The Planner- August 2022 by The Planner

AUGUST 2022 RTPI CYMRU CONFERENCE REPORT // p4 • HOW CAN LEVELLING UP FIX OUR TOWN CENTRES? // p24 • EXPLAINED: FIVE BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN RISKS // p.28 • CASE STUDY: JERSEY’S SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT NETWORK // p.32

T H E B U S I N ES S M O N T H LY FO R P L A N N I N G P R O F ES S IO N A LS

PRIVATE GAIN/ PUBLIC GOOD? POOJA AGRAWAL LAYS DOWN THE CHALLENGE TO PLACEMAKERS

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CONTENTS

AU GU ST

9 NEWS 4 RTPI Cymru to conduct health check on the planning profession 7 All change at DLUHC with Gove out, Clark in

8 Welsh ministers spell out measures to control second homes

OPINION

10 The Planner is changing…

14 Louise BrookeSmith: The harsh reality is in tents

11 Newsmakers: 10 top stories appearing now on The Planner online

20 22

“THERE’S TALENT FRUSTRATED AT WORKING ON LUXURY FLATS THAT COST MILLIONS AND THEY CAN’T AFFORD TO LIVE IN THE CITY THEY’RE SERVING”

16 Hannah Richins: Feel the Lurb: bill’s influence could undermine local decision-making

C O V E R I M A G E : PA L H A N S E N

FEATURES

INSIGHT

16 David Smith: Finally, a plan to meet the needs of freight and logistics

18 Public Practice founder Pooja Agrawal tells Simon Wicks why she’s breaking down boundaries for the public good

38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

17 Matthew Carmona: Authoritywide design codes – where to start (and other questions)?

24 Huw Morris asks if the levelling-up bill offers the powers to revive the nation’s town centres

17 Andrew Coleman: Planners can reduce the impacts of England’s poor coastal defences

28 Mandatory biodiversity net gain is coming - and Sally Hayns says there are five key risks to planners 32 Jersey could offer a route to improving sustainable travel across the British Isles

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“WE HAVE NOW HAD 15 HOUSING MINISTERS SINCE 2005, WITH A NEW ONE NEARLY EVERY YEAR. AT A TIME WHEN THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO TAKE FIRM STEPS TO KEEP HOUSING DELIVERY ON THE FRONT FOOT THIS IS DISTINCTLY UNHELPFUL.” JCOLIN BROWN, HEAD OF PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT AT CARTER JONAS,

42 Legal Landscape: Opinions from the legal side of planning

44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 What to read, what to watch and how to keep in touch

Make the most of The Planner by visiting our links for related content

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NEWS

Report { H E A LT H A N D W E L L B E I N G

RTPI Cymru to conduct health check on the planning profession By Laura Edgar

RTPI Cymru is to lead work into the wellbeing of planners and their experiences of working in the planning system at the request of Welsh climate change minister Julie James (pictured, right). This work follows the minister receiving correspondence from a senior leader in planning detailing that the biggest issue they are currently dealing with is staff wellbeing. She has received other similar correspondence. Speaking at the RTPI Cymru conference in June, James said: “For those of you working in local planning authorities, your heads of planning and local politicians do tell me regularly that your resources are stretched. For those in the private sector bringing developments forward, delivering infrastructure and investment, I’m aware of the difficulties you face and the challenges of making the developments happen. For those working in the planning system from wider bodies, stakeholders, NGOs, community groups and other professions without whom a planning system would not function, I completely understand how the scale and complexity of the planning system are at times daunting and challenging.”

However, she told the audience that “we must not apologise for the planning system because it is a system that is able to plan for and consent every type and scale of development”. In an era of opinions and talking pieces, “we cannot avoid making decisions” she continued – whether they are about where people live or what places should look like – “if the consequence of inaction is that future generations are denied the same quality

“WE CANNOT AVOID MAKING DECISIONS IF THE CONSEQUENCE OF INACTION IS THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE DENIED THE SAME QUALITY OF LIFE THAT WE EXPECT FOR OURSELVES” – JULIE JAMES

of life that we expect for ourselves”. Noting “signiﬁcant” reductions in local planning authority budgets, Roisin Willmott OBE FRTPI, director of RTPI Cymru, told The Planner: “We want to drill down beneath the budget cut headlines to understand better where the pressures are, how this is aﬀecting those working in the system. We are particularly interested in learning about solutions and sharing good practice and ideas.” The institute added that this isn’t just about local planning authorities, it is about the whole system, including looking at the impact on other public agencies and those in the private sector. As part of this, RTPI Cymru will be undertaking a survey across the profession in Wales, and issues will be discussed and debated at roundtables and meetings. The institute plans to report to the minister before the end of the year.

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PLAN UPFRONT

negative eﬀects can emerge by addressing one of these. Increasing road capacity might open opportunities for employment, but it increases pollution which in turn, worsens health outcomes. These factors must be considered together. Willmott added that behaviour change will be required by everyone across everything that people do in order to address this range of issues, as well as more resources to deliver the good and healthy places needed.

Shaping lifestyles

Other hot topics discussed You lead the charge Julie James urged the audience to lead the charge against the real issues that aﬀect people’s lives. “For some in public life, the planning system’s key role is to deliver beauty. But I don’t think we should be distracted by a concept of beauty that draws its references from a false memory of the past. For me, the planning system’s focus is better placed on today and on the future. I don’t want your role to be that of creating beautiful façades. I want your role to be leading the charge against the real issues that aﬀect people’s real lives. And I M AG E | N IC K T R E H A R N E

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yes, in doing that, we will create well-designed attractive environments, but we will do it for all, especially for those people who are marginalised or will ﬁnd it diﬃcult to get their voices heard. And we will do it for those that need it most and for the generations who will follow us.”

Linked impacts Climate change, pollution, deprivation and poverty are among issues that are all linked, said Roisin Willmott. By addressing pollution, climate change is being addressed, and so is a health issue. But she warned that

The origins of planning are associated with health and wellbeing, particularly in addressing the poor living conditions of the slums of the early 1900s, said Jen Heal MRTPI, design advisor at the Design Commission for Wales. Planners cannot control people’s lifestyles, but “we can help to shape them and to provide opportunities for positive choices” she said. The profession can also inﬂuence policy, what feeds into the earliest stages of planning and, once planning permission is granted, the success of a project – how it is built, how it is used and maintained. Heal spoke in detail about the six principles of the Placemaking Wales Charter, which was developed by the Welsh Government and the Design Commission for Wales in collaboration with the Placemaking Wales Partnership. She emphasised: how vital it is to involve people

in the development process much earlier to understand needs; that ensuring development is in the right location influences movement, reducing the need to travel to amenities and help to avoid social isolation; and that good public realm promotes safety and inclusion and fosters a sense of belonging. Health and wellbeing questions to ask related to these principles include: How will the new development be integrated into existing neighbourhoods both physically and socially? How can public transport be integrated early so that habits are established that don’t rely on car use? Are the proposed pedestrian routes direct and attractive? Does the proposed layout provide joined-up streets and spaces? In the public realm, are street trees and street-level green infrastructure – such as SUDS – well incorporated into the spaces and is an increase in biodiversity supported? Have the important and valuable aspects of the site – its context and history – been identified and how will these be incorporated and reflected in the proposals to create a sense of identity? How does the identity of the place reflect the existing or new community?

Eﬀective engagement is better than data Another theme of the conference was eﬀective community engagement. Natural Resources Wales has worked with all the local

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NEWS

Report { A good public realm promotes safety and inclusion and fosters a sense of belonging

planning authorities in the country to create a spatial data set of urban green infrastructure, explained Peter Frost, urban green infrastructure adviser at Natural Resources Wales. But he warned the audience that if they relied on maps and remote sensing to plan for healthy green space then they would get the same shock that his colleague suffered when he thought Frost was going to take him for a gentle scramble on Snowdon. “All data sets are out of date from the moment that they’re produced, and I’m afraid the world’s green infrastructure data set is no exception… I want you to remember that our data and statistics pale into insignificance when compared with effective community engagement.” The most disadvantaged people in Wales are especially reliant on parks, he said. Frost noted research on the Covid-19 pandemic that showed there are gross inequalities of access to wellmanaged green space. Access to local green spaces, then, “disproportionately delivers health benefits to the most

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disadvantaged in our society”. He said: “That hits two of our wellbeing goals here in Wales in one go, and suggests that focusing resources on green space in disadvantaged areas could deliver beneﬁts out of all proportion to the investment.” Frost emphasised that action, especially on budget allocations, normally only happens where there is evidence of need. Which is why, he explained, Natural Resources Wales has worked with local planning authorities to map the green space in towns where people get their daily exposure to nature. “If we can help to show where there’s a need for green space, then we can help create the case for investment in green space provision to meet those needs.”

Opportunities for Spatial Planning in the Covid-19 Pandemic Recovery – by the agency, alongside the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit (WHIAS) and the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Well-being. Using evidence from the report, she talked about the relationship between environment and health, and how a healthy environment creates healthy people. Key themes from the research included the widening of health inequalities during the pandemic, such as access to services and green space, and diﬀerences in employment opportunities. “In order to address these inequalities, a system of collaboration is really required between the public sector and private sector, landowners and

communities to ensure that the principles of placemaking are adopted, and places are designed with inclusivity and equality in mind,” said Williams. “The engagement of people and communities in the design of plans from an early stage is essential.”

“IF WE CAN HELP SHOW WHERE THERE'S A NEED FOR GREEN SPACE, THEN WE CAN HELP CREATE THE CASE FOR INVESTMENT IN GREEN SPACE PROVISION TO MEET THOSE NEEDS” – PETER FROST

Healthy environment equals healthy people Cheryl Williams, principal health promotion specialist at Public Health Wales spoke about a report – Maximising Health and Well-being

The Covid-19 pandemic showed there are gross inequalities of access to well-managed green space

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NEWS

News { Gove out, Greg Clark in - and Marcus Jones as housing minister By Laura Edgar

It was all go in early July as senior members of the cabinet resigned, ultimately forcing Prime Minister Boris Johnson from office. It began when the Tamworth MP and former housing minister Christopher Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip on 30 June following allegations that he had groped two men while out drinking in London. Questions arose about Pincher’s original appointment as deputy chief whip given that there had been an investigation into his inappropriate behaviour in 2019. Number 10 denied Johnson knew anything about specific allegations, but former Foreign Office permanent secretary Lord McDonald said Downing Street was “not telling the truth”. It was then confirmed that the prime minister had been informed about the 2019 investigation. Johnson apologised on 5 July for appointing Pincher as deputy chief whip - and moments later, health secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak resigned. This triggered a further series of resignations, including that of housing minister Stuart Andrew on 6 July. That evening, levelling up and housing secretary Michael Gove was sacked by Johnson for allegedly attempting to force the PM out. On 7 July – having appointed former communities secretary Greg Clark as new levelling up and housing secretary, and Marcus Jones as new housing minister – Johnson announced that he himself would resign as Conservative party leader, remaining as caretaker prime minister while an election process took place. As The Planner went to press, that process of I M AG E | G E T T Y

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Greg Clark has replaced Michael Gove as DLUHC secretary

“BOTH MINISTERS HAVE SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCE OF WORKING WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PLANNERS AND THE WIDER BUILT ENVIRONMENT SECTOR” – VICTORIA HILLS selecting a new leader was ongoing. Pundits were soon pointing out that Marcus Jones is now the 20th housing minister in 25 years. Frustration with the seemingly routine transience of the position, despite the growing importance of housing as an issue, was expressed by many. Colin Brown, head of planning & development at consultancy Carter Jonas, was particularly scathing. “We have now had 15 housing ministers since 2005, with a new one nearly every year,” he wrote. “At a time when the government needs to take ﬁrm steps to keep housing delivery on the front foot this is distinctly unhelpful.”

