADMIRE SUCH LUMINARIES AS ABERCROMBIE AND EBENEZER – BUT NOT TO TAKE TOO MUCH NOTICE OF MORE RECENT WORK" shift this was. (We started it, minister, and there’s no need to lecture us about it.) What the green belt did, in the words of David Kaiserman (who led the team with distinction) was to “put an OS base on what the Structure Plan had already determined”. It was of course partly aimed at fulﬁlling the usual important aims of stopping sprawl and keeping settlements separate, which matters a lot in that conurbation. But it was mainly an urban regeneration exercise, and it led to the

addition of that as a purpose of green belts in the national guidance. The house builders hated it, and said development in the inner city was too hard. A long inquiry ensued, and inspector Roger Wilson supported the plan (with a few exceptions), saying inter alia that: “…. in parts of the county it is appropriate and often necessary that it should act as a severe restraint on development, thereby bending past trends… and redirecting development in such a manner as to serve to implement the primary theme of urban concentration.” This policy has been successful and it brought about the desired change, encouraging (eventually) much development in the inner city to happen. Strategic planning is not just a

meaningless concept. Now the 10 districts have got together and produced the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF). This must have been hard, but it is an impressive strategic review. I don’t know enough to judge whether the development proposed in the green belt is justified. But I think it is fair to say that it was drawn fairly tightly to achieve the aims I have described; we saw it as long term, but not permanent. This may justify some modification. But it’s also fair to stress – strongly – that regeneration is not finished yet. Politicians such as the mayoral favourite Andy Burnham (“I would like to carry out a root and branch reform about how this whole process is being done”), and various MPs (e.g. the littleknown Hazel Grove Tory William Wragg’s petition to “protect our green belt”), have expostulated enthusiastically. So all is unlikely to be plain sailing. I wish the team well, and I’m sure they won’t ignore the origins, purposes and successes of the green belt during its short life..

Chris Shepley is the principal of Chris Shepley Planning and former Chief Planning Inspector

I L L U S T R AT I O N | O I V I N D H O V L A N D

20/12/2016 15:10

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB “Climate change is an extraordinary threat to human survival”

“We are unnecessarily arily losing historic oric buildings in n Belfast which ch any other city y or jurisdiction would give priority to o preserve”

HUGH ELLIS, INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND HEAD OF POLICY, TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ASSOCIATION

ULSTER ARCHITECTURAL URAL HERITAGE SOCIETY ON THE DESTRUCTION OF F THREE HISTORIC BUILD BUILDINGS IN BELFAST, DAYS BEFORE ORE THEY WERE TO T BE DISCUSSED FOR LISTING NG

“The devolution of powers back to local planning departments has increased conﬁdence in the system”

“Public spaces need to be defended much more ﬁercely than they were in the past” ZADIE SMITH, AUTHOROF WHITE TEETH

87 per cent of councils said the governmentt will ill nott reach h it its ttarget of one million new homes by 2020 with current resource levels” SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: TIFUL: DELIVERING HOMES THROUGH SMALL LL SITES, A REPORT BY THE FEDERATION ON OF MASTER BUILDERS AND THE LOCAL GROWTH H INFORMATION UNIT

I M AG E S | S H U T T E RSTO C K / I STO C K / G E T T Y / A L A M Y

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OUTGOING RTPI PRESIDENT PHIL WILLIAMS AT THE RTPI NORTHERN IRELAND CONFERENCE ON THE BENEFITS OF THE PROVINCE’S NEW SYSTEM

“Let’s be honest, the plan sometimes has to catch up with the development after it’s happened. ned. We have to be honest st about that” KEVIN M MURRAY ON PLANNING’S LANNING’S ABILITY TO REINVENT T ITSELF TO FIT CIRCUMSTANCE CI E

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B E S T O F T H E B LO G S

O Opinion

Alexandra Jones is chief executive of Centre for Cities

Planning policy is key to stemming UK brain drain

One of Theresa May’s first acts as prime minister was to outline plans for an economic and industrial strategy to boostgrowth “up and down the country”, and building “an economy that works for everyone”. This rhetoric was driven by concerns about economic divides that have intensified following the referendum vote. The issue was echoed in the Autumn Statement, when the chancellor pledged to tackle “damaging imbalances” in the economy. One of their top priorities should be tackling the UK’s brain drain, which is resulting in many UK cities losing the high-achieving graduates critical to driving growth and jobs across their local economies to London. A new Centre for Cities report reveals that a quarter of all new graduates from UK universities in 2014 and 2015 were working in London within six months of finishing their degree – five times more than in Manchester, the second most popular city for new graduates to live in. Moreover, it shows that the capital is outperforming other cities in attracting the UK’s most talented graduates in particular. In 2014-15, London attracted over a third of new Russell Group graduates with first-class or upper-second class degrees who moved for a job, and more than half of new Oxbridge graduates.

The biggest factor influencing the brain drain was not high starting salaries in the capital, but the chances that it offers for career progression. While London has the second-highest graduates’ wages in the country at £25,000 a year, this was not much more than the average across UK cities (£23,261). A more important draw for graduates is London’s vast labour market, with nearly 4.5m jobs on offer, from the bottom to the top of some of the most world’s most innovative and productive firms. For policymakers tasked with driving growth across the nation, the key lesson from these findings is that specific policies to encourage graduates to move to or stay in a place (such as wage subsidies) are unlikely to work. Instead, city leaders must focus on strengthening their economies by investing in transport, housing, innovation and enterprise, and then communicating this. This will help to generate more graduate jobs and chances for career progression, making places more attractive for high-skilled people. Such policies will ultimately have the greatest impact in halting the brain drain, and should be the main focus for local leaders trying to attract more high-skilled workers. Boosting the economies of cities across the UK should also be a top priority for central government.

“A QUARTER OF ALL NEW GRADUATES FROM UK UNIVERSITIES IN 2014 AND 2015 WERE WORKING IN LONDON WITHIN SIX MONTHS”

2 BLOG

BLOG

Ben Stephenson is a director of WYG in Cardiﬀ

How to kick-start stalled house building in South Wales

We The Welsh Government has a t deliver 20,000 affordatarget to ble homes from 2016 to 2021, although no target for private housing delivery. Planning Policy Wales Edition 9, published in November, sets a minimum requirement for a fiveyear housing land supply based on councils’ adopted Local Development Plans (LDPs). Yet there is a shortage of developable housing land across South Wales. An analysis of adopted plans reveals a shortfall against the five-year land supply requirement of 19,600 homes. In Rhondda Cynon Taff alone, where the plan was adopted in 2011 for the period 20062021, the shortfall is 6,863, and just 1.5 years’ land supply had been identified in 2016. In Cardiff (adopted plan 2016 for 2006 to 2026), the shortfall is 3,244, with just 3.8 years’ land supply identified in 2016. In Caerphilly (adopted plan 2010 for 2006 to 2021), it’s a 3,055-home shortfall and just 1.5 years’ land supply available. Only Bridgend, which has a 100-home surplus for its plan period of 2006-2021, and Newport, which is looking at a 692 surplus for 2011 to 2026, buck the trend. No figures are available for the Vale of Glamorgan, whose plan is still under examination. On the face of it, reviews of LDPs should tackle the delivery problem. But these often take two to three years without any slip-

pages – Caerphilly Council has abandoned its review at deposit stage and Rhondda Cynon Taf has yet to start. And it is another two years before applications are approved and development can begin. So LDP reviews will not address the housing shortage quickly. But there are other options. These include: ● Rewriting Planning Policy Wales (PPW) to give significant weight to the need to maintain a five-year housing land supply and a clear statement that, where there is no such supply, there is a presumption in favour of sustainable development. PPW does not yet provide this. Such a change could support applications that comply with the development plan in strategy and sustainable development terms but are outside current defined settlement boundaries. ● Creating a regeneration fund to unlock stalled/unviable sites for public and private sector development. The Welsh Government has announced a further £30 million Social Housing Grant to help deliver 20,000 affordable homes. ● Creating City Region Development Agencies to facilitate development on allocated sites, stalled through viability, infrastructure or other site constraints. These could tie in with the emerging city regions and their strategic development plans. Perhaps these solutions could kick-start the homes that South Wales needs.

“THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF DEVELOPABLE HOUSING LAND ACROSS SOUTH WALES”

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20/12/2016 16:35

Have your say Would you like to see yourself in these pages? Get in touch by email – editorial@theplanner.co.uk Topical, inspirational, angry or amusing – we consider all relevant comment

Stefan Webb is head of the new Future of Planning project at Future Cities Catapult

Cristina Howick is planning partner at Peter Brett Associates

The housing white paper – a wish list

Digital tools can make planning more transparent

o the planning process Control of t hands of a select few. rests in the As a result of complex language, aged processes, and professional hand-wringing, experts obscure the development process from outsiders, bringing about criticism of a diﬃcult, but vital, process. A digital overhaul could help solve the problem. The roots of the opacity are varied. Planning jargon creates barriers that make it hard for outsiders to understand the process. At its worst, such obscurity can be used to game the system. On other occasions, data is simply locked away by those who control it – much of the time because what are eﬀectively analogue records are ill suited to sharing. Sometimes it may be a conscious decision. Either way, a lack of transparency and asymmetry of information is central to the poor functioning of the housing and development market, so the barriers to entry are huge even for the largest foreign developers. Without action, this will continue. Planners, planning, and development will continue to be made scapegoats for what is an essential function of society. The public is right to complain: cities have a democratic duty to enhance their knowledge of how planning works. What cities don’t seem to realise is that increased transparency would positively impact on citizens’ acceptance of new development.

4 BLOG

BLOG

Digital tools and data visualisation translate complex or opaque ideas and enhance their accessibility. Gov.UK is an excellent example of how clarity of language and clear design can improve citizen engagement with complex government services. Data fusion systems such as those used by CityMapper provide a single window onto a complex pool of public information. For cities to achieve similar success with planning data, planners will have to work with user experience experts, service designers, data visualisers and software designers to understand the right level of detail and design for different users of the planning system. Some start-ups are beginning to show how that can work. Critics may argue that opening up the system to more users will de-professionalise planning. But, software and artiﬁcial intelligence will soon take over many of the lower-value activities in planning anyway. Planners could now actively focus on the higher value, creative components of planning and placemaking, before technology forces them to. Only unscrupulous developers, politicians and planners have anything to fear in increasing transparency. The rest will be able to enjoy a development ecosystem where standards rise because of increased competition and the public understands – and more readily accepts – development.

“CLARITY OF LANGUAGE AND CLEAR DESIGN CAN IMPROVE CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT”

If the go government wants more house building, in the right places and for the right people, it must ensure that every area has an up-to-date development plan. About 60 per cent of local planning authorities do not have a post-NPPF adopted plan. Without a plan, investor confidence suffers, development does not go to the most sustainable sites, and astonishing sums of money, including public money, are wasted in ‘planning by appeal’. The answer may be a statutory duty on planning authorities, as suggested by the Local Plan Expert Group (LPEG). As LPEG also notes, speeded-up local plans need clear-cut evidence. We must clear the dense fog around ‘objectively assessed housing need’, the item that causes most controversy and delay. Everyone knows the assessment must be radically simplified and standardised, although there are big disagreements about the method proposed by LPEG (I am part of a group with an alternative proposal). Another option for the government is to set housing numbers centrally (unlikely to be welcomed by local planning authorities). Next on the agenda is larger-than-local planning. Everyone, including the secretary of state, knows that the duty to cooperate isn’t working as it should. The

process is complicated, risky and slow. Some answers that look good on paper, such as returning to a two-tier system, or merging local planning authorities, would be controversial and take too long. A practical answer is for the government to identify groups of authorities whose next generation of local plans must be joint plans. Many authorities are looking for housing sites with green belt reviews. But the process is patchy, and the likely result too little development, too late and not in the best places. Effective reform will need fearless national leadership. We should also break out of the mindset that says the only answer to housing need is very large sites, such as urban extensions. Part of the answer will be in public sector-led schemes on the new town model that coordinate development more effectively, capturing planning gain to pay for infrastructure. Finally, more priority should be given to rented and social housing. The government must rethink starter homes, which as now proposed would not meet affordable need, and would divert developer contribution from true affordable housing. It should find other ways to pay for social housing, as the pool of developer contributions is not bottomless. It should also consider pooling Section 106 contributions across local authorities.