RTPI writes to new DLUHC ministerial team In a letter, the RTPI welcomed Greg Clark and Marcus Jones to their new

roles. Victoria Hills, chief executive, said: “Both ministers have signiﬁcant experience of working with local government, planners and the wider built environment sector. In a period of uncertainty for both the public and planners, we are encouraged to know that Mr Clark and Mr Jones will be building on considerable knowledge and experience. “We look forward to working with these ministers as we did with their predecessors. By working with the department today we hope to build a stronger planning system in the future, one which can support a sustainable and healthy built environment that communities can be proud of. We welcomed the government’s decision to place planning at the centre of the levelling up and regeneration bill, recognising the planning system’s importance to places and communities that need the most support to level up. “We will now work closely with Mr Clark, Mr Jones and the department to support the levelling up and regeneration bill’s passage through Parliament. It is our continued goal to ensure the planning system receives the recognition and resourcing necessary to create and shape communities that citizens can be proud of.”

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NEWS

News { Ministers spell out measures to control second homes The Welsh Government has committed to new planning laws, a statutory licensing scheme and proposals to change land transaction tax in a package of measures to address problems caused by second homes in Wales. By the end of the summer, changes to regulations will introduce three planning use classes – a primary home, a second home and short-term holiday accommodation. Local planning authorities, where they have evidence, will be able to amend the planning system to require planning permission for change of use from one class to another. Changes to national planning policy will give local authorities the ability to control the number of second homes and holiday lets in any community. There are plans to introduce a statutory

licensing scheme for all visitor accommodation, including short-term holiday lets, making it a requirement to obtain a licence. The government is working with local authorities to develop a national framework so they can request increased land transaction tax rates for second homes and holiday lets to be applied in their local area. First minister Mark Drakeford (pictured) said: “Tourism is vital to our economy but having too many holiday properties and second homes, which are empty for much of the year, does not make for healthy local communities and prices people out of the local housing market." He added that any action must be fair and not create unintended consequences.

Update issued on NPF4 Scottish planning minister Tom Arthur and chief planner Fiona Simpson have updated the profession on progress on planning reform and other key policy areas. The pair announced that the government intends to lay a revised draft of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) for the Scottish Parliament’s consideration and approval in the autumn, and to progress its adoption by ministers thereafter. Alongside that will be the introduction of a delivery plan that will identify and prioritise the guidance to support the framework. “We have been encouraged that there is strong support for the general direction we have proposed for NPF4,” they insisted. In respect of the digital transformation of planning, the update highlighted progress on elements such as the singlepayment system, the fee calculator for planning and building and work which should see a first version of the gateway portal during 2023. “Also coming in the next year, we expect good progress on delivering a strategy for open-source availability of reliable data to support decision-making, on improved digital handling of applications for planning and building consents, including better use of 3D visualisation technology, and on backing that up through digital skills development for the workforce,” Arthur and Simpson explained. The update stressed that the planning minister and the chief planner were very keen to support the ‘Future Planners’ work currently being led by Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) and RTPI Scotland to help ensure that the new planning system is resourced and skilled up for delivery. “Another aspect of the planning reform programme we will be progressing further over the coming months is the package involving elected member training, guidance on the appointment of chief planning officers, new arrangements for performance management and the forthcoming appointment of Scotland’s first national planning improvement coordinator,” wrote Arthur and Simpson. Read the full story: bit.ly/planner0822policyupdate

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PLAN UPFRONT

New national guidelines on development plans and housing provision The Irish Government has published new national guidelines for the preparation of council development plans, specifically in respect of housing. Planning minister Peter Burke insisted that the revised advice “would help ensure adequate provision is made for housing, particularly in areas of high demand. This is crucial at a time of such acute need”. The guidelines, that have undergone a revision for the first time since 2007, include: a clear approach to ensuring that every development plan

includes a sustainable long-term housing strategy, consistent with national housing targets and policies; a clear method for identifying and zoning lands for new housing, and prioritising lands that can most quickly and appropriately provide new homes; confirmation that lands that are serviced and available for new housing construction should be retained as such, rather than be de-zoned; and an emphasis on development activity in cities, towns and urban areas that creates compact and integrated communities, aids brownfield regeneration, activates greenfield land banks for housing and supports placemaking and the growth of sustainable communities. The document stresses that formulating specifically tailored local objectives and policies can greatly assist in accessing key funding opportunities to enable local development initiatives.

Causeway Coast & Glens under fire from watchdog over land deals The Northern Ireland Audit Office has published a damning report into Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council over land deals involved in two major developments. One of the deals centres on a proposed hotel and leisure complex in Portstewart, planning permission for which was quashed after a High Court challenge. The second deal relates to the £5,000 sale of a parcel of council land in Coleraine in October 2016 to a charity to facilitate the construction of a boutique hotel and conference centre. The watchdog’s audit reveals that the local authority failed to demonstrate that it obtained the best price in land transactions. There were “significant” governance failings in land disposals and easements (granting of rights of way on council land). Local government auditor Colette Kane concludes “that adherence to legislation and best practice in land

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

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and property matters was not part of the culture of the council”. “There was evidence that senior oﬃcers were advocating actions that were contrary to best practice. “This leads me to conclude that a culture existed of bypassing best practice and guidance to get land ‘deals done’ which set the wrong tone from the top of the organisation. In some cases, legal advice was ignored and, on one occasion, inaccurate and unreliable information was provided to the local government auditor.” She also highlights evidence of poor governance and a lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities. “My review has identiﬁed clear evidence that the

behaviour of some senior council oﬃcers has fallen short of the standards expected of employees in a public body.” Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council said it would assess the report and consider the next steps, and that it had already made changes to its land and property procedures and intended to comply with its obligations to ratepayers and stakeholders. The ﬁndings have prompted Jim Allister, leader of the political party Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), to call for a police investigation. Allister won a 2019 court case in which he challenged the council’s decision to grant planning permission for the £20 million hotel.

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NEWS

News { The Planner is changing… We’re working over the summer on a new, bimonthly Planner magazine – and the ﬁrst of its kind will be with you in September. It’ll have a fresh look, more pages, more sections and a wider mix of content – all with our typical highquality design and editorial. We’re building a new website too. This will also have a fresh design and more contemporary feel, being visually stronger and more readable on all devices. It’ll carry more material and make greater use of audiovisual content. In alternate months we’ll also

be producing a bimonthly ‘digital Planner’ – in effect, an online magazine containing the best of the recent, as well as original, content posted to our website. It’ll have a different flavour from the magazine but will be no less interesting, useful or informative. These changes to The Planner have been developed in partnership with the RTPI which, like us, felt that after eight years the magazine needed rethinking and restyling. We’re also responding to the institute’s drive to become a net-zero organisation (less paper,

fewer mailings) and to member surveys that have revealed both a signiﬁcant desire for more emphasis on digital rather than traditional paper materials; and a signiﬁcant liking for a print format magazine. What we’re doing will balance all of these forces into a more stylish, more substantial, more useful and more accessible range of content across both print and digital formats. You can read what RTPI President Victoria Hills has to say about the changes to The Planner on page 13.

Rural planning faces a plethora of challenges, finds research In a research paper commissioned by the RTPI, Covid-19, Brexit and the climate crisis have been identified among many issues complicating rural planning across the UK and Ireland. Rural Planning in the 2020s examines these challenges and seeks to address how rural planning needs to change to deal with them, as well as how rural communities can meet policy and practice objectives for achieving sustainable development. It considers how land use planning can effectively support the delivery of sustainable development in rural areas in the 2020s, whether this should be through new working practices or new patterns of resourcing, for example. Professor John Sturzaker FRTPI, of the University of Hertfordshire, led the research. Of the challenges, Brexit is having “acute impacts” on the farming sector, with increased costs linked to leaving the

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European Union (EU) exacerbating longterm problems of marginal activity in parts of the sector. This has led to businesses no longer being viable. The changing climate is also aﬀecting the farming sector, such as the growing seasons. This can lead to a requirement for more accommodation for seasonal workers and more structures like polytunnels in areas where planning policy “tends to try to restrict development”. In addition, rural communities are reliant on private cars, with alternatives “often more diﬃcult” to implement than in urban areas. However, the paper notes that there

are opportunities “for rural areas to play a greater role in mitigating and adapting to climate change, whether through greater provision of renewable energy or through ‘just transitions’ to diﬀerent forms of development”. It adds, though, that current planning policy and practice can often be a barrier here. Rural areas can act as a “site for adaptation”, whereby the countryside hosts opportunity sites to embrace new possibilities and do things diﬀerently so that society can “confront whatever comes over the horizon, be it political (eg, Brexit), economic (eg, the cost of living crisis) or environmental (eg, the climate emergency and the responses it necessitates). Read the full story: bit.ly/planner0822-RTPIrural

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CATCH UP WITH THE PLANNER

Newsmakers N Environment Agency chair issues warning about greenwashing Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the Environment Agency, warned last month that “widespread greenwashing” is compromising eﬀorts to prepare for impending climate impacts such as ﬂoods and heatwaves. bit.ly/planner0822greenwashing

Latest census ﬁgures highlight M4 corridor growth

I M AG E S | I S T O C K / A L A M Y / S H U T T E R S T O C K

Towns and cities on the M4 corridor in south-east Wales are growing rapidly but many other areas are seeing a decline in population, according to the ﬁrst ﬁgures released from the 2021 Census. Overall, the data shows that Wales is growing more slowly than previously thought. bit.ly/planner0822CensusWales

Planning issues thwart green energy progress

1 2 Major golf resort near Inverness shapes up

3 4 Government stats show decline in planning application submissions A total of 109,900 planning applications were submitted to English district level authorities between January and March 2022 – representing a 12 per cent decrease on the same period in 2021. bit.ly/planner0822planningapps

Third of English councils ill-prepared to house ageing population More than a third of local authorities in England are not prepared to provide suitable housing for the country’s ageing population, according to research. bit.ly/ planner0822-seniorhousing

PEDW to prioritise householder appeals service Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) has announced that it is prioritising its householder, advert, and minor commercial appeals service as it grapples with the backlog of cases waiting to be validated and started. bit.ly/planner0822-PEDW

Major delays in the planning system are threatening Northern Ireland’s renewable energy targets, accordding to RenewableNI. bit.ly/planner0822NIenergy

Castle Stuart Golf Links, overlooking the Moray Firth near Inverness, has been bought by Canadian resort developer Cabot, which has announced proposals to create a second course that will play around the site’s 400-year-old castle. bit.ly/planner0822-golf

Sustainable transport should be embedded in levelling up bill, says CCC

The Climate Change Committee has urged the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to embed sustainable transport in the levelling up and regeneration bill in its progress report. bit.ly/ planner0822-CCCupdate

6 7 8 9 10

Dualling of A47 in Norfolk granted consent A development consent order to upgrade a section of the A47 between Bloﬁeld and North Burlingham has been granted by transport secretary Grant Shapps. bit.ly/planner0822-A47

Report sets out ﬁndings from design codes pilot There is no onesize-ﬁts-all process to creating design codes, according to the councils that took part in phase one of government pilots to test the National Model Design Code. bit.ly/planner0822designcodes

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13/07/2022 15:35

LEADER COMMENT

Opinion The Planner magazine is going bimonthly… … and here’s why you should be excited, says RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills It seems that the planning goalposts have shifted during my time as chief executive of the RTPI. Although awareness of climate change and responses to it have for a long time been within our ﬁeld of vision, its global impact has become clearer in recent years. At the same time, institute membership has also grown. We now sit at an impressive 27,000 members, all of whom are avid readers of The Planner in both print and online. But, while we’re grateful for our loyal readers, we must be responsible for our impact on the planet. You may recall that The Planner undertook a snapshot survey last year to understand its readership. It found that our members value the magazine a great deal, particularly content that keeps them up to

Victoria Hills speed with industry news and developments. We also found, however, that many of our readers are conscious of the impact their magazine is having on the environment. The magazine already operates as environmentally friendly as a print magazine can. However, we feel that there is more to be done. That is why we have made

the diﬃcult but necessary decision to move the print edition of The Planner to a bimonthly, issuing one copy every two months. As we know, planning is at the heart of our ﬁght against climate change, and as such, we are acutely aware that readers want the least environmentally damaging form of magazine distribution possible. We have checked the market routinely to ensure that we are meeting the demands of members – in 2020, we took the bold decision to distribute The Planner without polywrap – but we know many of you value your hard copy. So, we’ve struck a balance and halved our print carbon footprint while enhancing

“FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS WILL BE INCREASED BY OUR DIGITAL PRESENCE”

our online news content. The next edition of the magazine will have an updated and thoroughly modern look, full of wellpaced and thoughtful journalism. A bimonthly provides the fantastic team at The Planner the chance to hone quality, long-form journalism in print. Shifting away from print is nothing new within the industry. Rarely would we discover breaking industry news and developments in print today. That’s why we will be launching a redesigned Planner website alongside the new look magazine. There will be more depth to our online material, with the features and interviews that readers love being enhanced by our improved digital presence. This move is about quality of content, on whichever medium you prefer. I, for one, look forward to watching the digital magazine grow online, while patiently waiting for my new issue to arrive at my desk.

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LO U I S E B R O O K E S M I T H O B E

O Opinion

The harsh reality is in tents Tented settlements are appearing all over the world. But while superﬁcially alike, these ‘tent cities’ are by no means equal. For a clear example of the global phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, look no further this summer than the dichotomy presented by the appearance of tented cities around the world. Some are very much in the pop-up style of modern life: purposeful, wellorganised, serviced with excellent sanitation and with cosmopolitan food available 24/7; tent cities that emerge for a weekend and then disappear overnight. However, other temporary cities have evolved through very diﬀerent basic social needs. There’s no need to explain which camp Tent City of Los Angeles falls into – and yes, the pun is intended. An area of nearly 50 blocks in Downtown LA has turned into the biggest homeless gathering that city has ever seen. Many of the ‘homes’ in situ are cobbled-together bits of wood and plastic retrieved from the rubbish bins of neighbouring richer suburbs. LA is not the only US city facing the mounting issues of defaulting mortgages, broken homes, a paucity of mental health support and an increasing number of people turning to the street community as a last resort. Across the West Coast, similar areas are establishing themselves. The novelty of being homeless in the sunshine quickly loses its appeal when there is little, if

any, sanitation and escalating crime. These tented citieswithin-cities have become no-go areas that the police simply won’t enter. Then there are the tented refugee camps: huge settlements prevalent in countries affected by conflict, social and economic instability or that happen to be on the route out of a war zone. They are the default option for refugees seeking shelter when formal housing doesn’t exist. Some camps are planned settlements, albeit providing temporary shelter. Others are informal communities that ebb and flow with political will. The humanitarian sector has had years of practice of creating emergency shelter for those affected by natural disasters. The evidence is staring us in the face that the number of natural disasters is increasing at an alarming

“THE NUMBER OF NATURAL DISASTERS IS INCREASING AT AN ALARMING RATE” rate. Charities have well-oiled machines that move into action whenever the Richter Scale rumbles or a tidal wave approaches; providing governments haven’t slashed their overseas aid budget (‘charity begins at home’), then generally those poor souls that can be supported are reached quickly. First responders deal with the most urgent medical needs, but then come specialists in shelter and settlement planning. No one cares if it looks pretty or any design code is breached. More important is protection from the elements and provision of infrastructure and sanitation.

So to the dichotomy. We have another kind of tented city as far removed from the world of humanitarian disaster as you can get: the right-on, climate-conscious, plastic-avoiding, white middle-class extravaganza, be it Glastonbury or any other festival in the UK. I enjoy a good festival as much as the next glamper, but sometimes we all need to stop and realise the irony of paying for the privilege of listening to big musical names and their, anti-war, refugee-supporting rhetoric while we sit in a welllit, well-watered and safe field before returning to a posh tent and sleeping bag. Next time we head off to our tented city for a weekend of fun, perhaps we should spare a thought for those who have no choice but to live precariously in their ‘tent’ of plastic sheeting with few, if any, facilities close by. Their tent is home for the foreseeable. Let’s never forget how lucky we are. (This is the 44th and final column by Louise for The Planner. Our many thanks and best wishes, Louise - Ed.)

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director

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Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“We have now had 15 housing ministers since 2005, with a new one nearly every year. At a time when the government needs to take ﬁrm steps to keep housing delivery on the front foot this is distinctly unhelpful.” COLIN BROWN, HEAD OF PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT AT CARTER JONAS, IS AMONG MANY TO MAKE THE POINT IN THE LIGHT OF CURRENT POLITICAL EVENTS

“Government cannot aﬀord to push forward with its allor-nothing approach to rural home decarbonisation. This not only places an unfair and disproportionate burden on oﬀ-grid properties, but it also risks large-scale failure in convincing households to take up the switch. ZAYN QURESHI, SENIOR RESEARCHER AT LOCALIS AND AUTHOR ON ITS STUDY REACHING RURAL PROPERTIES: OFF GRID HEATING IN THE TRANSITION TO NET ZERO

“The implications of 50-year mortgages are severe and, coupled with recent pronouncements on extending Right to Buy and enabling those on low incomes to use beneﬁts to buy properties rather than rent, seem to be illthought,through, back-of-the-cigarette-packet ideas rather than coherent housing policy.” DAVID ALEXANDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF LETTINGS AND ESTATE AGENCY DJ ALEXANDER SCOTLAND, ON THE GOVERNMENT’S LATEST PROPOSALS

“The response to the review delivers an important platform for growth of the sector. It is however relatively high level, and in some areas, notably tax, there is less deﬁnitive commitment that we would have liked to see.” ANDREW BADDELEY CHAPPELL, CEO OF THE NATIONAL CUSTOM AND SELF BUILD ASSOCIATION,, ON THE BACON REVIEW AND ITS CONFIDENCE IN THE OWNER COMMISSIONED HOMES SECTOR

I M AG E S | I STO C K

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“This bill had the opportunity to deliver on the government’s goal of 95% decarbonised electricity by 2030, delivering the necessary laws to upgrade the Grid. Instead… the most pressing reforms have not been delivered.” GREENPEACE UK’S HEAD OF POLITICS, REBECCA NEWSOM, IN RESPONSE TO THE GOVERNMENT’S PUBLICATION OF ITS ENERGY SECURITY BILL

“Policy change alone will not be enough unless accompanied by suﬃcient resourcing to enable local planning authorities to… understand the demographic changes coming our way” NICOLA GOOCH, PLANNING PARTNER AT IRWIN MITCHELL ON ADDRESSING ENGLAND’S HOUSING NEEDS

“With millions of Britons grappling with surging fuel, energy and food prices, some will inevitably have to rethink their plans to buy a home.” JONATHAN HOPPER, CEO OF GARRINGTON PROPERTY FINDERS, ON THE NATIONWIDE’S JUNE HOUSE PRICE INDEX SHOWING A SOFTENING HOUSING MARKET

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

O Opinion

Hannah Richins is the strategic planning manager at Story Homes

Feel the Lurb: bill’s inﬂuence could undermine local decision-making

Despite the focus of the levelling up and regeneration bill (Lurb) on devolving powers to rebalance disparities across the country, there seems to be a shift in how local authorities make decisions about development. The bill proposes to amend section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to take account of “national development management policies” alongside development plans in decision-making. Sitting alongside local plan policies, these will cover highlevel strategic issues such as green belt and heritage assets. They will be derived from the NPPF and guide local decisionmaking, reducing the discretion local authorities can apply when determining applications. With these issues removed, we will see local plans shrink in size and take less time to produce; in theory, they will be more concise and less divisive. Currently, section 38(6) says planning permission should be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. We now know that the national development management policies should also be taken into account and where local policies conﬂict with national policies, the latter

David Smith, planning and communities director, IM Properties

Finally, a plan to meet the needs of freight and logistics

should be given greater weight. Moreover, deviations from both the development plan and national policies can only occur where “material considerations strongly indicate otherwise”. It will be harder for applicants to justify deviations from both local plans and national development management policies; this is likely to open up a raft of litigation. The proposed changes to local plans may free up local authorities to spend more time on localised decisions. But, given that strategic considerations are made at a national level, they may also decrease the autonomy local authorities have in determining applications: decisions that involve challenging issues may be taken from their hands and determined by the secretary of state. The proposals put forward through Lurb present signiﬁcant changes to the ways in which local plans operate and function when determining planning applications. Although some local authorities will view these changes as a chance to bring clarity to determination, others will view them as a reduction in the discretion that can be applied to decision-making. Read the full version of this item: bit.ly/planner0822-lurb