“WE SHOULD BREAK OUT OF THE MINDSET THAT SAYS THE ONLY ANSWER TO HOUSING NEED IS VERY LARGE SITES”

J ANU AR Y 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

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N E W S F E AT U R E : A I R B N B

3,341,000

FAIRER SHARES

Homes in London, with 2.556,000 private sector homes

14,608

Entire homes in London on Airbnb with availability of 90 days or more, out of 49,348 listings

he climbdown was, ﬁnally, inevitable. Across the globe, Airbnb faced mounting pressure from politicians, allegations of illegality by its patrons, as well as bans, legal challenges and severe press criticism. The home-share company dramatically announced in December that, as of January 2017, it will automatically limit “entire homes listings” in Greater London to 90 nights a year, with a 60-day-a year

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cap to be introduced in Amsterdam. It also dropped a lawsuit against New York City and praised new rules in New Orleans. The change in the UK will not aﬀect those who let spare rooms within their own property, or who let fewer than 90 days in a year on an entire home. Nevertheless, it’s a story of how planning systems collide with the new shared economy. So much so in London, the company’s third most active market, that mayor Sadiq Khan is set to meet Airbnb at

the end of January to discuss its impact on the capital’s housing supply. During 2016 in London, Airbnb website oﬀered a wide range of furnished apartments, spare rooms and even a converted shed in Golders Green. It’s easy to see the attraction. Rents for Airbnb properties in London are on average more than double the rents paid for long-term tenancies in the same areas, according to property data company Propcision. In areas such as Camden, Newham, Merton

I M AG E S | I STO C K

20/12/2016 12:44

AIRBNB IS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON BUT HAS ATTRACTED HUGE CONTROVERSY ACROSS THE GLOBE AMID ACCUSATIONS OF UNDERMINING HOUSING SUPPLY. IN DECEMBER, THE COMPANY RESPONDED TO COMPLAINTS IN LONDON. HUW MORRIS REPORTS

website admitted in December that 23 per and Southwark, gross returns from shortcent or 4,938 of its “entire home” listings term settings can be more than 2.5 times were out for three months or more, despite those from conventional long-term lets. the law requiring anyone doing so Yet nearly a quarter of to seek planning permission. homes in London listed on The London Borough of Airbnb ’s website were Camden, in line with many rented for more than Percentage of of the capital’s authorities, 90 days , breaching “entire homes” had complained that legislation intended to listings on Airbnb “swathes” of properties stop landlords turning that were actually had eﬀectively been badly needed housing let out for 90 days removed from the longinto unoﬃcial hotels. Its or more

23%

Number of days per year an owner can let their property via Airbnb before requiring planning permission

term rental market, making rental property more expensive and difficult to find, exacerbating the housing crisis. “It was abundantly clear to councils that many users of the site were flouting the 90 nights limit and the simplest way to stop that was for Airbnb to stop it at source, rather than councils undertake costly retrospective enforcement operations against the culprits, working with limited data from the company,” said Camden leader Sarah Hayward.

J ANU AR Y 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

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20/12/2016 12:44

N E W S F E AT U R E : A I R B N B

An analysis using the company’s own datasets, by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), concluded that “it is likely there are many cases where planning permission for a change of use has not been obtained”. It also warned that homesharing sites could cause landlords to remove properties from the already stretched private rented sector and place them into short-term lets, potentially risking housing supply in London.

Rules for the sharing economy However, the analysis also revealed that at present levels its impact on London’s housing market is negligible, and that the risks that short-term letting could pose can be headed off with reasonable, robust regulation that all home-sharing sites must follow. The IPPR recommended that Airbnb should develop its platform so that hosts approaching the 90-day limit should be warned that they are at risk of breaching planning rules, and that those attempting to let more than 90 days should be prevented from doing so unless they had the requisite planning permission. “London’s housing crisis will only be solved by delivering enough land and investment and the planning system needed to build more homes,” said Charlotte Snelling, IPPR researcher on housing. “Our research shows that home sharing in London isn’t currently widespread enough to be causing problems, but it has the potential to do so. “Different parts of the ‘sharing economy’ will inevitably need different forms of regulation. Governments need to be smarter and bolder in how they approach this task. On home sharing the first step must be to make sure existing rules are properly observed.” Similarly, a different analysis of October 2016 listings data from independent researcher Inside Airbnb suggests that the firm affects a fraction of London’s housing. This found 14,608 entire homes with availability of 90 days or more during the year out of a total of 49,348 listings. London has 3,341,000 homes, according to the English Housing Survey, meaning Airbnb is just 1.5 per cent of total stock. With 2,556,000 private sector homes, including rented and owneroccupied, Airbnb properties with availability of 90 days or more account for only 0.6 per cent of these. Yet Airbnb’s decision is a turning point and a significant departure from previously poor relations with city regulators. It is aiming to help owners gain extra income while ensuring an availability of housing. But the company is also taking on an enforcement role itself while placing the burden of compliance on the owner rather

than local authorities. “We ﬁrmly believe this step will help build a better London for everyone and work is already under way to implement these measures, by spring 2017,” the ﬁrm said in a blog post. “We want to be good partners to London and continue to lead our industry on this matter, and ensure home sharing grows responsibly and sustainably.”

Good corporate practice British Property Federation director of policy Ian Fletcher welcomed this “missing link” in ensuring that planning law is abided by in the capital. “The company has made a very sensible decision that it should assist in that and in so doing follow Percentage of London good corporate practice, rather than homes Airbnb listed – face persistent PR damage,” he added. 0.6% available for 90 “This announcement should go a long days or more way towards ensuring the housing sector and companies like Airbnb can co-exist. “Airbnb provides an excellent platform for Londoners seeking to let out homes temporarily, and the continuation of this has never been at stake. Rather, this change will help curb the increasing number of companies abusing the law and letting homes out as permanent hotel rooms.” “DIFFERENT Tom Copley, a London Assembly member and PARTS OF Labour’s housing spokesperson who brokered the THE ‘SHARING forthcoming meeting between Khan and Airbnb, ECONOMY’ WILL had demanded that the company should “actively INEVITABLY enforce the 90-day rule”. NEED DIFFERENT “We knew that short-term lettings sites had been FORMS OF abused by professional landlords, we talked to

1.5%

REGULATION”

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20/12/2016 12:45

Airbnb and the world

3,000,000 Number of properties advertised on Airbnb worldwide

AIRBNB AND THE LAW Airbnb properties are classiﬁed as temporary sleeping accommodation and therefore a material change of use requiring planning permission. London boroughs require anyone letting out property on Airbnb or other sites to obtain planning permission under Section 44 of the Deregulation Act 2015. This gives boroughs the power to intervene if the property is let out for more than 90 days a year. The act was introduced by ex-housing minister Brandon Lewis to reform the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 and allow “Londoners who go on holiday to make a bit of extra money by renting out their home whilst they are away”.

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Airbnb has been valued at $25 billion (£20 billion) and helps let three million properties around the world. Last March, the company said London is its third biggest city market, with a “little over” 40,000 places to stay and that this is growing by 75 per cent annually. London is just behind New York, which has 43,000 properties but way behind Paris, the most Airbnb dense city, with 68,000. The company has faced a backlash in some cities where politicians fear its impact on housing supply. Berlin levies a €100,000 (£85,000) fine for anyone renting out more than half of their home for less than two months without a permit. Hosts in San Francisco who do not register with the city authority face fines of up to $1,000 a day. In New York, there are strict laws against short lets in apartment blocks if hosts are not resident at the same time as guests.

Airbnb, and they’ve listened,” he said. “Flawed legislation from the previous government has seen some landlords effectively turning properties into hotels without planning permission. With local authorities lacking the resources to enforce the 90-day limit on short-term lettings, we needed Airbnb and other operators to step in and help.. We now need to see other services follow their example and ensure their hosts cannot break the law by letting out properties short-term for more than 90 days per year.” Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee chair Iain Wright said MPs had raised concerns over the issue in recent months. He hoped Airbnb’s move would stop large-scale and professional landlords abusing the platform to run backstreet hotels. “By flouting rules to which competitors are required to adhere, these landlords potentially restrict housing supply, drive up rental prices and gain an unfair competitive advantage over hoteliers,” he said. “The growth of companies such as Airbnb makes an increasingly important contribution to the UK economy and bring positive consumer benefits, but it’s important we ensure there is a level playing field. “In some instances the law may need to change to keep up with disruptive technologies, but in others it' is simply a matter of enforcing existing rules. Airbnb’s has rightly responded to criticism by taking responsibility itself for this enforcement. The committee is keen to see how effective this will be in practice.”

J ANU AR Y 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

20/12/2016 12:45

INTERVIEW JAN GEHL

ON THE NEED FOR PLANNING

“We are a complex and highly urbanised society on a small island. What’s the alternative? Allowing free rein to the market?”

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I N T E R V I E W S T E P H E N W I LK I N S O N

Stephen Wilkinson, who takes over as RTPI president this month, is a planner reborn. The head of planning & strategic partnerships for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority wants one of his key messages to fellow RTPI members to be the need for planners to show leadership. “Building substantial new developments is a highly complex process,” he says, “and ultimately, the planner is an essential part of that process, bringing people together to change places. So if there’s one skill deﬁcit we need to address it’s about leadership.” Wilkinson also welcomes the institute’s move to put an understanding of economics and commercial viability into its routes for membership criteria. (In his case, he trained as a surveyor – “It allowed me to understand income valuation, income-based methodology, discounted cash ﬂow and the landlord-tenant relationship.”) You can sense Wilkinson’s enthusiasm for this and the other messages he intends to champion during his presidency (see overleaf). “For me, this whole process has been about rediscovery,” he says, talking about the three years leading up to his presidential term. “I’ve reconnected with the zeal of my youth and the enthusiasm I had for planning as a 17-year-old.”