“THE BILL’S PROPOSALS MAY ALSO DECREASE THE AMOUNT OF AUTONOMY LOCAL AUTHORITIES HAVE IN DETERMINING APPLICATIONS”

2 BLOG

BLOG

Government-led freight plans and announcements have previously led me to question how much attention has been given to the role of industrial buildings and strategic employment land. The trend has been to focus on individual components of freight and modes of transport rather than look holistically at the sector’s ecosystem. The significant shortage of strategic employment land, the role of high-quality industrial buildings or how the planning system must evolve to provide better guidance to local authorities have not always been given sufficient airtime. The Future of Freight Plan published by government in June breaks with this tradition. It provides a greater appreciation of the UK’s endto-end freight and logistics market and is a bold and clear step in the right direction, acknowledging that the sector is growing faster than the wider economy. It is reflective of the role logistics played during the pandemic and also the contribution it can make to levelling-up, net-zero delivery and economic resilience. Although the Department for Transport has produced the plan, there is now a greater number of government departments working

collaboratively to understand the freight and logistics sector. In my role with the British Property Federation’s logistics group, it has been great to see representatives from across Whitehall attend meetings. Critically, this document has a chapter devoted to planning and an appreciation that government needs to better understand what is not working for freight and logistics in the current system. Government has committed to review and amend planning practice guidance to better support freight and logistics. The call for evidence from industry, earmarked for the autumn is critical for helping Whitehall to understand the interventions that need to be made. Contributions from the sector are vital to informing this process. There is an appreciation within the plan that the complexities and nuances of the market make it unlikely that single interventions will work, and that updates to national planning policy could be implemented as part of a wider programme of changes to the planning system. This must be the target if the goal of Future of Freight is a system that recognises the needs of the freight and logistics sector now and in the near future.

“THERE IS NOW A GREATER NUMBER OF GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS WORKING COLLABORATIVELY TO UNDERSTAND THE SECTOR”

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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

3 BLOG

Matthew Carmona is professor of planning and urban design at The Bartlett School of Planning and co-author of National Model Design Code Pilot Programme Phase One, Monitoring & Evaluation

Authority-wide design codes – where to start? (and other questions)

The levelling up and regeneration bill requires local planning authorities toadopt authority-wide design codes, raising immediate questions. The National Model Design Code (NMDC) Pilot Programme Phase One, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) suggests some answers. Until now, the term ‘design code’ has been associated with speciﬁc sites. The NMDC enlarges the scope from individual sites to a whole county, fundamentally changing the nature of design codes: they will now be prepared for large territories with varied characteristics, ahead of a spatial design vision. The M&E revealed codes that are less detailed and more strategic, focused more on design parameters for urban form, mix, density, greenness and connection, than architectural or public realm aspirations. On the face of it, every authority could already comply, given all have some basic design policy in place. This includes highways standards, eﬀective at delivering highways-dominated developments but not place quality, and generic local plan design policies, supplemented by residential design guides. Respectively, these are so open to interpretation and so detailed

4 BLOG

that they are easily ignored. The aspiration should be to combine the prescriptive qualities of highways standards with the statutory position of design policy and the place quality focus of local design guides. Codes should focus precisely on ‘must have’ qualities of desired new places, expressed graphically as statements of expectation rather than negotiation. Authorities need to start by challenging what has gone before and build a better understanding of what works by: i) critiquing recent developments; ii) engaging citizens and asking about design aspirations beyond aesthetic tastes; and iii) engaging others early (highways authorities, developers and neighbouring authorities). Making authority-wide codes mandatory is welcome but interpretation locally is likely to vary. That’s local democracy and is a good thing; but it will also reflect the resources, confidence and skills available. We won’t get full coverage of design codes quickly, but if written well and refined as evidence mounts, then we are moving into an exciting new era in the long history of English design governance. Read the full version of this item: bit.ly/planner0822-carmona

“THE NEW CODES SHOULD FOCUS PRECISELY ON THE ‘MUST HAVE’ QUALITIES OF DESIRED NEW PLACES”

Andrew Coleman is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton and a consultant specialising in water and planning issues. Views expressed are personal.

Planners can reduce the impacts of England’s poor coastal defences

Writing in Ocean and Coastal Management in June, University of East Anglia and British Geological Survey researchers analysed the policies in shoreline management plans (SMPs) that inform planning policies on the coast, considered sea level rise, physical changes to foreshores and the likely affordability of maintaining a ‘hold the line’ approach set out in SMPs. The research draws on previous work for the third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment revealing that the number of homes in coastal floodplains is likely to rise to between 300,000 and 490,000 by the 2080s. It determines the “relocation pressure” around the English coastline based on the impacts of sea level rise, the likelihood of holding the line being financially viable and development patterns. The stark findings include that “in the coming 20-50 years those living and working in 120,000-160,000 properties… may face uncertainty regarding the continued ability to hold the line and it is likely that a proportion of these properties will require relocation”. There are significant difficult issues of equity and financing to be considered. These pressures are not distributed evenly and there is no right to

coastal defence or a national scheme for transformation/ relocation. The authors call for long-term policy choices that are technically feasible, locally accepted and balance national costs and benefits, coupled with strong implementation through the planning system. SMPs are being ‘refreshed’ and the Environment Agency (EA) is working to increase the adaptation skills of planners through its Adaptive Pathways and Coastal Transition Accelerator Programmes. But the extended delay in revisions to the NPPF and guidance will only lead to more maladaptation. NPPF coastal change policy should be more closely aligned with flooding, including publicly available digital risk maps and a more precautionary approach with a greater role for the EA in development decisions. Until then, every new planning permission for development behind unsustainable coastal defences potentially ‘locks in’ risk to people and property. Planners have to embrace the idea that long-term‘ hold the line’ is increasingly unlikely, and plan now for rollback of defences, innovative solutions including temporary uses in the coastal zone and flexible policies to allow relocation out of the threatened coastal zone.

“NPPF COASTAL CHANGE POLICY SHOULD BE MORE CLOSELY ALIGNED WITH FLOODING”

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INTERVIEW: POOJA AGRAWAL

GOING PUBLIC

boundaries so much as to dissolve the that they prioritised putting what divisions between people so they can resources they had into giving Agrawal collaborate better for the greater good. and her older sister the best education When she and her GLA colleague they could – which brought both to Finn Williams co-founded Public London for sixth form and university. Practice in 2017, it pulled together She observes that it was somewhat many strands of her work and life to unusual for an Indian family to support that point. If intended as a side hustle, their daughters – as opposed to sons – the social enterprise that matches to that extent. It was, perhaps, an early private sector built environment lesson in equality, but also in defying professionals with local authorities convention and allocating resources to that need their speciﬁc skills is where they will do the most good. spectacularly successful. In any case, Mumbai In ﬁve years, Public and London shaped “I’VE ALWAYS Practice has placed 200 Agrawal’s sensibility – BEEN PRETTY ‘associates’ with 50 local one for its illustration PUBLICLY authorities in London of extreme inequality MINDED, BUT I’M and the South East. From in urban space; one ALSO A DESIGNER this Autumn it will be for consolidating her AT HEART AND expanding operations thoughts about people QUITE CREATIVE” into the north of England, and place. “I’ve always with support from Homes been interested in England. Williams, acute urbanism but originally chief executive, also in areas of high is now Malmö’s city inequality, which is architect; as of last year, very predominant in a Agrawal has been the chief. country like India where you have an apartment block and right next to you there’s – I guess I would call it a slum. Socially-minded That’s just your normal existence.” Agrawal grew up in Mumbai, where her Agrawal continues: “After moving paternal grandfather had arrived with to the UK I got interested in this idea “two rupees in his pocket”. Her family of building place and people and how lived, she says, a “simple life” and her they might connect. I’ve always been parents valued education to the extent

PHOTOGRAPHY |

’ve always been interested in how people use space and I thought architecture was the profession that would lead me to work in that sense,” Pooja Agrawal recalls. “But increasingly I found it quite limiting. I was always pushing that red line boundary of looking at a wider neighbourhood or a bigger masterplan.” “Pushing that red line boundary” is the load bearing wall of Agrawal’s professional philosophy. It’s clear that refusing to cede to convention is an abiding principle, whether in her Mumbai childhood, private practice as an architect, as a regeneration specialist with the Greater London Authority (GLA), building Public Practice, speaking at events, campaigning or developing “side hustles” that intentionally challenge the status quo. She is a “doer”, someone who wants to “ﬁx things”, she says. “It’s really important to me to be part of those conversations about why are we here or what can we do in the future? If I see a problem I want to solve it.” Dynamic, determined and, if our cover photo is anything to go by, quite severe you might think. Not quite. There’s steel there, no doubt; but Agrawal is warm, accommodating, gentle. Her drive is not to smash

PA L H A N S E N

POOJA AGRAWAL IS BENT ON DISSOLVING THE BOUNDARIES THAT SEPARATE BUILT ENVIRONMENT SECTORS AND SPECIALISMS. SHE TELLS SIMON WICKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CROSSING THE RED LINES

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CURRICULUM VITA E: POOJ A AGRAWA L Education: Jamnabai Narsee School, Mumbai; Westminster School; University of Cambridge (BA/MA Architecture 2007); Bartlett (MArch 2012); University of Westminster (ARB 2015) Career highlights:

20092013 Urban designer, Publica Associates

20132016 Architect and urban designer, We Made That

20162020 Programme manager, regeneration, GLA

20162020 Panel member, Design South East

2017 Co-founder, Public Practice

2017present Numerous speaking engagements, panels, media interviews, including speaking at the Urban Design Forum in New York and the Festival of Place

20172020 Board trustee, Museum of Architecture

20182019 Mentor, Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust

20202021 Assistant director of service strategy, Homes England

2020 Co-founder and co-host, Sound Advice

2021present

skills, ﬁrstly, they were able to ask for funding. And once they got the funding, were they able to deliver projects and do some really interesting things,” she says. “Whereas, there were other local authorities that either didn’t have the capacity to put in funding applications or got the funding but struggled to deliver.” Agrawal and Williams also saw “this blind spot in people like us who had

PA L H A N S E N

Chief executive, Public Practice

PHOTOGRAPHY |

placemaking – whatever you call it – touches on all aspects pretty publicly minded, but “THERE’S [of life]. It can be very sociallyI’m also a designer at heart TALENT minded. It can have an impact and quite creative – at one FRUSTRATED people’s lives, and I guess point I wanted to be an artist. AT WORKING ON on that’s what’s attracted me.” “But,” she counters, “I LUXURY FLATS As an architect and urban was interested in working THAT COST designer, Agrawal was drawn with a group of likeMILLIONS AND towards “quite small practices minded people, trying to THEY CAN’T that were also sociallydo something creative but AFFORD TO minded and were doing really also pragmatic and rational. LIVE IN THE interesting public work”. Hence architecture, because CITY THEY’RE Among her clients were the it brings together all these SERVING” GLA, where she encountered different parts of you.” people with “urbanism” Architecture became a backgrounds influencing doorway into the broader development policy and thus school of ‘urbanism’, in the scope of development. which Agrawal first saw the By 2016 she was among them, as a potential to erase boundaries between programme manager in the authority’s sectors and specialisms. “The built regeneration team. It opened her eyes environment is where we occupy space… to discrepancies in resources available it has an impact on absolutely everything, to different local authorities and their whether it’s the climate crisis or health spiralling consequences. inequality, or it can be about design and “What you saw with those authorities how you make people feel joy in spaces. that were well resourced and with diverse “Planning, urbanism, architecture,

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INTERVIEW: POOJA AGRAWAL

studied and trained as architects and urbanists, who would have never thought about working in the public sector and just didn’t see that as an aspirational journey to take. There was a clear mismatch”.