Art of the possiible e

Wilkinson has been a chartered town planner for more than 30 years, amassing experience in planning and regeneration in roles across London. He’s always seen a strong link between the roles of planner and politician. At last year’s Labour Party conference he described planning, like politics, as being in essence “the art of the possible”. “Planning deals in the same language that our politicians use,” he says. “We both talk about a vision for the future and how resources should be used. Planners are part of the political process which requires strong leadership. Planning is not for the faint hearted. It’s important not to be worn down by any criticism you read in the press or that the public makes to your face. You’ve got to be proud of planning and of what the profession delivers.” And he is confident that the next generation of planners is up to the challenge. “Younger people today are sharper, more resilient, more focused and probably more articulate than my generation,” says Wilkinson. “Our recent Young Planners of the Year are producing some truly excellent stuff.” As for the younger generation more broadly and the need for housing, Wilkinson THE RTPI HAS AS ITS 2017 PRESIDENT A MAN is on record as saying hard WITH A LONGSTANDING COMMITMENT TO LOCAL choices need to be made about whether we are producSERVICES AND PLANNING’S POTENTIAL TO CHANGE ing places that people can NSO ON LIVES. BUT MORE THAN THIS, STEEPHEN WILKIN afford to live in. “You need to ensure that WANTS PLANNERS TO TAKE THEIR RIGHTFUL ROLE private investment delivers IN LEADING THE DEBATE ABOUT OUR LIVING for all sectors of the community.” ENVIRONMENTS. MARTIN READ REPORTS

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Balancing act The new RTPI president is keen to educate others about planning’s wider reach. “Planning does so much,” he says. “It’s not just about housing, it’s about the protection of great landscapes. Just look at the range of places in the RTPI’s English, Scottish and Welsh best places; most are largely historic, highlighting the role conservation has played, or they are of great landscape interest. Planning is as much about the protection of place as it is the promotion of new development.” This is something Wilkinson has seen ﬁrsthand in his 10 years at the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, from the winning of the Olympic bid through to the many legacy elements aﬀecting the whole regional park. His job was created to protect the authority’s interests, and Wilkinson sees his contribution to the development of masterplans and planning strategies for the park as “the antithesis to major development in the sense that a central element of what we are involved in is shaping a strategic piece of green infrastructure with high quality biodiversity which provides a backdrop for great sporting venues.”

A question of fo focu us Wilkinson is concerned about the resourcing of local authority planning departments. “Planning has become more complex. In the past you could write a seven-page report on a site for 400 houses and it would be ﬁne. But today? I went to a planning meeting recently and the report was 260 pages long for the same amount of proposed development. “There is increasingly pressure because of

C V

ON THE FUTURE

“You will always need the ability to balance and weigh up competing arguments. If you ever went into a planning committee and saw a robot presenting a report it would destroy the relationship between the public and decisionmakers. “But IT is taking us places we thought we would never go. Are we now to have local plans that deal with real time information?” ON BREXIT

“Large numbers of communities clearly feel disaﬀected with the way the country has gone. There’s a message here for planners in terms of the levels of ownership and accountability that local people have about their local services, and how change is managed in their environment.”

HIG HL IG HT S

S TE P HE N WI LKI NS O N

Timelline:

198 82 Planning oﬃcer for Reigate & Banstead Council. Work included looking at the economic impact of the then new M25 motorway on the towns of Reigate, Banstead and Tanbridge

199 93 24

Born: Padiham, Lancashire Education: Manchester University (planning degree), University of East London (general practice surveying qualifying), University of Westminster (MBA) Area planning oﬃcer for the City of Westminster, running the council’s development management team

199 97 London lead for planning at the Audit Commission, advising on the delivery of

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services by local government

200 06 Head of planning & strategic partnerships for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, working on regeneration partnerships with the London boroughs of Enﬁeld

and Haringey as well as integrated partnerships, including the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium

20114 Adviser to transport charity SUSTRANS, and board member of the RTPI

Stephen Wilkinson’s three presidential priorities • The insttittute’ss in nte ern nattional role “A need for social justice lies at the heart of the planning system. We should ensure this is central to our international work, where the range of issues faced by many communities are more acute and of much greater scale.” • The ach hie eve emen ntss off th he pro ofe ession n “Throughout the world, planners identify solutions to large and complex spatial problems. Their approach reﬂects the diverse context of their local environment and needs of communities.” • The RTP PI’s develop pmen nt of polic cy “The government’s emerging regional agenda, devolved budgets for city regions and the Northern Powerhouse represent new policy dimensions: I will ensure the RTPI acts as a critical friend to government as these policies develop.”

the possibility of challenge and that has required us to make our reports so much more comprehensive than in the past. But you need more staff to address the workload than you might have had 30 years ago. And because of the timescales of the local plan process, the impact of staff cuts is less immediately evident than in development management where cuts impact on public confidence more readily.” Wilkinson met housing minister Gavin Barwell in September and has high hopes for the government’s imminent housing white paper. “Housing probably isn’t as polarised a debate in the other parts of the UK as it is in England. Look at Wales and you see new legislation promoting health and sustainability, while in Scotland you’ve got reforms coming in that will better recognise the value of planning. It’s only in England that the deregulation debate plays so heavily, with planning seen in some quarters as the problem rather than the solution.” Taking a more international view, Wilkinson joins others at the RTPI in being encouraged about the UN sustainability goals and the discussions about their implementation at the Habitat III conference. “Goal 11 is explicitly based around cities, but all of them are within the realm of what planning’s I M AG E S | PE T E R S E A R L E

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EARLY DAYS

about. People may question their relevance, but matters like air pollution and health are all relevant. We can too easily fall into the trap of thinking that planning is all about brownﬁeld registers or making systems more eﬃcient, when in my experience, planners have always been committed to broader social goals.” “The thing about the RTPI Presidency is that you are elected from the membership and are in a privileged position for two or three years before returning back to the ‘day job’; it’s a unique position. Incredible really!”

As a student, Stephen Wilkinson took particular pleasure in the urban geography component of his geography A-level. “I was inspired by planning being a design profession,” he says. “The design of buildings was one thing, but the design of place, linking areas of land to the way people work, live and travel, was what really got me interested.” At university, Wilkinson focused on the human dimension and how people interpret space (“behaviouralism and architectural determinism – I loved all that stuff”) and he completed his planning qualification in 1980. But at a time of recession he had to wait two years for his first planning post, at Reigate & Banstead Borough Council. “This was before the M25 was built, and I remember one of my first policy reports involved assessing the economic impact of the motorway on Reigate and Banstead.” After Reigate, Wilkinson had a spell in consultancy before joining Haringey Council, where industrial decline was a key issue. There followed a spate of further council roles with Enfield, Islington, and finally the City of Westminster where he undertook an MBA to pursue his interest in local service provision. This led to an entirely new role with the Audit Commission as head of local government improvement focused on the delivery of public services. Here, he developed a national study, Probity in Planning, looking at member/officer relationships, the management of committees and s106 obligations. He views his eight years at the Audit Commission as ‘time out’ from planning. “I was involved in corporate policy as head of local government improvement, but wasn’t really a practising planner.” But then, exciting things started happening in East London. “We’d just won the 2012 Olympic bid and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation was being set up, so there was plenty of talk about the regeneration of East London. I wanted to get back into all of that.” “Since 2006 we’ve seen large areas of the lower Lea Valley completely change. The park’s authority extends into Hertfordshire and Essex, so our work also includes defending the green belt and balancing the need for housing and employment land. Our latest project is developing an international ice centre in the regional park." As for volunteering, Wilkinson is on the London advisory board of SUSTRANS, and with the RTPI he has been a member of the international committee, nation and regions panel, audit committee and nominations sub-committee.

Inﬂuential people and projects

David Eversley, Chief Planner (Strategy), Greater London Council 1969-72

Eric Reid, lecturer in sociology at Manchester University

“He came in with a view on the broader social sciences and opened my eyes to that wider sociological dimension, and the fact that planning is a political process.”

“He put forward a lot of interesting ideas on life and society, providing colour and perspective to what planning is all about back when the profession was being seen as architecturally based, technocratic and determinist.”

Nicky Gavron, former Deputy Mayor of London

in an arts group in Highgate. She really understood what planning is all about, and that zeal has carried her through to the GLA.” ‘The planning team under Vivienne Ramsey involved in the Olympic project set out a clear agenda for regeneration which has had a signiﬁcant and positive change on the lower Lee valley and East London.”

“I met her when she was involved

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H U L L C I T Y O F C U LT U R E

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EDGE

BACK FROM THE

A CITY ‘ON THE EDGE OF THINGS’, HULL IS UNDERGOING A REAPPRAISAL, THANKS TO ITS DESIGNATION AS UK CITY OF CULTURE 2017. IT COULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT PLANNING, FINDS MARK SMULIAN

20/12/2016 12:46

hen hearing mention of Hull you may think first of its seafaring roots and its port industries rather than its cultural offerings. Yet the city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire has been home to many notable writers, actors and musicians (see overleaf), and perceptions about its cultural character may change during 2017. From January 1 until December 31 2017, Hull is the UK City of Culture, the second city to be given the four-yearly designation. From the launch of its bid, planners have been to the fore working out how the year’s opportunities mesh with regeneration plans that were in progress before the title was awarded. Simply being City of Culture should help a place to succeed – but this will not happen by itself, and particularly not in a city that those involved admit is low profile. Nor do organisers want a year of arts events that, though worthwhile, lack local interest or economic benefit, and leave little behind. Hull is still often associated with fisheries, although that industry’s heyday is now decades past. That apart, it isn’t associated with much by outsiders, perhaps seen, as City of Culture executive producer Sam Hunt puts it, as “10 miles east of England”. Indeed, the poet Philip Larkin, a

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long-term resident, described Hull as a city “that is in the world yet sufficiently on the edge of it to have a different resonance". Says Hunt: “I don’t think people have a poor opinion of Hull, they just have no opinion of it. Hull is an hour from Leeds and the same from York, but it’s not been an economic or political centre or a transport hub.” During and after 2017 Hull wants to become known for tourism, as a city with a lively centre and one that has attracted some substantial industrial investment. All this is progressing, but is rarely noticed elsewhere. Hull City Council planning manager Alex Codd says: “Planning is part of the same directorate as regeneration so we fed into the City of Culture bid, contributing on the space available and how we could use flexible planning policy. “The intention is that Hull will become a tourist destination after the City of Culture year.”

“HISTORIC ENGLAND SAID THE CITY CENTRE LOOKED AS IF IT CLOSED AT 6PM. WE WANT TO GET A POPULATION THERE”

CITY CENTRE DEVELOPMENTS Hull’s local plan was due to be lodged in December 2016 and calls for 12,000 new homes by 2032. In a departure from earlier approaches, 2,500 of them will now be in the city centre. “When Historic England visited in 2014 they noted that the city centre looked as if

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it closed at 6pm,” says Codd. “We want to get a population there. We never had that city centre apartment boom that some other cities had.” The focus of both regeneration and many 2017 events is the Fruit Market area, which has permission for more than 100 homes. Codd explains: “The wholesale fruit trade had long declined and it is a conservation area, but not a typical one. “Conservation areas usually have some uniform appearance – all Georgian or all Victorian, for example – but this one is a mixture of modern and older styles and it’s the collective mix that makes it interesting.” Galleries and creative workshops are springing up in the Fruit Market and the council has helped with a flexible planning policy. “The flexibility is about getting creative businesses, cafes and shops into the area. Doing that laid the basis for the City of Culture since it means cultural premises are already there.” Codd continues: “The council itself sought planning permission for a very wide range of uses in the premises involved so that an occupier just had to install themselves with planning permission already granted. It took out the uncertainty.” The council has also spent some £25 million on improving the city centre’s public realm. One of Hull’s main developers is Wykeland, whose managing director Dominic Gibbons says: “Our head office is here and we believe in the city. There are one or two investment decisions we took where, because it was Hull, we were prepared to take that bit more risk.” He points to major investments such as RB (formerly Reckitt Benckiser) ploughing £105 million into its new science research centre, Siemens’ £160 million facility for wind turbine manufacture and his own company’s Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI). “The icing on the cake is the City of Culture, which is an opportunity to showcase Hull and give it a vibrant city centre so, as people come to work for RB and Siemens and others, the centre will have a different feel to it,” he says. “There is demand for offices and there is not a lot of available for industrial, which is a significant change from five years ago.” Wykeland has formed a partnership with local

house builder Beal Homes to develop the Fruit Market and other projects, where the former will carry out commercial development and the latter house building. Beal will build 109 homes in the Fruit Market as part of a £17 million development that includes reinstatement of the historic Scott’s Square and Horner’s Square, both lost to earlier demolitions.

STRIKING A BALANCE Hunt’s role is to devise a programme that strikes a balance between staging an event for the city and one that will attract visitors from elsewhere. “It’s diﬃcult to summarise, but it's 365 days of transformative culture with something happening every day across the city,” he says. “I’ve been asked to do something that is closely concerned with placemaking and all this is about the repurposing and repositioning of Hull for the 21st century. It has had to cope with

Lessons from DerryLondonderry? Cities of culture are designated every four years after competitive bidding. The first was Derry-Londonderry in 2013. The evaluation report on 2013 concluded Derry-Londonderry met its targets in promoting creativity, digital engagement and telling a new story about a city with a problematic past. Regeneration successes included completion of the Guildhall restoration, riverfront public realm improvement and “considerable renewal in formerly dilapidated areas of the city”, said the report. “The urban renewal which followed this regeneration investment has transformed public space previously regarded as ‘dangerous’ into safe, active civic space.” One general lesson for other cities of culture would be “the importance of continuing to invest in destination marketing”, it concluded.

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Hull, a city of culture Political sparring

Founded: Late 12th century

History has left Hull with a tightly drawn boundary, a long-term lack of housing land and an unusually low tax base as its wealthier suburbs are in neighbouring East Riding of Yorkshire. A bid to extend the city’s boundary led to a row between the two authorities, and an independent commission last year concluded that merger was a logical solution but that local politics made this “a probable non-starter in the immediate future”. This has not prevented East Riding from supporting the City of Culture. Leader Stephen Parnaby says: “East Riding of Yorkshire Council believes that the investment made by this authority will provide numerous benefits for East Riding residents and local communities in being able to fully engage with the celebrations planned for the year.”

Location: East Riding of Yorkshire, on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea

the decline of fishing and other industries, but there have been massive investments and the whole year is based around that regeneration.” He continues: “We want everything we do to have a Hull flavour. Hull has a great arts scene but it’s a DIY one, as it’s not a rich city. We are doing a lot with major local businesses and instead of asking them for money we are asking how to produce great art together.” Hunt says the year’s events will be held in existing buildings, rather than purpose-built ones, with the city making better use of its resources. One example is the listed Ferens Art Gallery, whose environmental conditions meant some exhibitions could not be staged and which the council has improved to take a wider range of shows, including the Turner Prize. The listed Hull New Theatre will be extended with a new fly tower, and a listed, silted-up former dry dock is being transformed. Codd says: “It’s been fitted with an amphitheatre for entertainment and also forms part of the flood defence.” Gibbons says this is an example of 2017 spurring activity. “With something like the amphitheatre over a listed dry dock we went further because it was City of Culture. There would probably have been some public realm decking there otherwise.” Permission has been given for a new Hilton Hotel and future plans include a cruise ship terminal to exploit the strong ‘Yorkshire’ tourism brand. The council is also negotiating with Network Rail about electrifying the final stretch of line into Hull. Hull may rarely impinge on outsiders’ consciousness, but the city hopes 2017 will radically change perceptions. “THERE IS DEMAND

FOR OFFICES, WHICH IS A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE FROM FIVE YEARS AGO”

Population: 257, 710 (2014) Governance: Unitary authority Major industries: Fishing, major port handling 13 million tonnes of cargo and one million ferry passengers a year, chemical and healthcare (BP, Reckitt Benckiser, Seven Seas), renewable energy (Siemens oﬀshore wind farm) Culture: Hull has been described as a city of poetry. 17th century metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell was born in the city and, in the 20th century, it has been home to Philip Larkin, Roger McGough and poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion. Stevie Smith, writer of ‘Not waving but drowning’, was born in Hull. Musicians from Hull include guitarist Mick Ronson, the Housemartins, Fatboy Slim, Everything But the Girl and Roland Gift of Fine Young Cannibals. Actors include Tom Courtenay, Maureen Lipman and Ian Carmichael, and the city is home to two theatres: the Hull New Theatre and the independent Hull Truck Theatre. There are several museums and galleries, including the Streetlife Museum of Transport and the Ferens Art Gallery. The city also hosts annual literature, jazz and food festivals. In sport, Hull is home to Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers rugby league clubs, the Hull Pirates ice hockey team and the football club Hull City AFC, which has become a top-ﬂight side since the redevelopment of its stadium in the early 2000s.

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P L A N N I N G C H A R R ET T E S

PLANNING THE CIVIC CENTRE OF ST ALBANS PRESENTS UNUSUAL PLANNING PROBLEMS. COULD A PUBLIC CHARRETTE BE THE BEST WAY TO SOLVE THEM? JOURNALIST AND ST ALBANS RESIDENT CHRIS JENKINS WENT ALONG TO FIND OUT

he ‘charrette’ may be familiar to most planners, but for residents of the historic city of St Albans in Hertfordshire it embodies novel ideas, such as condensing a process of planning consultation into a concise period of public events; the chance for residents, property owners and other stakeholders to meet and discuss issues with equal status; and the opportunity to consult outside experts in areas such as design, funding, and the planning process. The St Albans design charrette in September 2016 came about through the cooperation of Look! St Albans, a voluntary group promoting “community voice on design”, the local planning authority and aﬀected landowners and developers.

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In 2013 Look! St Albans co-authored draft design codes for central St Albans with The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community. In 2014 it organised a charrette to discuss redevelopment around the city’s Hatﬁeld Road museum. Look! St Albans Chair Vanessa Gregory explained: “The draft design codes are not adopted policy of St Albans District Council, but their power lies in the fact they were communityled and community endorsed. We have, we believe, a unique memorandum of understanding with our local planning authority.” This time, the project under discussion was much larger: the City Centre Opportunity Site (CCOS), a seven-acre area in central St Albans, featuring several vacant or run-down properties, including a former police station, an NHS principal health clinic, the Alban Arena theatre, a car park, a magistrates’ court, and a memorial garden.

Municipal masterplan A municipal campus masterplan for St Albans was conceived in the 1950s and completed in the 1970s. But this plan is now seen as having shortcomings, not least in the approach to the centre from the St Albans City railway station. It’s generally agreed that this route is unedifying, confronting the visitor with a warren of car parks, utilities, ageing oﬃce buildings, and the side of the old town hall. The development of the Maltings Shopping Centre in the 1980s brought a commercial focus to the east side of the town centre, but connections across the busy Chequer Street remain a challenge. The Roman and Tudor history of the city presents particular planning challenges, not just because of the number of listed or protected buildings. Uncoordinated planning has been down not to a lack of will or a spirit of cooperation, but to the

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P L A N N I N G C H A R R ET T E S Locals and experts team up to lay plans

sheer number of parties involved. The development partnership now involved in planning strategy includes St Albans City & District Council, St Albans City Council Community Services, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, and Boultbee LND Ltd, owner of the nearby Maltings shopping centre. The partnership’s vision statement says: “For far too long citizens and landowners have made do with too many issues in buildings, public spaces, layout and landscaping of the civic centre sites. This part of our city is just not making a great enough contribution, to the detriment of citizens, visitors, employers, employees, landowners and the environment.” Key measures of the new masterplan include quality improvements in the public realm; an attractive public route/ loop from St Peter’s Street via The Maltings, across Victoria Street, to a larger Civic Square; an expansion of the Alban Arena theatre including a new library; new community health facilities; a new “consolidated and beautiful” multistorey car park; and new homes, including 40 per cent quality aﬀordable housing.

Friends and neighbours After two months of preparation, Look! St Albans hosted and covered costs for the charrette, with support of the landowners to fund independent facilitation. Lead facilitator for the charrette was Angela Koch of Imagine Places, which works with neighbourhoods on placemaking in the UK and abroad. Also acting as facilitators were technical experts in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, transport Scheme 1 and traffic engineering, planning, viability advice and 3D modelling. Helen Tether, conservation officer from the St Albans planning department, presented the Planning Brief 2012 for the CCOS. Charretteers were then invited to post ideas Also participating, though not currently part and priorities on a whiteboard, from which of the Development Partnership, was Angle Koch would derive the strongest themes. Properties Ltd, freeholder of Hertfordshire House, One frequently expressed thought was the “THIS IS which comprises 12,700 square feet of B1 office idea of opening the redevelopment to an PROBABLY THE accommodation with 48 car spaces on a 0.5-acre international design competition. LARGEST NON site within the CCOS. COUNCIL LED A publicity campaign by Look! St Albans resulted Bricks and mortar ENGAGEMENT ON in attendance of about 80 local residents at the Practical work got under way on the Saturday, PLANNING THAT opening event of the charrette in the St Albans with site walkabouts. Participants then ST ALBANS HAS council chambers on a Friday evening. divided into six teams, drawing up layout EVER SEEN” Angela Koch presented international examples of plans and developing narratives for different integration of retail, residential and civic facilities; parts of the site. and emphasised current under-use of flat roof Work continued on the Sunday using spaces, the importance of sightlines and views from high points, ground plans and building blocks. Two main ideas emerged, and the potential for beautifying unedifying structures such as car one featuring a broad promenade linking Victoria Street in parks by modern design and greening. the east to Hatfield Road in the south, the other proposing a Presentations on local history and key policy framework canopied area in front of the Alban Arena theatre. followed, and participants were given a grounding in A radical group led by an Australian commercial orientation and lighting, access requirements, mix of uses, scale photographer with some insight into similar developments and quantum, urban grain, materials, colour and texture, and in Melbourne, suggested “knocking down the whole lot and public art. starting again” – but cost implications made this challenging. Sean Dempsey from owner Boultbee LDN made a Crucial to the charrette process is that participants presentation on plans for The Maltings shopping centre understand the cost implications of their plans. The CCOS adjacent to the CCOS site. These include a multiscreen cinema, scheme has to be self-funding, mainly through sale of roof garden, terrace, homes, offices, and improvements to the residential developments. This should present no difficulty multistorey car park. given the popularity of St Albans, but 40 per cent of these

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Charrettes in context properties must be ‘affordable’ – a relative term in areas like St Albans, where the average house price in 2016 was £599,772 – and this could severely affect their profitability to developers. Comparable problems arise around car parking. The temptation is to put spaces underground, but this would roughly double the cost per space compared with decked parking. Conversely, the uneven topography of the CCOS area suggests that underground parking may solve some planning problems. After the six teams presented their completed models, Angela Koch photographed and annotated the results, and took them into a drafting process. Andrew Sheldon of Sheldon Peever integrated the plans with Google Earth data imported into Autodesk, to create fully navigable 3D models of the proposals. These were presented along with artist’s impressions at a reporting session the following Friday, which drew 90 attendees.