Going public “Public Practice came from this idea of ‘How can we bring these two worlds together?’. There’s talent frustrated at working on luxury flats that cost millions and they can’t afford to live in the city they’re serving; and authorities that just don’t have the people and are struggling to attract those people.” Public Practice is a matchmaking service, but one with a specific public purpose. It succeeds in large part because its founders take an almost Olympian view of the built environment and its relationship with people, professions and policy. They understand how ‘place’ is where society plays out its dynamic social and political interactions. Local authorities ought to provide much of the oxygen for these but, as Agrawal points out, they have been denuded of the resources they need to deliver ‘good placemaking’. Public Practice challenges a narrative that the public sector is immutably bound to underperformance; it pumps oxygen back into the atmosphere. “We’re not just moving people around within the public sector, we’re bringing in a whole wave of people who had never thought about working in the public sector,” Agrawal stresses. These are not “superstars”, but mid-career professionals with specific skills who can slot into teams that will benefit from their experience. Associates meet regularly for shared learning; alumni call on each other for ideas. The oxygen circulates. “We’ve built a really strong network. Local authorities do approach us saying ’We’ve been struggling to find a landscape architect for five years or we’ve never had design expertise ever and this is the first person we’ve had, so that knowledge of us grows. But then there are places that have never heard of us. My job is to reach out and build those networks.” Research about to be released by Public Practice identifies specific skills gaps in local authority placemaking departments (see over page). These are, in effect, a list of what planning is expected to incorporate into its practice in the 21st century: data and digital skills; ecology; design; civic engagement. The organisation’s work reflects the

fact that planning is pressing against its own boundaries. But Agrawal is also grappling with a more fundamental recruitment issue: not only do would-be placemaking professionals not think about public sector careers; large swathes of the population don’t think about placemaking careers at all. Agrawal’s drive to create a more ‘inclusive’ public built environment sector goes beyond specialisms and delves into broader aspects of inclusivity, notably ethnicity and cultural heritage. “We think about bias a lot and how to design that out,” she says. They benchmark against industry norms for diversity, but it’s not clear that this is the right measure to benchmark against – not least because Agrawal’s own experience is that the public sector is more inclusive than the private design practices she has worked in. So the question becomes: How do you increase diversity within built environment professions across the board? One answer, Agrawal argues, is to look further “upstream”. “Whether it’s working with children, with graduates [...] How do you capture people’s imagination at a young age? That planning is a really important profession, that you can serve the public good? There’s a huge gap there.”

There is much more talk: about the “side hustle”, Sound Advice, which fuses Agrawal’s activism with her love of music; about her having been an Indian classical dancer; about advocacy, for placemaking and the public good. “I talk in schools and I’m always amazed at the diﬃculty of the questions, pupils drilling me about aﬀordable housing. Let’s not underestimate the ability young people have to understand the built environment. But how they connect their lived experience to planning and to placemaking more generally and to climate change – I think there’s an opportunity there.”

How Public Practice works A not-for-profit social enterprise funded by service fees and some public grants, Public Practice matches private sector built environment professionals with skills gaps in the public sector. “Every six months we do a call-out to both the authorities and candidates to apply to be part of the programme,” Agrawal explains. A three-step selection process includes an online questionnaire; “placement workshops” with a presentation, group exercise and interview; and then bespoke matchmaking. Most of the year-long placements are extended or become permanent positions.

“It’s quite demanding, but it’s important that people have different opportunities to demonstrate their skills. To be a planner doesn’t mean you need to be the best at talking to a room of 50 people; you might be more about bringing people to decision- making and that’s something we test.” “It’s asking people to come on a journey with us. We’re a facilitator really and our role is, through our learning and development programme, to help these people who have never worked in public sector predominantly transition into the public sector.”

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I N FO G R A P H I C

PLACEMAKERS IN THE

PUBLIC SECTOR RESEARCH, INCLUDING NEW RESEARCH BY PUBLIC PRACTICE, INDICATES A SIGNIFICANT SHORTFALL IN PLACEMAKING PEOPLE, SKILLS AND RESOURCES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

THE DESIGN DECLINE 1976

2020

49%

37%

13%

49% Percentage of architects working in the public sector in the UK in 19761

7% Architects working in the public sector in the UK in 2020 (3% local govt; 3% education; 1% other public sector)2

37% Architects working in the public sector in Denmark in 2020 (22% local govt; 3% central govt; 8% education; 4% other public sector)3

13% Architects working in public sector across Europe in 20204

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RECRUITMENT WOES

79%

cers in rity offi ced o h t u a a Local have f d who Englan es attracting or lti difficu ately skilled the ri n i p s o e r t p a ap did ed can fi i l a u q 8 ar last ye

PLANNING'S RESOURCES GAP

22,000 ‘Town planners’ in the UK, roughly 1 for every 3,000 people; Netherlands has approximately 16,000 planners - 1 for every 1,100 people5

Local authority oﬃcers in England who say they do not have enough experts in:9

42%

Real reduction in public investment in planning by local authorities from 2009-2018 (£686m or 0.6% of expenditure in 2009/10; £401m or 0.5% in 2017-18)6

64.3% 62.2%

60.3%

Data and digital

Architecture, design and masterplanning

Environmental sustainability

56.5%

44.2%

32%

Ecology and biodiversity

Planning and policy

Leadership and management

51%

Local authority oﬃcers in England facing uncertainty over funding in the medium to long term7

Sources: 1.Finn Williams, Public Practice, multiple citations 2,3,4. The Architectural Profession in Europe 2020: A Sectoral Study, Architects’ Council of Europe 2020 study 5.The Planning Profession in 2019, RTPI 6.Resourcing public planning, RTPI, 2019 7,8,9.Resourcing and Skills Survey, Public Practice, 2022

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LEVELLING UP

STREET

and level THE LEVELLINGUP AND REGENERATION BILL AIMS TO REVIVE TOWN CENTRES BY TACKLING THE BLIGHT OF EMPTY SHOPS ON HIGH STREETS – BUT DOES IT CONTAIN THE MEASURES REQUIRED? HUW MORRIS INVESTIGATES

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Editor’s note: This article was conceived, commissioned, briefed, written, edited and laid out for publication before the events of 6 July, which resulted in the sacking of Michael Gove as levelling-up secretary and the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister. As we go to press, it’s impossible to say whether the concept of levelling up will survive this convulsion. If it does not, this piece may well serve mainly as an obituary for an abandoned political idea.

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n the high street of tomorrow, there will be no shuttered shops or deserted pavements. No shabby or dilapidated buildings. There will be no ghost town centres. Instead, communities will choose how their town centres develop. There will be shops but also medical centres, entertainment venues and bustling market stalls. Those town centres will be vital community spaces with a vibrant café culture and public realm. The high street of tomorrow will see civic pride restored and with it cultural identity and local distinctiveness. To some this vision might be dreamlike, especially when one in seven shops across the country is

empty and unused with many vacant for several years, according to the British Retail Consortium. In response, the government’s levelling-up and regeneration bill aims to kick-start a town centre renaissance. This involves a panoply of proposals, the bulk of them evolutions or updates of existing tools but with a sprinkling of new initiatives (see box ‘Streets of Lurb’). Some are deliberately eye-catching. The pavement licensing system is one example. Introduced as a temporary lifeline for the hospitality industry, this will become permanent to support town centre regeneration by “freeing up businesses to serve food al fresco all year round”, says the government. The industry estimates that each outdoor

seat could be worth up to £6,000 in revenue. Planning consultancy Lichﬁelds suggests that a third of restaurants, cafés and bars have the space to apply for a pavement licence. Another is the introduction of ‘street votes’. Turley planning director Andrea Arnall welcomes the intent behind “allowing communities to choose what is right for their centres”, but warns: “Street votes could work well in this context as they would consider the views of those who know the centre best,” she says. “However, this approach absolutely must not block transformational change where it is needed. This would be a retrograde step for centres and would run counter to levelling up.”

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SHOPPING LISTS

High streets in crisis – by numbers The headline ambition is for up to 95 per cent of the country’s electricity to be low carbon by 2030. This will be achieved by:

15.6% of high street shops across England are vacant

4.7% of high street shops across England are persistently vacant – ie, for three years or more

23.1% of high street shops in the North East are vacant. The persistent vacancy rate is the highest for any single region at 7.6%

Rental centres More contentious is the bill’s plan to introduce rental auctions for void properties, a move to “help end the plague of empty shops”. Following a rental auction, held after a shop has been vacant for 366 days, a local authority may enter into an agreement for leasing the premises with the “successful bidder”. This will bind the landlord, who is obliged to grant the lease. If it does not, the local authority may grant the lease and that will be binding on the landlord. Some real estate lawyers are muttering that the bill as it stands would not only allow a council to bind landowners without their consent but also prevent others with interests in the property – superior lessors and mortgagees – from exercising their rights. Turley planning director Cat White suggests a subtler approach. “Providing a mechanism to secure the reoccupation of these units could provide opportunities for meanwhile uses or start-up businesses to ‘test’ out their markets and bring new interest to the high street. But is forcing tenants on landlords the recipe to a successful long-term relationship? “Would a better solution be for local authorities to work

collaboratively with landlords and tenants from the outset, exploring opportunities as a partnership?” Harlow Council’s planning and building control assistant director Tanusha Waters believes it would be irresponsible not to consider the social value of rental auctions as a principle. “If local authorities were able to tenant and support vacant properties, it could go some way in supporting the vitality and viability of centres and possibly aid regeneration of areas more widely. “However, the proposal does have some shortcomings, namely the protracted and ambiguous process. For instance, a property would need to be unoccupied for 366 days before it is considered viable for the scheme. She continues: “The bill states that a ‘regular presence of people at

16.2% of empty shops in Basildon, Essex, have been vacant for three or more years

13.7% of shops in the South East are vacant, below the national average. However, the persistent vacancy rate has risen by 258% since 2015

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LEVELLING UP Would rental auctions for void properties, as former levelling-up secretary Michael Gove said, “help end the plague of empty shops”?