What a week “It’s been quite a week, with over 1,000 hours of input from the community making all the difference,” said Koch. She took her inspiration for naming the two design concepts, Samuel Ryder Promenade and Samuel Ryder Pavilion, from the connections of the seed merchant and golf sponsor to St Albans. “This is probably the largest non-council led engagement on planning that St Albans has ever seen,” said Vanessa Gregory. “Personally, I am thrilled that the 166 different people of all ages helped to set the bar as to what is acceptable for the very heart of our city centre.” Councillor Julian Daly, leader and portfolio holder for resources for St Albans, said: “Most of the CCOS was developed in the 1960s and is now tired and worn. A comprehensive, highquality redevelopment of the area will be transformational for St Albans. It will make the city centre more attractive, vibrant and appealing.” In the standard RIBA Plan of Work, the St Albans charrette feeds into the local masterplan that precedes planning applications. The next step is for Look! St Albans to present its letter of recommendation and support of the outcome to the local planning authority. In November a meeting took place between council planning officers and Angle Properties, owner of Hertfordshire House, ‘to

The term ‘charrette’ originated at the École des Beaux-Arts in 19th-century Paris, where design/architecture students would continue to work on projects ‘en charrette’ or ‘in the cart’ on the way to their final exams. The modern charrette is an intensive planning session combining elements of workshop and consultation, where citizens, planners, designers, engineers, economists and other stakeholders collaborate on a vision for development. Typically involving three stages – preparation and identification of stakeholders, which can last from six weeks to nine months; the charrette itself, which lasts from four to seven days; and postcharrette implementation – the process usually takes place on site and incorporates site visits, presentations, workshops, consultation exercises, discussion, and design work. The final aim is to create a plan that is ‘owned’ by all. In 2015 the Engineering Exchange supported a community planning workshop on the Park Royal and Old Oak Common transport hub, linking the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing, Brent and Kensington & Chelsea. Other successful charrettes include that held in 2015 to develop a new community-inspired vision for Clydebank town centre, and Arup’s collaboration with New London Architecture to think about issues and potential solutions the forthcoming London Plan should address. The Scottish Government is particularly active in the field, piloting the Charrette Mainstreaming Programme in 2011-12, and continuing the scheme through 2015-16 with support given to more than 30 charrettes in total.

Scheme 2

progress their positive input into the design charrette process’. Vanessa Gregory said: “I was thrilled by this news... clearly, the atmosphere and spirit of the shared endeavour at the design charrette has had many tangible positive results.” But is the charrette the future of local planning? Certainly, as Gregory asserts, such discussions and the resulting design concepts could be used to inform landowners and developers, mitigating some planning risk by having the community onside at an early stage “before irreversible key decisions have been made and expensive plans have been drawn up”. n The CCOS proposals can be seen on the Look! St Albans website: www.lookstalbans.org

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INSIGHT

DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

Decisions in Focus is where we put the spotlight on some of the more significant planning appeals and court cases of the last month – alongside your comments. If you’d like to contribute your insights and analyses to future issues of The Planner, email DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk decided that there was sufficient funding available through CIL contributions to ensure that this ‘deficit’ was addressed.

A development of 270 homes in Selby has been allowed despite being premature to the council’s local plan

Appeal Ref: APP/ N2739/W/16/3144900

HOUSING

Blackheath homes refused on aﬀordable housing grounds HOUSI HOUSING

270 homes approved for Selby despite prematurity concerns ( SUMMARY Hodgson’s Gate Developments has been granted permission to develop 270 homes in Sherburn Elmet, Selby, despite Selby District Council’s argument that the scheme’s use of safeguarded land would be premature to its local plan. ( CASE DETAILS Inspector Richard Schoﬁeld noted that the council admitted there was a shortfall

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in housing supply. He shared the appellant’s concerns regarding the deal to the progress of its site allocations document and its apparently increasing reliance on windfall sites. Schoﬁeld accepted that the site is part of a wider safeguarded area of land around Sherburn in Elmet, which was removed from the green belt in the 2005 local plan as a long-term resource for housing or employment growth after 2006. He agreed that in principle the scheme would conﬂict with council policy as the development would not take place as part of the local plan review, but argued that the Planning Practice Guidance was clear that refusal of

permission on prematurity grounds will seldom be justified where a local plan has yet to be submitted for examination, as is the case here. Although the site technically sits within the countryside, Schofield said that as the site consists of “two relative ordinary, well-contained fields divorced from the wider countryside by the A162 and extant development” he did not consider that it would have a significant influence upon the area’s character. ( CONCLUSION REACHED The parish council had also raised concerns regarding the alleged lack of local infrastructure to support the scheme, but Schofield

( SUMMARY Permission has been refused for 130 homes in Blackheath, South London, after an inspector concluded that the scheme failed to provide a policy-compliant level of affordable housing. ( CASE DETAILS In the context of the Kidbrooke Development Area Supplementary Planning Guidance, as a greenfield, the appeal site is expected to seek to provide 50 per cent affordable housing, viability permitting. The council’s core strategy seeks for a minimum of 35 per cent affordable housing. Despite the appellant’s viability assessment identifying a significant

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20/12/2016 15:16

A designer outlet centre approved for Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire, would not greatly harm Darlington, one of four nearby towns, said the communities secretary

RETAIL & LEISURE

Javid approves designer outlet centre for North Yorkshire

negative residual land value when considered in the context of an alternative use value for the site, the appellant continued to offer 26 per cent affordable housing – a level that had been offered in previous appeals. The council further argued that the appeal site is allocated for housing, and that the appellant’s alternative suggested use of a retirement village would not be policy compliant, an assertion with which inspector Kenneth Stone agreed. He further found issue with the lack of affordable housing provision included in this alternative use, arguing that some of the suggested age restricted housing would fall outside of this exemption. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Stone ultimately judged that the proposal had not demonstrated that it would provide an appropriate level of affordable housing in accordance with London Plan policy 3.12 and core strategy policy H3, and refused the appeal.

Appeal Ref: APP/E5330/W/16/3145602

COMMERCIAL

Employment land benefits outweigh strategic gap concerns ( SUMMARY St Mowden Developments Ltd has been granted permission to develop land near Tamworth for industrial and storage and distribution uses, despite North Warwickshire Council’s claim that the scheme conflicted with its emerging local plan. ( CASE DETAILS Inspector Matthew Birkinshaw noted that the appeal site lies outside of any adjacent settlement boundaries within a strategic gap between Polesworth, Dordon and Tamworth, and that the council believes development here would harm the separate identity of Dordon. But Birkinshaw concluded that because of a number of landscape attributes, including the location of Dordon on higher ground and the presence of a landscape buffer, the separate identity of the town would not

be compromised. He judged that the scheme would respect the meaningful gap between the three towns. Although the council had originally argued that the need for additional employment land had not been proved, it later accepted that there were not enough allocated or approved sites to meet need, but viewed that allocations in the emerging local plan (eLP) would meet this need. Birkinshaw countered that the eLP was not at a stage where it should carry great weight, and that no persuasive evidence had been given to demonstrate that Tamworth’s needs or the needs for strategic sites had been met. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Finding no issue in relation to highway impacts or living conditions, Birkinshaw weighed the impacts of the proposal against its provision of needed employment land, local economic impact of £70 million to £90 million and peak job creation of 1,650, and decided in favour of the appeal.

Appeal Refs: APP/R3705/W/15/3136495

( SUMMARY Communities secretary Sajid Javid has approved two appeals, both concerning the erection of a designer outlet centre and associated restaurants and car parking for Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire, after agreeing that the scheme would not materially impact on the vitality of four nearby town centres. ( CASE DETAILS Javid noted that Richmondshire District Council’s policy CP9 gives support for retail and town centre developments of more than 500 square metres outside of town centres, but agreed with inspector George Baird that as this policy sets a threshold in site size, it is not inconsistent with the framework. He agreed that as the district is largely rural, the core strategy policy takes “a pragmatic approach to determining when the sequential and impact tests bite”. Javid agreed that there was no evidence to suggest that the appellant had pitched the scale of the scheme so that it would be impossible to identify a town centre site, and that the sequential test revealed the site to be preferable and it was agreed with the local planning authority to be appropriate. Darlington Borough Council suggested a “sub-sectoral” approach to assessing impact on town centre vitality by undertaking a subset of comparison goods retail, but this was given little weight

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INSIGHT

DiF { D by the secretary of state. Javid acknowleged that there would be some trading impact on the adjacent town centres of Darlington, Northallerton, Stockton-onTees and Middlesbrough, but that the evidence as a whole did not suggest that the appeal scheme would have a signiﬁcant adverse impact on their vitality or viability. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Javid noted the beneﬁts of the scheme, including the generation of roughly 1,200 jobs, and allowed the appeals.

Appeal Refs: APP/V2723/V/15/3132873 / APP/ V2723/V/16/3143678

DECISIONS IN FOCUS housing estates than a site on the edge of a rural settlement as is the case here. He further noted that the proposed “packed” layout of two-storey houses makes no concessions to the lower-density development elsewhere in the settlement or the rural character of the surrounding area. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Further to this, Martin judged that the “standard house types” included in the proposal pay little respect to the character of the village and would dominate the adjoining, lower-lying properties. These factors led to his refusal of the scheme.

HOUSING Appeal Refs: PPA-120-2042

Housing density ruled out of step with rural setting

HOUSING

Jodrell Bank Observatory eclipses Cheshire homes proposal ( SUMMARY Communities secretary Sajid Javid has refused permission for 119 homes in Goostrey, Cheshire, because of the “global significance” of protecting the operations of the Jodrell Bank Observatory. ( CASE DETAILS Javid noted that the appeal site lies outside of the defined settlement limit of Goostrey, but that this conflict should be afforded less weight given Cheshire East Council’s inability to demonstrate a policycompliant level of housing land.

But of more importance than housing shortage was the impact on Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope. Javid accepted that there is a substantial exceedance of the international threshold of interference detrimental to radio astronomy found in ITU regulations, and agreed it had been proved that the appeal scheme would impair the efficiency of the telescope enough to bring it into conflict with council policy. Given Jodrell Bank’s status as an “established worldclass facility” carrying out internationally important work, Javid said its protection outweighed the “locally significant” issue of housing supply in this case. Further weighing against the appeal was the scheme’s impact on the setting of the grade II listed Swanwick Hall. Javid

Operations at Jodrell Bank Observatory near Goostrey were deemed too important to be compromised by a housing scheme

( SUMMARY A reporter has concluded that the proposed density of a 46-home development at the edge of the village of Barry, Carnoustie, would not be sympathetic to the rural setting. ( CASE DETAILS Reporter John Martin noted that the site has been included in the Angus Local Development Plan as having the potential to provide housing, but that the council refused the application as it would not ﬁt with the local landscape in terms of massing, scale and layout. Martin argued that although the density of the proposal (around 10.5 units an acre) has been permitted for other sites in the area, this would be more appropriate to suburban

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Donald Trump has been given permission to keep ﬂying the ﬂag at his leisure resort site at Balmedie in Aberdeenshire

impression of the ﬂagpole’s height is considerably reduced. ( CONCLUSION REACHED She ruled that the slim design of the ﬂagpole prevents it from being visually dominant, and that it does not present a distraction to the golf complex setting or the character of the low coastal landscape.

Appeal Refs: PPA-110-2307

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Solar farms refused at Lochwinnoch agreed that the site makes an important contribution to the significance of the hall given its historic use as a farmhouse, and that the development would very substantially reduce the gap between the hall and Goostrey village, diminishing the open character of the area. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Although Javid agreed that there were significant benefits to the scheme – including the provision of much-needed affordable and market housing – he ruled that these benefits did not outweigh the identified less than substantial harm to the setting of the hall “bearing in mind that such harm should be given considerable importance and weight”. As a result, the secretary of state refused the appeal.

Appeal Refs: APP/R0660/W/15/3129954

LEISURE

Trump wins appeal over outsize flagpole ( SUMMARY President-elect Donald Trump’s Trump International Golf Club Scotland has won its appeal for retrospective permission to erect a flagpole at the Balmedie site, despite the council’s view that the pole is “well in excess” of typical flagpole heights. ( CASE DETAILS Aberdeenshire Council said a flagpole of this type is usually between six and 18 metres high – and that the proposed pole, at 24.9 metres, is well in excess of this “without any particular justification”. Reporter Claire Milne agreed that the difference in height between the pole and existing adjacent buildings is “noticeable”, but ruled that as it is seen in its immediate vicinity in the context of the club’s car park, the

( SUMMARY Environmental Energy Investments (Scotland) Ltd has been refused permission for two 4.9-megawatt solar farms in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, after it was found that the scheme’s renewable energy beneﬁts did not outweigh the impact of development in the green belt. ( CASE DETAILS Reporter Martin Seddon noted that both sites lie close to the boundary of the Clyde Muirshield Regional Park, and

that the variety of features, colours and textures of the agricultural fields means that the landscape would be sensitive to significant change. In the case of the West Mitchelton site, Seddon found that the scheme would broadly respect the geometry of the field pattern, but would replace pasture land with an expansive array of dark-coloured solar panels and introduce a commercial element. Its prominence in some views meant it would fail to maintain the character of the landscape and harm the openness of the green belt. The Weels Farm scheme was refused for the same reasons, coupled with its impact on the setting of the Knockmade Hill ancient monument. ( CONCLUSION REACHED The appellant argued that Renfrewshire Council’s refusal of the schemes was “totally contrary” to the government’s support for renewable energy, but Seddon concluded that the negative impact of the scheme outweighed its benefits.

Appeal Refs: PPA-350-2017 / PPA-350-2018

A reporter decided that dark-coloured solar panels would be out of keeping with Lochwinnoch’s rural setting

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Career { D E V E L O P M E N T SUPPORTING PLANNING IN SCHOOLS

Volunteering to foster interest in planning in schools can be both professionally and personally rewarding. Martha Harris looks at education programmes that planners can deliver We continue to see new talent enter the profession each year, but we’re all familiar with the relative paucity of knowledge about planning careers in schools. How do we inform young people about planning and get them excited about careers in the profession? The RTPI Future Planners programme is one such initiative that aims to foster interest in planning among 11-18 year olds and supports students studying planning at university, some of whom can apply for

an RTPI Future Planners Bursary (see info box). The programme involves volunteer RTPI Ambassadors visiting careers fairs and schools to engage pupils in discussions about what the planning profession involves, and how to become a town planner. Ambassadors can also deliver other planning careers and education initiatives that are supported by the RTPI, including Urban Plan UK, from the Urban Land Institute, and Property Needs You, a joint scheme by the RTPI,

LINDSAY FROST and sustainable property development. In the media, planning is often shown as negative “I had retired from a senior post in and bureaucratic, so it’s good to local government and set up as a show that it can be about being private consultant, and I was creative and solving problems. looking for volunteer work that “It’s so important to teach would allow me to give back to the children and young adults about profession. That’s how I became planning because it affects many of involved in the Urban Plan the key things initiative. “Urban Plan “IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO TEACH in life; getting a gets sixthCHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS home, getting a job, how you formers working ABOUT PLANNING, BECAUSE in teams to IT AFFECTS MANY OF THE KEY spend your leisure time, tackle the THINGS IN LIFE” how you travel, financial, design, how you feel about the place you ethical and environmental live and how you can help shape its challenges involved in property development in a day-long exercise, future. It’s odd that the education curriculum doesn’t seem to directly with property professionals address these important points. prompting the students as they “Volunteering is an opportunity work up a development proposal. for personal development and “The students like the way the adding experience beyond the day exercise shows the real-life job. It also allows you to help challenges of balancing different improve the profession’s image.” objectives in achieving a successful Director at Lindsay Frost Consulting

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Changing the Face of Property, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Reading Real Estate Foundation. Since the Future Planners programme was launched in 2014, ambassadors have visited more than 200 schools and careers events across the UK and Ireland. They have given presentations, led lesson activities, and taken part in careers fairs. Is their work having an impact? Three ambassadors tell their stories.

JENNA LANGFORD Planning regeneration oﬃcer at Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

“The careers advice I received at school was very poor – it was an experience that stuck with me, and has driven me to help young people when they are considering their futures. “Planning, like many other professions, is a function that is unfortunately taken for granted. Most people aren’t aware of the extent to which our environment is planned, or of the delicate balances at play in order to ensure a sustainable world. Engaging young people and raising awareness provides the opportunity to harness their creativity, and encourages them to think about their environment and how it can be improved. “It can be a daunting prospect, but over the two years I have been

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JOBS

Make Planner Jobs your ﬁrst port of call for town planning jobs, careers advice and the latest people news from across the sector. Visit jobs.theplanner.co.uk

TUNDE ADEBUTU TU U “Some students come well informed about the profession and want to explore their options further, others have enjoyed studying a related subject “I was lucky enough to have a and are wondering what they can do planner I looked up to when I was with it – and there are some that have training. I have always been no idea what town planning is. Your job grateful for the experience, and is to give them the information that is wanted to give back. relevant to their situation. Essentially, “I’m keen to help where possible it’s about selling your profession – and I have mostly been deployed people want to to help at careers know more if they events, where we see you are oﬀer information “YOUNG PEOPLE DON’T NATURALLY THINK OF TOWN genuinely on how town PLANNING AS A CAREER, SO passionate about planning could what you’re saying. be a great career IT’S IMPORTANT TO PROVIDE GOOD INFORMATION EARLY” “Many young option. people don’t “Recently, I’ve naturally think of town planning as a been involved with Property Needs career path, so it’s important to provide You – an initiative that helps to good information at an early stage to create pathways for students into help them make better-informed property-oriented professions. Managing director at Neuber Limited

an ambassador I have found the young people I’ve worked with to be very appreciative. They are particularly interested in what planners are doing in their area, how they are inﬂuencing the places they use and what is being planned for the future. “The experience has led to my being able to arrange work experience for some young people, and being invited by schools to present geography awards, which is incredibly rewarding. The work that we do as ambassadors also demonstrates passion for and commitment to the profession, develops your presentation skills.”

“ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE ENCOURAGES THEM TO THINK ABOUT THEIR ENVIRONMENT AND HOW IT CAN BE IMPROVED”

Becoming an RTPI Ambassador Participation in the programme contributes towards annual CPD requirements and can help build links between education providers and employers. If you are an RTPI member and you can spare a few hours each year, get involved by signing up online at: www.rtpi.org. uk/ambassadors

The Ambassadors Toolkit The RTPI has created an ‘Ambassadors Toolkit’ to provide a ‘self-service’ approach to participation to enable ambassadors to volunteer in the way that best suits them. It includes: • Suggestions of volunteer activity; • Ways to form links with schools; • Downloadable resources; and • Advice on ways to engage pupils. The toolkit is available from January 2017 at www.rtpi.org.uk/ambassadors (email: ambassadors@rtpi.org.uk)

career choices and attract a broader range of people to the profession. “I’ve had great experiences volunteering, including seeing a student I’d mentored through the APC process become fully chartered. Professionally, it has developed my communication skills and taught me how to be patient – valuable career attributes and a good addition to my CPD.”

FUTURE PLANNERS BURSARY The Future Planners Bursary fund, launched in June 2015, allows graduates from any discipline to apply for a £1,000 award if they enrol on an accredited University Masters course in town planning. tinyurl. com/futureplannersbursary

RTPI PARTNER EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES Property Needs You is a UK-wide joint initiative from the RTPI, Changing the Face of Property, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Reading Real Estate Foundation that works with parents, teachers and careers advisers to help young people understand opportunities available in the property sector. www.propertyneedsyou.com Developed by the Urban Land Institute, Urban Plan UK is a “realistic, engaging, and academically demanding” classroom programme in which students learn about the forces that aﬀect urban regeneration. urbanplanuk.uli.org

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INSIGHT

LLegal landscape SECOND HOMES RESTRICTIONS: WHERE ARE WE NOW? Jack Parker of Cornerstone Barristers looks at which questions have been answered – and which haven’t – by the recent High Court ruling dismissing a challenge to the St Ives Neighbourhood Plan. Residents of St Ives in Cornwall, who have long been concerned about the impact of second homes on their town, were given cause for celebration by the dismissal of a challenge to the St Ives Neighbourhood Plan (RLT Built Environment Ltd v Cornwall Council [2016] EWHC 2817 (Admin) per Hickinbottom J). The plan, which requires new residential dwellings to be subject to a restriction that they be occupied as a person’s ‘principal residence’ is clearly popular with the local community (83 per cent of voters who voted in the referendum were in favour of the plan). While the judgment no doubt paves the way for similar restrictions to come forward in other neighbourhood plans, critics argue that the restrictions are variously discriminatory, counterproductive (insofar as they will further inﬂate the cost of market housing) and unenforceable. While questions no doubt still remain, Mr Justice Hickinbottom’s judgment provided important guidance in relation to at least some of them.

As to whether a principal residence restriction was an appropriate response to the issues created by second homes, the claimant argued that the “obvious solution” to the lack of open market dwellings for local people to buy was the provision of more market housing and that this option should, at the very least, have been assessed as a “reasonable alternative” in accordance with Article 5 of the SEA Directive (2001/42/ EC). The judge rejected the argument. The aim of the policy was not merely to meet the housing needs of local people, but also to safeguard the sustainability of development by reducing the proportion of dwellings not occupied as a principal residence. Of course, if a

Jack Parker consequence of the plan is a discernible rise in prices (and we will obviously not know for some time to come), the extent to which the plan would nonetheless be able to achieve its aims will no doubt be hotly debated. For the time being, however, and in the plan-making context, the judgment will surely provide a response to those critics who focus solely on the market implications of second homes restrictions. So far as discrimination was concerned, while the claimant had originally argued that the council had failed to give consideration to the potentially discriminatory

“THE PLAN, WHICH REQUIRES NEW RESIDENTIAL DWELLINGS TO BE SUBJECT TO A RESTRICTION THAT THEY BE OCCUPIED AS A PERSON’S ‘PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE’ IS CLEARLY POPULAR”

effects of the policies contrary to s. 149 of the Equality Act 2010, this ground was not pursued at the hearing. While the judge therefore gave no guidance on the point, it is difficult to see (so long as appropriate consideration is given to the issue) how such an allegation can be made out. As to enforcement, we are, of course, yet to know the precise legal form that the principal residence restriction will take, whether circumstances will arise that require enforcement action to be taken and the issues that might arise at that stage. Given the way in which the policy is worded, judgments (and possibly difficult judgments) may need to be made as to whether a person is occupying the dwelling as a principal residence. However, in rejecting a submission that the policy was insufficiently certain as to when enforcement action against a particular occupier would be taken (allegedly so as to breach Article 8 ECHR), the point was made that the purchaser of a dwelling subject to a restriction will be aware of the ‘risk’, in making the purchase, that if he chooses to move away, or circumstances force him to do so, then the restriction will require him to sell the dwelling. It is that risk, irrespective of the other uncertainties, which will surely ensure that the plan is effective at least in preventing new homes being marketed and sold as holiday homes and, in that regard, decrease the proportion of second homes in accordance with the aim of the policy. Jack Parker (with Mark Lowe QC) was instructed by Elizabeth Dunstan on behalf of Cornwall Council

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LATEST POSTS FROM THEPLANNER.CO.UK/BLOGS

B LO G S The government’s plans to amend the National Planning Policy Framework with the forthcoming housing white paper do not add up to the comprehensive strategy needed to tackle the housing crisis

L E G I S L AT I O N S H O R T S Legal challenge brought against government over Heathrow expansion

Neighbourhood plans fudge The government’s solution to the so-far intractable problem of neighbourhood plans that do not meet housing needs is here in the form of a written ministerial statement (WMS) calling time on the relative certainty provided by the NPPF and ﬁring the starting gun for changes to the NPPF due with the issue of the housing white paper early in 2017. Most neighbourhood plans (NPs) will be going nowhere sensible, even more emphatically than ever.