Special supplements

sites, “this will allow supplementary plans to address site-specific needs or opportunities which require a new planning framework to be prepared quickly – like a new town centre regeneration opportunity – and to act as a vehicle for setting out authority-wide or other design codes”, says Lichfields’ associate director Alison Bembenek. “If these new-style plans can be prepared quickly and have the enhanced weight of the development plan, they could become a powerful tool, giving developers greater certainty on key design before embarking on major schemes.” Waters contends that with supplementary plans carrying equal statutory weight to local plans and their proposed adoption process being shorter, “they could become a sharper, more agile and powerful tool than its predecessor – the humble supplementary planning document”. She adds: “The option for a quicker route to supplement local plans could also help simplify the local plan review process. It is not difficult to consider them as positive in the aim to regenerate town centres.” But Institute for Government researcher Eleanor Shearer, who specialises in public finance, says “quick wins on making town centres look nicer are not a long-term fix”. The government needs to show much more ambition, she states. “For levelling up to work in the long term, it needs to be about transforming the economic fortunes of ‘left-behind’ areas. So far, lots of government announcements have focused more on cosmetic fixes rather than bold policy solutions to regional economic imbalance. Things like improving town centres, prioritising the environment in planning, giving residents more of a say in street names and protecting al fresco dining may be relatively ‘quick wins’ ahead of the next election and might make progress towards the mission on giving people more pride in their areas, but cannot be a substitute for addressing the stubborn gaps in productivity between different regions of the UK.”

Of interest will be the enhanced role for supplementary plans. Although limited to a speciﬁc site or two or more nearby

n Huw Morris is associate editor of The Planner

the property’ will be required for the property to be classed as ‘occupied’. It is fairly clear that without further guidance, the occupancy requirement can and probably will be challenged by owners and it could be difficult for authorities to prove the case the property has been unoccupied. “Once the matter of occupancy has been concluded, the bill accommodates for a further 22-24week notice period before a unit can be occupied, if the matter is not appealed,”continues Waters. “It would be difficult to argue that the protracted, ambiguous administrative process does not reduce the appeal for local authorities to use the rental auction option. It is unclear how already overstretched authorities would resource the significant additional administrative and enforcement burden associated with the process.” But British Property Federation chief executive Melanie Leech dismisses rental auctions as “political gimmicks” that will not revitalise town centres. The move “will deter, rather than encourage, investment into areas where it is most needed”, she adds. “No property owner wants their premises to be empty,” she adds. “In our experience, property owners are willing to do zero-rent deals to avoid boarded-up shopfronts but the burden of business rates and other occupational costs mean it is still unviable for many small and independent businesses to trade from town centre premises.”

Streets of Lurb What does the levelling-up and regeneration bill (Lurb) have to offer high streets? n Powers for local leaders to hold rental auctions where they can sell off tenancies in shops vacant for more than a year. n Greater powers for local authorities to promote regeneration by using compulsory purchase orders (CPOs), enabling them to push through the re-purposing of buildings for infrastructure or housing use. The bill will remove an objector’s automatic right to a public inquiry. Instead, the secretary of state or a planning inspector must confirm the CPO. n ‘Street votes’ allowing residents to propose development and vote on it. n New locally led urban development corporations to regenerate areas, with the cap on board members removed and aggregate limits to borrowing. n Bureaucracy surrounding pavement licensing will be abolished, allowing businesses to serve guests on pavements. n Supplementary plans will have the full weight of development plans and can tackle needs or opportunities specific to sites. n A mandatory infrastructure levy to capture some of the financial gain from development to fund infrastructure, including affordable housing. This will replace section 106 agreements except for larger sites where the current regime will be retained to reflect specific circumstances. The new levy will also replace the community infrastructure levy except in London, and planning authorities will set rates and thresholds. n The government will also support high streets by providing £1.7 billion through temporary business rates relief for up to 400,000 retail, hospitality and leisure outlets.

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BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN

andatory biodiversity net gain (BNG) in England is travelling inexorably towards its implementation date of winter 2023 – and the realisation is now dawning among those who must deliver it. Developers, planners, ecologists and landscape architects all need to be prepared to meet the legislative requirements of the policy, which is considered to be critical to driving nature recovery. Some local planning authorities and developers have been taking a net gain approach – or something very similar – for some time. They know what to do, have the systems in place and staff that are confident they can deliver. But not everyone is in this position: there is still a lot of work to be done if the development planning system in England is to deliver BNG effectively from day one of the new regime. We cannot afford to get this wrong. Nature is in crisis and the mandatory 10 per cent net gain only scratches the surface of the challenge we face to restore habitats and species

to the levels needed to deliver the ecosystem services we need. This is why we need to be open about the risks involved in implementing biodiversity net gain. It’s also why we need to work together to mitigate them. Here are the ﬁve biggest risks we need to address if we’re to implement BNG eﬀectively.

Understand your base

It’s all about the baseline; establishing an accurate starting point from which to measure the ‘gain’ is of fundamental importance. The baseline will comprise data on the habitats present on the development site and their condition. This information provides a biodiversity ‘value’ for the site. BNG is predicated on using the UKHab habitat classiﬁcation scheme. For the most part it provides the right degree of granularity in terms of broad and detailed habitat types, so it is the right system to use. But it is relatively new and is only gradually being adopted within the ecology profession – until BNG there was little urgency to change. Many ecologists are now rushing

FIVE BNG risks explained MANDATORY BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN IS FAST HEADING OUR WAY, SAYS SALLY HAYNS OF THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT. ARE PLANNING DEPARTMENTS READY?

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Designs will need to work around any irreplaceable or high-value habitats on-site to ensure that they are not lost or damaged

to access training on how to apply the UKHab classification accurately, as well as brushing up on habitat condition assessment techniques. Correct identification and assessment is going to be vital to establishing accurate baselines and, for most sites, it isn’t something that can be accurately done by a non-ecologist. Inaccurate baselines, whether through faulty habitat identification and condition assessment or deliberate misrepresentation (yes, it does happen) are a risk to delivering BNG. But baselines can also be affected by changes to site management, including habitat clearance, prior to the assessment. The government has set 30 January 2020 as the retrospective date after which any site clearance will require the baseline assessment to include retrospective habitat records data (for example, satellite imagery).

Planning consultants should advise their clients of the need to avoid actions that could aﬀect the baseline assessment, while local authority planners will need to be vigilant in identifying schemes in which the baseline data doesn’t look right. Local knowledge of habitat distribution and up-to-date biological records will be an advantage to local authorities scrutinising baseline assessments.

Master the metric

The concept of representing biodiversity as a number does not sit well with many ecologists. How can a number represent the complex interrelationships and interdependencies of ecosystems, or the value of the service they provide? If you accept, however, that a ‘no net loss of biodiversity’ policy has not delivered, then a mandatory net

gain requirement is potentially a significant stride in the right direction. And, if we are going to require evidence of gain, we need to be able to measure it. Step forward, the Defra metric. Metric 3.0 (the current version) isn’t perfect but it is an improvement on earlier versions and will evolve and improve as we learn from its use. But any metric can only be as good as the input data. In addition to habitat identification and condition assessment, the metric requires scores for other habitat characteristics such as distinctiveness and strategic significance. It also calculates the value of the proposed net gain design, putting a figure on the value of the habitats that will be created or restored; and it includes factors such as the time required to deliver a functioning habitat. This process of scoring and inputting data relies on the insight and judgement of the user and – guess what? – it can be applied incorrectly or the data can be manipulated to achieve the magic 10 per cent gain. Close scrutiny of how the metric has been used and of the robustness of the data on which the BNG design is based will be needed if genuine net gain is to be achieved. This is likely to be time-consuming for a local planning authority, even one with ecological expertise.

Time it right

Thinking about the BNG delivery too late in the design process creates risk for developers. It’s likely to cost both time and money as scheme designs need to be reworked, which may in turn lead to frustration and bad decisions. Designs will need to work around any irreplaceable or high-value habitats on-site to ensure that they are not lost or damaged. These are habitats that, by deﬁnition, are diﬃcult or impossible to recreate elsewhere. Avoidance is most easily achieved early in the design process – therefore, ecologists need to be involved at the earliest stages of project design, working closely with

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planners to reduce obstacles at the determination stage. BNG requires high levels of competence in habitat creation, restoration and management planning. Design should focus on restoring or creating wellconnected habitats capable of delivering multiple ecosystem services. Including BNG design early in the process will maximise the opportunities for incorporating multifunctional solutions that reduce the need for spaceconsuming grey infrastructure.

Location, location

The on-site versus off-site debate for BNG delivery rumbles on. There is value to both. On-site keeps biodiversity gain local and can add financial value to a development. But it does limit the habitat types that can be created and there are risks to successful habitat establishment in and around a development. Off-site offers more scope to target a wider range of habitat development in areas that are more likely to be successful, in ecological terms, with the added value of being able to create wellfunctioning ecological networks –

bigger, better and joined up. It’s also easier, in many instances, to secure its ongoing management for the minimum 30-year period required by the regulations. There are philosophical arguments about whether we are choosing where to put nature, but it is hard not to see the value of maximising the ecological benefit of the gain. Local authority planners will be in the difficult position of balancing on-site versus off-site delivery; the most forward-thinking authorities will already have developed their own strategy for targeting net gain delivery. Others will need to catch up.

Capacity, competence, conﬁdence

Local authorities are under huge pressure and this is a new policy requirement with which to contend. Local authority planners have previously reported a lack of conﬁdence in dealing with biodiversity issues and there needs to be a signiﬁcant investment in training and upskilling to help those at the sharp end of making BNG work. A June 2022 report by Defra, ALGE (Association of Local

“MANY ECOLOGISTS ARE NOW RUSHING TO ACCESS TRAINING ON HOW TO APPLY THE UKHAB CLASSIFICATION ACCURATELY, AS WELL AS BRUSHING UP ON HABITAT CONDITION ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES”

There is a shortage of experienced consultant ecologists so BNG requires a shift in training focus

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BNG requires high levels of competence in habitat creation, restoration and management planning

Government Ecologists) and Adept (Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport) of local planning authorities in England noted that only 5 per cent of 192 local planning authorities surveyed believed they had sufficient capacity, in-house or through service level agreements with external providers, to scrutinise biodiversity information in planning applications. Almost half of the respondents did not regularly make use of Natural England ‘standing advice’ or other ecological guidance. Fewer than 10 per cent believed that they had adequate resources and expertise to deal with biodiversity net gain implementation. The government is making some money available to increase capacity/ competence for BNG delivery and more is promised, but it isn’t enough. We need to find a more effective and sustainable way of resourcing all aspects of planning, or find ways to reduce the risk of compromised decision-making that fails to deliver the net gain target. Capacity is also an issue within the ecological profession. We currently have a shortage of experienced consultant ecologists and BNG is requiring a shift in focus of training and development towards more habitatbased competencies. It would be hugely frustrating if nature’s recovery was undermined by having insufficient people with the right knowledge and skills.