Nothing comes of nothing The courts have confirmed that the examination tests for a neighbourhood plan are a cakewalk that does not require any sensible relationship with strategic goals of meeting Objectively Assessed Needs. NPs can be passed fit for service at examination simply having “regard to” national policies where it is “in general conformity with the strategic policies” that may date back to the 1990s and have little or no relationship to the ongoing mess of housing delivery. Equally, the ability to put NPs in place without any up-to-date strategic policies – and the endless snakes and ladders of the local plan process – creates a challenge for those promoting NPs as a positive framework for local growth. Adopted NPs may provide a warm glow that immediately fades as an absent overarching housing land supply weighs in under paragraph 49 of the NPPF. The government’s response to date has been wholly political. In some cases NPs have been effectively ignored; in others the out-of-date NP policies have been given determinative weight, refusing permission for 100 homes at Yapton in an area of housing need with three years’ housing land supply on the basis that out-of-date NP policies should be given “significant weight”.

Roy Pinnock Sticking plaster applied The WMS states that: “relevant policies for the supply of housing in a neighbourhood plan … should not be deemed to be ‘out-ofdate’ [under NPPF49] where […]”: • the WMS or the NP are less than two years old • the NP “allocates sites for housing” • the LPA “can demonstrate a threeyear supply of deliverable housing sites”. Cue some authorities currently bobbing around on the local plan process to ditch infrastructure planning, batten down the hatches with a three-year supply and encourage NPs through the process. Cue some NPs that allocate a couple of single unit sites being treated as up to date even if there remains a housing shortfall in the neighbourhood. A far better solution would simply be to require the NP examination regime to grapple with the unconstrained Objectively Assessed Needs for their area and plan to meet an equitable slice of them until the local plan comes along. NP authors are, after all, engaging in devolved governance. With that great power comes great responsibility. Roy Pinnock is a partner at Dentons

Hillingdon, Richmond, Wandsworth and Maidenhead council have brought a legal challenge against the government for unlawfully supporting the expansion of Heathrow Airport. The councils are joined in the challenge by environmental charity Greenpeace and a Hillingdon resident. In a legal submission to the High Court the group is seeking a judicial review of the decision. The request has been ﬁled by Harrison Grant Solicitors on behalf of the group. The claimants argue that the government has failed to recognise the project’s unlawful air quality impacts and that the consultation held to make the decision was “fundamentally ﬂawed”. It also seeks to hold the government to the promise that a third runway would never be built. John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace UK, added: “It’s clear that ministers greenlighted the third runway without thinking through its repercussions for people and the environment. This is reckless and unlawful. If ministers are hell-bent on disregarding the laws that protect us from pollution, a courtroom is where we’re going to hold them to account.”

Parish council wins rural homes fight East Bergholt Parish Council, Suffolk, has won a High Court challenge against its district council to grant planning permission for 10 homes. The High Court ruled that the permission to allow the homes to be built in Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was flawed because it did not take into account the village’s needs set out in the Babergh District Council’s local plan. The judge agreed with the parish council’s interpretation and evidence that the needs of the local area differ from those of the wider district. He also agreed that the district council failed to carry out the correct exercise in deciding whether development on the site within the AONB had an exceptional reason to overrule the ordinary prohibition on development. Therefore, permission for the development was quashed.

Injunction granted stopping interference with work on Dublin housing project The High Court has granted a temporary injunction that prevents interference with work on a €12 million social housing project in Dublin. The order has been obtained by Co-operative Housing Ireland Society Ltd against a number of residents who are part of a protest. The protest allegedly prevented work from starting on 72 units at Cherry Orchard Park, west Ballyfermot. One resident told a judge he wanted time to put in an aﬃdavit and to get legal advice. A group blocked access to the site amid accusations by residents that the development would demolish a memorial garden for deceased local people in the park. Co-operative Housing has said it plans to relocate the park or incorporate it into the work.

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DIARY

LISTINGS

DON’T MISS

Talks, conferences, training, masterclasses – everything you need to keep on top of the latest thinking and developments in the planning world.

LONDON 1 March – Writing skills for planning professionals This interactive one-day workshop focuses on helping you to plan your document, write fluently, and to polish your work. The aim is not only to get your messages across, but also to use the written word to build harmonious relationships and enhance your professional reputation. Venue: tbc, services@ rtpiconferences.co.uk Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1216-LO-0103 7 March – Understanding developers and development finance This masterclass uses lectures, workshops and exercises to help you think like a land buyer. Discover the practical application of development economics. Venue: tbc, services@ rtpiconferences.co.uk Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-LO-0703 9 March – The challenges of waste management The release of the National Planning Policy for Waste and supporting guidance in autumn 2014 sparked the interest of waste planners. This briefing & workshop gives delegates the chance to discuss the challenges and possible answers with government officials from the DCLG, the Environment Agency, the waste industry and waste planning sectors. Venue: tbc, services@ rtpiconferences.co.uk Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-LO-0903

SOUTH WEST 1 February – SW Neighbourhood Development Plans This event is for all practitioners involved in development management

to policy formation. It focuses on the story of rural and urban NDPs thus far and considers the diﬃculties of progressing an NDP to referendum. The conference also explores the eﬃcacy of NDPs in achieving good planning outcomes, and the treatment of NDPs in appeal decisions and court challenges will be considered. Venue: tbc, services@ rtpiconferences.co.uk Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-LO-0903 15 March – SW NPPF: Five years on This event will hear opinions from speakers on the success of the NPPF and the NPPG in simplifying national planning guidance. Speakers will also consider the likely shape of the review of the NPPF. Venue: STEAM, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon SN2 2EY Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-SW-1503

YORKSHIRE 21 February – Environmental Impact Assessments (Leeds) The masterclass will help you understand: where the law comes from, where it has changed and any future proposals; stages in an EIA including screening, scoping and the Environmental Statement; how mitigation can reduce impacts to acceptable levels; what can be expected of EIA consultants; the role of planning oﬃcers in decision-making; the specialist inputs required including a speciﬁc case study; and guidance and methodologies used. Venue: The Studio, Albion Place, Leeds LS1 6JL Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1216-YO-2102

London Planning Awards 2016/17 The London Planning Awards, now in their 14th year, are organised in partnership with the Mayor of London, London First, RTPI London, Planning Oﬃcers Society and London borough councils to recognise and reward best practice in planning in the capital. Senior representatives from local authorities (oﬃcers and members), City Hall, developers, planners and community groups will attend the ceremony. Categories are: 23 February – Conservation: 50 years of heritage planning Conservation and heritage planning has become a mainstay of much imaginative regeneration across the UK. To celebrate 50 years of the Civic Amenities Act, this event examines how innovative techniques and management of historic assets drive regeneration, quality and prosperity in the region and beyond. Being held in association with Historic England. Venue: Bristol, Anchor Rd, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5DB Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-SW-0102

NORTH WEST 9 February – Planning support NW This event provides non-planning colleagues with an understanding of the planning system to enable them to appreciate the wider context within which they are working. It will include an update on the changes to the planning system over the year, aid understanding the development plan system, the role of development management, and the way decisions on planning applications are made. Venue: BDP, 11 Ducie St, Manchester M1 2JB Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1216-NW-0902 6 March – Planning law update (1) NW The courts continue to make key planning decisions on a regular basis, and the threat of judicial review is ever-present. This update will assist you to identify the issues and understand how to deal with the provisions of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, and understand the Neighbourhood Planning

• Best New Place to Work • Best Community Led Project • Best Conceptual Project • Best New Public Space • Best New Place to Live • Best Project Five Years On • Best Heritage Led Project • Best Town Centre Project • Best Planning Authority Date: Monday 27 February 2017 Venue: City Hall, The Queens Walk, London SE1 2AA Details: tinyurl.com/planner1216-LO-2702

Bill as it moves through the legislative process. Venue: Hotel Football, 99 Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Traﬀord, Manchester Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-NW-0603 9 March – Planning for minerals & waste NW This event considers the role of the Local Aggregate Assessment in the planning process from both the industry and local authority perspectives. The importance of quarry restoration will also be discussed, including a case study on the restoration of a quarry to beneﬁt wildlife and recreation. Venue: Brockholes, Preston New Road, Preston Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-NW-0903

NORTH EAST 1 February – NE Environmental Impact Assessment This seminar will explore current working practice and necessities and subsequently how these shape the submission of EIA applications. It will also explore the latest legislatory requirements and how these aﬀect dayto-day working standards. Venue: Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne

Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1216-NE-0102 22 February – How should we think about regeneration? This seminar focuses on issues of national and local investment in regeneration, the role of the planning system as well as practical regional examples of successful initiatives. This seminar could count as appropriate CPD for RTPI members. Venue: Northumbrian Suite, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stephenson Quarter, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1216-NE-2202 13 March – NE planning law spring update The courts continue to make key planning decisions on a regular basis, and the threat of judicial review is ever-present. This update will help you to understand how to deal with the provisions of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, and to understand the Neighbourhood Planning Bill as it moves through the legislative process. Venue: St Anns Wharf, 112 Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3DX Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0117-NE-1303

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited by Josh Rule at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

RTPI modernisation will set scene for growth and growing inﬂuence

ANDREW TAYLOR, OUTGOING CHAIR OF RTPI BOARD OF TRUSTEES As I come to the end of my tenure as chair of the RTPI Board of Trustees, I am very pleased to say that I am handing over to Graham Stallwood, and wish him well during his tenure. I could not have steered the Board without the support of Scottish Trustee and Vice-Chair Ian Angus – thank you. The RTPI is in good shape and is well on its way to ensuring that it is ﬁt for the future. Over the past few years the Board has worked hard to identify and act on our vision for 2020. We aim to grow our membership whilst also delivering better value for current members, and deliver on our mission to advance the art and science of planning for the beneﬁt of the public. Over a two-year period we consulted widely with members to create new routes to membership (whilst maintaining our high standards), which become fully enacted this year. Alongside this, we have been actively working to encourage the wider community to consider planning as a career, through initiatives such as the bursary scheme, schools outreach programme and apprenticeships. Our accredited planning school

students are now automatically enrolled as student members. Promoting the diversity agenda remains a top priority for the Board, for instance, our Awards judging panel this year represents a truly equal gender split. The Board welcomed the new ‘Planning Out’ group earlier last year. It is important that the behindthe-scenes technology is updated so that RTPI delivers a faster and more personalised service to members. A new website will enable members to access a fuller range of information and services tailored to their needs and the Board is investing in new database technology to deliver this. Work on these projects will go on during 2017 and launch early 2018. This, combined with a refreshed approach to our national training programme, which we will pilot in 2018, will mean that members and potential members have even better support from us at national and regional level throughout their careers as planners. Planners are a notoriously modest bunch, so the Board created the Nominations Sub Committee to ensure that those who have achieved in their careers or for the RTPI, or who have

supported the profession, are recognised. We have awarded two Gold Medals recently, to Alison Nimmo CBE and Professor Mike Batty CBE. I am also proud to say that, amongst many other achievements, we have grown our voice to government and the media in recent years. We are now frequently called on as witnesses in UK Government Select Committees, to participate in Welsh and Northern Ireland Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary and Irish Government consultations, and regularly meet with ministers and civil servants across the nations’ various governmental bodies. The Board has overseen multiple election campaigns and various housing and planning bills. Our recent Value Of Planning report made the headlines. I am sure our new Chair will encourage and support the continued raising of our voice to media and governments throughout the UK. Our international work has grown from strength to strength, the President and Chief Executive attended the UN Habitat 3 Convention in Quito in 2016 to promote and defend the planning profession internationally. My four years as Chair of the RTPI Board has been very enjoyable, if challenging, at times, but what has been apparent throughout is the passion that so many members have for their profession and for the RTPI. The trustees are always concerned to do the best for RTPI members, we may not all agree all the time, but no one can doubt the commitment of the Board and of all our volunteer committee members. Without that commitment the RTPI would not exist – so a big thank you to all who volunteer their time.

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no. 262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

3 POINT PLAN A planner explains how they would change the English planning system

Kim Cooper PLANNER, ARUP JUNIOR VICE CHAIR OF RTPI NORTH WEST EDUCATION & CAREERS LEAD OF RTPI NORTH WEST MEMBER OF RTPI GENERAL ASSEMBLY Cities are like ecosystems and if one element isn’t operating properly, the rest of the system suﬀers. Our built environments are failing the most vulnerable in society and through positive action in planning policy we have the ability to ensure that the planning system works for everyone. To quote Jane Jacobs: “Cities are for everyone, only because, and only when, they are created by everyone.” Growing evidence suggests that there are direct correlations between the built environment of our towns and cities and the physical and mental health of residents and workers. We should reconsider our collective approach to our built environment as a means of tackling these growing issues in society. The planning profession should be doing more to understand and champion how taking a positive approach to the built environment can improve health outcomes, reducing the burden placed on the NHS, while ultimately increasing productivity and strengthening our economies.

YOUR INSTITUTE, YOUR QUESTIONS I am planning my CPD for the New Year; what counts as CPD for the RTPI? BEN NOUTCH, GRADUATE PLANNER, ATKINS

CAT GOUMAL, RTPI SENIOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

Embed health and well being within planning policy to positively influence the impact of built environments on an individual’s physical and mental welfare

Make the planning system more socially responsive

Promote the indirect savings that result from good planning

POSITION POINTS

UK GOVERNMENT’S 2016 AUTUMN STATEMENT Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s 2016 Autumn Statement included key announcements concerning housing and infrastructure. The RTPI has consistently argued that housing and infrastructure need to go hand in hand and that planners are well positioned to realise the government’s vision of creating more productive communities throughout the country. We welcomed the chancellor’s infrastructureled investment to boosting productivity and unlocking housing, and the shift of the housing strategy to include different tenures and more affordable housing. It is overdue and the nation needs it urgently. The key to ensuring that the significant investment he announced will really benefit communities and business is to value and use the vast expertise of planners in the UK to plan in a strategic and holistic way. Devolution plays a key role in incentivising a whole wider range of issues within planning and development. The announcements that give greater incentives for city regions and counties to cooperate in meeting housing need – as well as additional support for LEPs to help unlock more housing –are in the right direction and need to be rolled out across more areas.”

For the RTPI CPD scheme you need 50 hours in two years and you can record lots of diﬀerent activities: attending a local RTPI training event or national conference – the programmes for the new year are on our events calendar. Also, taking the free modules on RTPI Learn or listening to a podcast. Work-based learning can also count– are you learning by taking on a new area of work? Or perhaps you are undertaking some structured reading on a speciﬁc topic – our practice notes and policy papers can help you there. The key test is has it helped you to develop the skills and knowledge you need as a planner?

n Read the RTPI’s full detailed response: tinyurl.com/planner0117-rtpi-response

n Find out more: www.rtpi.org.uk/CPDpriorities and www.rtpi.org.uk/cpd

n Autumn Statement: www.gov.uk/government/ topical-events/autumn-statement-2016

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NEWS

RTPI { Flexibility and rigour remain at heart of RTPI’s routes to education ANDREW CLOSE, HEAD OF CAREERS, EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT This year saw the institute start and ﬁnish a member-led review of its university accreditation policy. Implementation of the ﬁndings, with new guidance for planning schools and students, continues in 2017 under the umbrella of the ‘Routes to Education’ initiative. During last year’s consultation, some graduates and employers asked whether a master’s-level requirement remains necessary – given current costs of study and the need for practical work experience. The answer from the review was yes, so that students gain a depth of understanding to enter professional planning. The institute already supports universities to create new courses in shorter periods if they wish to, but overall there remain two Licentiate pathways as the basis for a successful career. The undergraduate pathway of an equivalent four years’ worth of academic study, e.g. BSc plus diploma or the MPlan;

or the postgraduate pathway through a minimum 12-month intensive conversion degree. Updates to terminology and branding will help universities promote progression options for courses not fully accredited. Members can also be assured that new criteria focused on strong planning leadership, research and practical experience are the hallmarks of RTPI-accredited degrees and are properly scrutinised. ‘Routes to Education’ aims to ensure that the next generation of planners have the skills and knowledge to meet employers’ and society’s needs. The initiative covers university and vocational training such as apprenticeships. New volunteers to sit on annual university education boards can contact education@rtpi.org.uk All applications welcome – women and those working, or who have worked, in university are under-represented.

INTERNATIONAL IN FOCUS: RTPI MEMBERS WORKING AROUND THE WORLD GEMMA CONLON, SENIOR PLANNER, TIMARU DISTRICT COUNCIL SOUTH CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND The simple wish to create nice places to live and visit drew me to planning. I’m currently leading the consents team in Timaru at the district council. We liaise with developers to guide them on the best options for their proposals. My main focus is delivering a good environmental result whilst ensuring that the public and applicant achieve what they want. I’m still Irish at heart and love a cup of tea – my Mam ships over Barry’s tea as it’s

my favourite, but Timaru is now home, as I have married a man from the town. It is home to just under 30,000 people on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Despite the town’s rich natural assets, including a beautiful beach, there are a number of issues that need attention. The main issue is the use of old buildings and their requirement to be strengthened in accordance with the Building Code. Since the Canterbury earthquakes in 2011, there has been a focus on ensuring buildings are safe. This has resulted in a lot of buildings being left derelict and a shift into new betterengineered buildings. The town centre has been in decline over recent years because of changes in spending patterns, such as online

shopping, the shift of businesses to outof-centre, purpose-built developments and the attractiveness of larger centres. It is important that the town centre remains the central hub of activity, so we are searching for ways to stop the decline. Lastly, there is huge demand for rural lifestyle and living sites in our region. South Canterbury has transformed in recent years with the explosion of the dairy industry. Whilst good for the economy, it is putting a demand for growth in our rural areas that has not been planned for. Although I’m a long way from Ireland, ongoing RTPI membership has helped me to keep abreast of what’s going on at home and allowed me to apply diﬀerent strategies to the planning system and my job.

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us REPOSITIONING THE PLANNING SYSTEM As part of the planning review, the Scottish Government will be consulting on the future of the planning system. In advance of this RTPI Scotland published a paper, Repositioning The Planning System. It sets out a number of key game-changers including a statutory chief planning oﬃcer in local authorities, introducing a community right to plan, ensuring full cost recovery and ring-fencing of planning fees, and creating a new National Development Plan. RTPI Scotland will be responding to the Scottish Government consultation and would welcome members’ views to feed into this. If you would like to contribute, please send in your comments to: scotland@rtpi.org.uk

n Read Reposition The Planning System:

RTPI SHORTS

SCHOOLS COMPETITION IDENTIFIES FUTURE PLANNERS We are delighted to announce that students from St Olave’s Grammar School, Bromley; Grove Academy, Dundee; and Torquay Boys Grammar School, Devon, have been judged the winners of the RTPI’s World Town Planning Day Schools Competition. The panel of judges of Young Planners, chaired by Lucy Seymour-Bowdery, was excited and impressed by the range of ideas and visual creativity in many of the entries. The students from diﬀerent age groups used photos, maps, drawings and diagrams to answer the question posed: ‘how would you make your local place more sustainable?’ World Town Planning Day is celebrated in 30 nations. It recognises and promotes the role of planning in creating liveable communities. The theme for 2016 was ‘Cities and climate change, local responses to a global challenge’. This is the ﬁrst year the RTPI has run the competition, which drew entries from young people aged 11 to 17 across the UK. Any RTPI member wishing to visit schools and promote planning careers or wanting to get involved in our competitions or the RTPI Future Planners initiative, or has other ideas to promote town planning to young people should contact ambassadors@ rtpi.og.uk.

tinyurl.com/planner0117-strategic

SPONSOR AN RTPI EVENT FOR NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES Sponsoring an RTPI event oﬀers your organisation a unique opportunity to promote yourself to the whole RTPI membership of more than 23,000 and the broader built environment industry. Through networking opportunities, branding or content driven packages, you will have the chance to meet and network with potential clients and showcase the work you do. Multiple sponsorship options are available, and we can create a bespoke package to meet your objectives.

n To ﬁnd out more, please contact Hannah Armstrong, events business manager, on hannah.armstrong@rtpi.org.uk

WHO WILL BE SHORTLISTED FOR THE RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE 2017? The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence recognise and reward outstanding, cutting-edge achievements by the best in the profession. Entries for the 2017 Awards are now closed. We received a record number of entries across the 14 categories. The shortlist will be announced on the RTPI website on 7 February, when tickets for the ceremony will also go on sale.

n See more: www.rtpi.org.uk/ape2017

EARLY BOOKING DISCOUNT FOR THE 2017 PLANNING CONVENTION: ‘DELIVERING A STRONG, INCLUSIVE FUTURE’

STREAMLINED ROUTES TO MEMBERSHIP OPEN TO APPLICATIONS There are now three streamlined routes to Chartered Membership. While the destination is the same for all routes, the choice of route depends on candidates’ educational background and experience. For consistency, all routes are competency-based and called ‘Assessment of Professional Competence’. The three routes are: b Licentiate Assessment of Professional Competence (L-APC) – existing route. For those who graduated from a fully RTPI-accredited degree in 2005 or after. b Associate Assessment of Professional Competence (A-APC) – for Associates to progress to Chartered Membership. b Experienced Practitioner Assessment of Professional Competence (EP-APC) – for experienced planners to apply directly for Chartered Membership.

We’re pleased to announce that early booking for the Planning Convention 2017 – ‘Delivering a strong, inclusive future‘ – is now open. For a limited time, receive £25 oﬀ RTPI Member and Standard Rate places*. The 2017 convention will take place on 21 June in London. Expert speakers from around the world will come together to discuss solutions to the most pressing problems facing the industry, focusing on how we can deliver a strong, inclusive future for all. Highlights for 2017 include planning for disaster relief, the night-time economy, ‘Ask the Chief Planners’ and free study tours led by expert guides. *Rate only applicable to the ﬁrst 50 bookings.

Guidance for all three routes (including the guidance for the existing Licentiate route, which is unchanged), is available on the RTPI website. Guidance for becoming an Associate was also updated in 2016, and is in place for all candidates wanting to apply to that class. There are four dates in 2017 to apply for Chartered Membership or to become an Associate. These are: b 3 February 2017 b 11 May 2017 b 3 August 2017 b 1 November 2017.

n Book now and save by visiting: www.theplanningconvention.co.uk

Find out more: www.rtpi.org.uk/membership

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