Searching questions Although welcome, this change in legislation and policy is creating risks that must be managed effectively to achieve the intended outcomes. This is asking searching questions of us as professions supporting sustainable development. Are we clear on the process, the requirements and what good practice looks like? Have we provided clarity to developers? Have we got the capacity and the skills we need at all stages of delivery? Do we know when and how to collaborate effectively to support developers and to deliver the maximum gains for biodiversity? Are we clear where to target off-site delivery to align with local planning and conservation strategies? Thoughts are now turning to a quality assurance process for BNG – something that will give local planning authorities, developers and local communities confidence that these risks are reduced. Natural England is convening a consultative group of stakeholder organisations, including CIEEM and the RTPI, to explore options that include accreditation, independent review and auditing. Although we don’t want to create onerous processes, we must get biodiversity net gain right. We will not truly know that it is working until the habitats that have been restored or created are flourishing.

“THERE NEEDS TO BE A SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT IN TRAINING AND UPSKILLING TO HELP THOSE AT THE SHARP END OF MAKING BNG WORK”

Meanwhile, we must do everything we can to ensure that the design and decision-making is such that it optimises chances of success. For the government, that means making sure that planning authorities are adequately resourced and supported to manage the delivery of biodiversity net gain. This includes provision of outstanding guidance and secondary legislation to facilitate both on-site and off-site delivery. For planners, that means doing everything you can between now and winter 2023 to make sure you understand the policy requirements, the process for delivery and how to minimise risks. For ecologists, it means upskilling in the key areas of habitat condition assessment, use of the metric and designing realistic and deliverable schemes for both habitat creation and restoration. The rewards of getting this right are significant and we really cannot afford to get this wrong. By working collaboratively, ecologists, planners and developers can make biodiversity net gain work for nature, people and profit.

Sally Hayns is chief executive of CIEEM, the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management

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Reducing reliance on the car is key to Jersey's carbon neutrality ambitions

LANE DISCIPLINE TASKED WITH HELPING JERSEY IMPROVE ITS WALKING AND CYCLING NETWORKS, HARRIET HALDENBY ALSO FOUND INSPIRATION ON THE ISLAND FOR IMPROVING SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL ELSEWHERE IN THE BRITISH ISLES

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Jersey is already known in cycling circles as a dream for sport cyclists and pootlers alike because of its mix of hills, quiet lanes and idyllic traffic-free routes. However, the Government of Jersey has big ambitions to get more islanders on bikes for everyday trips, such as to work, school and the shops. Given the size of Jersey – only nine by five miles – most places are within reach by bike. Nevertheless, the island’s transport system has very much evolved around the car, often at the expense of walking and cycling. This is a scenario acknowledged by Jersey’s sustainable transport policy, which recognises I M AG E |

that maintaining a business-as-usual approach is no longer tenable if the island’s carbon neutrality ambitions are to be achieved. To this end, PJA was commissioned by the Jersey government to help them develop a high-quality network of walking and cycling routes to enable islanders to choose to travel by active modes. The project is just one of many ‘rapid plans’ which form part of sustainable transport policy. PJA was the lead author of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) guidance on producing local cycling and walking infrastructure plans (LCWIPs) – which we are currently refreshing to

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CASE STUDY: ACTIVE TRAVEL IN JERSEY

AT A G L A N C E Jersey is improving its sustainable transport networks to get more islanders walking and cycling. It has commissioned PJA to advise on this. PJA has found the island already has three strong platforms to build on: Green Lanes, a 40mph national speed limit and ‘Jersey crossings’.

improve the guidance for rural areas – and Local Transport Note 1/20 on cycle infrastructure design. We were therefore excited to apply our expertise to Jersey. The island’s roads have a similar regulatory framework to England but differ in some interesting ways, including the use of ‘green lanes’, a 40mph national speed limit and so-called ‘Jersey Crossings’. When we visited in June to audit the network, we took a detailed look at some of the things they do differently, which led us to consider what benefits the Jersey approach could have in the rest of the British Isles for modal shift and creating more sustainable places.

Green Lanes are more eﬀective than England’s Quiet Lanes; Jersey crossings are cheaper to install than standard zebra crossings. The consultancy argues that the rest of the UK can learn from these. Belisha-free crossings have been trialled successfully in Manchester. More testing is required to establish the eﬃcacy of Jersey’s approaches in a wider UK context.

users. In 2015-2020, according to the DfT, 56 per cent of pedal cycle fatalities occurred on rural roads. We know from our recent work producing LCWIPs for rural authorities such as West Northamptonshire and Mendip Council that there’s demand for safe walking and cycling infrastructure in rural areas. But it’s currently very difficult to deliver such infrastructure because it often relies on converting disused railway lines into cycleways or purchasing land to deliver cycle tracks behind hedges. As more peripheral and rural locations are relied on to meet both housing requirements and net-zero targets, we increasingly need rural roads to facilitate walking and cycling trips. Jersey has three features that we feel could be considered for introduction in a wider British Isles context: Green lanes A 40mph national speed limit Jersey crossings.

GREEN LANES AND 40MPH NATIONAL SPEED LIMIT Jersey’s green lanes were introduced

APPROACHES TO RURAL ROADS The default speed on rural roads in the UK is 60mph, although it is rarely safe to travel at that pace except on well-engineered roads. While many minor rural roads have low traffic flows, most have no footways or cycling infrastructure, meaning that people walking and cycling must share narrow carriageways with fast traffic. Indeed, according to the road safety charity Brake, for every mile travelled rural roads are the most dangerous for all

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CASE STUDY: ACTIVE TRAVEL IN JERSEY

Left: one of Jersey’s ‘green lanes. Bottom: ‘Jersey crossings' do not require Belisha beacons

in 1994 and currently cover 67 miles of the island’s roads (around 466 miles in total). On green lanes vehicle speeds are limited to 15mph and pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders have priority over motor vehicles. Just two of Jersey’s 12 parishes have no green lanes but this is expected to change with a review of the network currently under way, informed by our study. Jersey’s national speed limit is also just 40 miles per hour, with many rural lanes outside of the green lanes network signed at 30mph. Only A roads tend to have the maximum 40mph limit. Similar legislation exists in England, where local authorities can designate country lanes as ‘quiet lanes’ under the Transport Act 2002. Inspired by Jersey’s green lanes, quiet lanes are minor rural roads that have been identified as important for people walking, cycling and horse riding. To qualify for quiet lane status, a lane should have fewer than 1,000 vehicles a day and have 85th percentile speeds of less than 35mph (“the speed at or below which 85 per cent of all vehicles are observed to travel under free-flowing conditions”). Crucially, however, quiet lane designation is not supported with enforceable restrictions so, while many include speed limits (generally 30 or 40mph) and rural traffic calming, these are not a requirement.

“AS MORE PERIPHERAL AND RURAL LOCATIONS ARE RELIED ON TO MEET BOTH HOUSING REQUIREMENTS AND NETZERO TARGETS, WE INCREASINGLY NEED RURAL ROADS TO FACILITATE WALKING AND CYCLING TRIPS”

Having clocked up many miles cycling the green lanes during our week-long visit, there is a clear difference between green lanes and quiet lanes, with the former feeling far safer. Based on our observations, the narrow nature of the green lanes, combined with the 15mph limit, ensures that traffic is generally restricted to those who require access – and the few drivers we did encounter drove courteously, only overtaking when we waved them past. This created a fairly idyllic cycling experience, in stark contrast with our experience of similar roads in the UK. Trialling reduced speed limits on England’s rural roads would be a quick win, one which is likely to improve road safety and enable more walking and cycling in rural areas with little investment needed. Similar trials have already been successfully undertaken in Wales and the Scottish Borders.

JERSEY CROSSINGS In very low-speed environments and in locations with high place value, highway engineers in Jersey have installed ‘Jersey crossings’. These are identical to zebra crossings but don’t require Belisha beacons, the yellow globes mounted on striped poles that help drivers to spot the crossings. They tend to be used in lowspeed environments with high place value where Belisha beacons would detract from the public realm and add

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CASE STUDY: ACTIVE TRAVEL IN JERSEY

Jersey’s ‘green lanes’ are seen as more eﬀective than England’s ‘quiet lanes’

USEFUL READING LCWIPs: Technical guidance for Local Authorities (pdf): https:// bit.ly/planner0822-cyclewalk Local Transport Note 1/20 (pdf): https://bit.ly/planner0822-cycledesign Jersey Carbon Neutral Roadmap (pdf): https://bit.ly/planner0822-carbonroadmap Jersey Sustainable Transport Policy (pdf): https://bit.ly/planner0822-sustainabletransport Jersey Active Travel – Primary Evidence Base: https://bit.ly/ planner0822-activetravel Greater Manchester side road zebra trial: https://bit.ly/planner0822-zebra

to street clutter. be relatively simple to monitor the Zebra crossings provide priority to impact of removing Belisha beacons. pedestrians crossing the road. CurCombined with a wider trial of side rently, Belisha beacons are a requireroad zebras in the UK, this could help ment for all zebra crossings on roads the case for changing the legislation to in the UK, but they add significantly allow for simplified zebra crossings – a to the cost of installing a crossing, and quick and cost-effective improvement can therefore act as a disincentive to for pedestrians and cyclists. putting one in. Further trials of simple side road Chris Boardman, England’s active zebras are about to start in Cardiff, travel commissioner, would like the associated with a wide-area 20mph DfT to update the regulations to allow limit, which could form an initial phase a simplified ‘side road zebra’ without of such a study. beacons. These were trialled in Greater Manchester in 2021 with the aim of NEXT STEPS reinforcing pedestrian priority at side Our time in Jersey highlighted some roads. The study concluded that there relatively quick wins which could see was no evidence that delivering zebras significant safety improvements for without Belisha beacons those choosing to walk significantly increased risk. and cycle wherever they “CHANGES TO It recommended that regulive in the UK. SPEED LIMITS latory approval be sought to Changes to speed IN PARTICULAR limits in particular are implement more crossings in ARE CRUCIAL a wider range of street envicrucial on narrower roads ON NARROWER ronments for longer-term where all users must ROADS WHERE monitoring. share the carriageway. ALL USERS MUST Continuing to allow such Jersey has a mix of standard SHARE THE zebra crossings and Jersey relative speed differences CARRIAGEWAY” crossings, meaning it would between users only cre-

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: pedal cycle factsheet, 2020: https://bit.ly/planner0822-roadcasualties

ates a hostile environment for those choosing to make more sustainable travel choices. Such changes will be critical in facilitating more sustainable rural development in the future. Enabling more cost-effective delivery of zebra crossings by applying Jersey’s approach can help to unlock greater pedestrian priority in the short term within settlements and improve the confidence of pedestrians to make more journeys on foot. Central to securing these changes is an opportunity to trial new approaches, which we should be looking to do with immediate effect if we’re serious about meeting net zero ambitions in the UK. n Harriet Haldenby is an urban designer with transport planning and placemaking consultancy PJA

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CASES &DECISIONS

A N A LY S E D B Y B E N G O S L I N G A N D H U W M O R R I S / A P P E A L S @ T H E P L A N N E R . C O . U K

Andrew rejects inspector’s call on shale gas exploration An application for a new well site for shale gas exploration near Rotherham has been refused after housing minister Stuart Andrew disagreed with an inspector’s ﬁndings.

Katie Atkinson, director at KVA Planning Consultancy, represented Woodsetts Against Fracking in this appeal. She said:

physical or mental illnesses, and live there because it is near a doctor’s surgery, and is tranquil. The inspector accepted the homes would be affected by the proposal. Peerless was satisfied that a three-metre-high acoustic barrier would reduce sound levels to acceptable levels. But, because of the site’s green belt location, the barrier would require planning permission which, Peerless said, would be considered “inappropriate development” that would impact on openness. Any harm would be mitigated, however, by the temporary nature of the development. Moreover, Peerless judged that the proposal would meet the “very special circumstances” test for green belt development because of ”government support for shale gas exploration”, when there are no adverse impacts. On highway issues, Peerless accepted the appellant’s report, which indicated that the proposal would not lead to excessive traffic flows,

and any impact could be dealt with by condition. But Peerless did accept that the rise in heavy goods vehicles would have some eﬀect on residents’ lives. In the planning balance, Peerless judged that harm caused by the proposal would be mitigated by its limited time frame, and justiﬁed by special circumstances. Andrew disagreed with his inspector’s conclusions. While he acknowledged

LOCATION Land adjacent to Dinnington Road, Woodsetts, Rotherham

AUTHORITY Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council INSPECTOR Katie Peerless PROCEDURE Recovered appeal DECISION Dismissed REFERENCE APP/ P4415/W/19/3220577

( “Stuart Andrew MP, quite correctly, disagreed with the inspector’s findings stating that the 2019 WMS reduced the weight to be attributed to the benefits of shale gas exploration. New oil and gas extraction is simply incompatible with the government’s statutory duty to meet emissions reduction targets in light of the global climate emergency and the imperative to move away from fossil fuels. “The government should concentrate on funding energyefficiency measures for existing housing stock, making mandatory carbonneutral policies for newbuilds and finding solutions which are quicker to install, better for the climate and will actually reduce the impact on household budgets by moving away from any reliance on oil and gas.”

the acoustic barrier’s eﬀectiveness in reducing noise, the housing minister decided that as shale gas extraction is incompatible with emissions reduction targets and therefore government support for shale gas exploration cannot be considered as an exceptional circumstance that would justify harm to the green belt. Andrew also concluded that the 2019 WMS reduced the weight that could be attributed to the beneﬁts of shale gas exploration. Planning permission was refused. bit.ly/planner0822-shale

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

Andrew decided that the proposal would harm the green belt, and attributed only moderate weight to the national policy support for shale gas exploration, in contrast with the inspector’s judgment. INEOS Upstream Ltd sought permission to site the well in an agricultural field in the village of Woodsett, for five years to determine the presence of shale gas. A written ministerial statement (WMS) issued on 4th November 2019 recognised “the importance of natural gas as a source of secure and affordable energy”, but placed restrictions on issuing new permissions for hydraulic fracturing consents until more research could be conducted into seismicity. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council opposed the plans because of noise, harm to the green belt and highway issues. Woodsett Against Fracking (WAF) also provided evidence in opposition to the proposal, as did a range of local residents. Inspector Katie Peerless addressed the issue of noise caused by the proposal. The appeal site lies near Berne Square, a group of council houses whose residents have a variety of

EXPERT INSIGHT

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40 or so appeal reports are posted each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions. Our Decisions Digest newsletter is sent out every Monday. Sign up: bit.ly/planner-newsletters

Solent homes would do no more harm than ‘fallback’ idea Outline permission for up to 125 homes, a community centre and parkland in Funtley, Hampshire, has been granted after an inspector concluded that the proposal would not cause more harm than a scheme previously approved for the site. LOCATION Land to the south of Funtley

Tolworth tower expansion sunk by loss of offices Plans to renovate London’s Tolworth Tower, converting much of its existing office space into homes, and erecting two additional towers, have been refused after an inspector found that the scheme would fail to safeguard office space or net-zero carbon.

Road, Funtley, Hampshire

AUTHORITY Fareham Borough Council INSPECTOR Geoff Underwood PROCEDURE Inquiry DECISION Allowed REFERENCE APP/

Healey Development Solutions (Broadway) Ltd sought permission for the development, which would include amenity space, flexible work units and commercial space, in addition to 261 residential units across the existing 22-storey building and two new towers of 19 and 15 storeys (T2 and T3). Inspector Y Wright agreed with Kingston Borough Council’s criticism of the “bland generic nature of T2 and T3”, which jarred with the “striking” design of the original tower. The inspector noted that the appeal site lies within the Tolworth Key Area of Change, which seeks to promote Tolworth as a vibrant business district. Even though the proposed development would provide 529 square metres of flexible workspace, this would represent a net loss of 18,551 square metres of office space from the current usage. The council had noted a lack of compliance with energy policies in the London Plan, which requires big schemes to be net-zero carbon, leading the appellant to offer a carbon offset contribution of £1,163,810. But this only applies LOCATION Kingston, London where it can be proved that the target cannot AUTHORITY Kingston Borough be achieved. Wright Council felt that it had not been “demonstrated that onINSPECTOR Y Wright site carbon reductions have been maximised”, PROCEDURE Inquiry and so the contribution to the carbon offset fund DECISION Dismissed could not be accepted. The inspector dismissed REFERENCE APP/ the appeal because of the Z5630/W/21/3278268 failure to achieve net-zero carbon emissions and loss of employment space.

A1720/W/21/3283643

Outline planning permission had been granted in 2020 for a 55-home development, which the appellant and council agreed would act as a “fallback” position, should the appeal fail. Reside Developments Ltd and Atherford Property Investments Ltd appealed against Fareham Borough Council’s decision to refuse permission for the scheme. Inspector Geoﬀ Underwood considered the approved plans when addressing the development’s eﬀect on the surrounding area, noting that any impact should be measured

against the fallback scheme’s impact. He drew attention to the rural nature of the appeal site, now comprising several equestrian paddocks, and – turning to the wider village – judged that there was not a “single, cohesive character” that deﬁned the settlement’s built environment. He then turned to the proposal’s impact on the surrounding countryside. Although most of the appeal site is not recognised as having any particular landscape value, part of it lies within an area of special landscape quality, which would be retained as open space as part of the development. Underwood acknowledged that the proposal would harm the landscape, replacing open and green spaces with a more urban environment. But the landscape would also be aﬀected by the approved 55home scheme, and he decided that the increase in harm caused by allowing the 125home proposal was “limited”. The appeal was allowed. bit.ly/planner0822funtley

bit.ly/planner0822tolworth

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LANDSCAPE

C&D { C Chichester proposal backed on housing and biodiversity grounds A local plan policy allocates 500 homes to the strategic development location (SDL), directing development to two areas, both now built out. Inspector O S Woodwards noted that the appeal site does not fall within either location and the homes allocated for the SDL have been delivered, therefore conﬂicting with local policy and wider masterplanning for the SDL. The inspector noted paragraph 187 of the NPPF’s ‘agent of change’ concept, under which existing businesses should not have unreasonable restrictions placed on them as a result

of new development. In this appeal, the relevant businesses are the Goodwood Motor Circuit and Goodwood Aerodrome. The proposal would involve building beneath the aerodrome’s training helicopter circuit, reducing the amount of open land available for emergency landings. But the evidence from the only aircraft safety expert witness at the inquiry was that the appeal site would not prevent safe landing options. The council claimed that it can prove a ﬁve-year supply of deliverable housing sites, at 5.3 years; the appellants

Well exploration would have greenhouse gas impact Housing minister Stuart Andrew has backed an inspector’s advice to refuse hydrocarbon testing at an existing well in Ellesmere Port after it was found that operations could increase greenhouse gas emissions. Island Gas Ltd sought permission to mobilise drilling equipment on the site to run tests to establish whether or not hydrocarbon production was viable. The plans faced opposition from Cheshire West and Chester Council, Frack Free Ellesmere Port & Upton, and other interested parties. Addressing the proposal’s impact on the community, inspector Brian Cook noted that the Environment Agency

had said that the proposal could be undertaken without harm to human health. Cook accepted this, but he found that there would be some impact on mental health. “The prospect of the appeal proposal taking place has caused a level of stress and anxiety.” He also noted issues with transparency, as the “local community does not trust the appellant to do what it says”, a position that Cook did not

maintain that the ﬁgure is 3.71 years. The inspector calculated that the housing land supply was 4.17 years with a shortfall of 556 homes, and noted that about

LOCATION Chichester AUTHORITY Chichester District Council

INSPECTOR O S Woodwards PROCEDURE Inquiry DECISION Allowed REFERENCE APP/ L3815/W/21/3270721

50 of the proposed 165 units would be affordable housing. The inspector also noted a biodiversity net gain of 83 per cent for general habitat and 300 per cent for hedgerow habitat would be achieved. The Environment Act 2021 points to a requirement for a biodiversity net gain of 10 per cent. The proposed biodiversity net gain, therefore, went considerably beyond policy requirements, to which the inspector attached crucial weight. The inspector allowed the appeal, ruling that the scheme’s adverse impacts would not significantly outweigh its benefits. bit.ly/planner0822chichester

find “unreasonable”. Residual unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions of between 3.3 to 21.3 kilotons of CO2 would be produced, a fact accepted by the appellant. Cook acknowledged the 2019 CCC net-zero report, which states that every tonne of carbon produced contributes to climate change. The inspector concluded that the proposal would conflict with paragraph 152 of the NPPF, which promotes developments that lead to “radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”. Cook said that the scheme would be harmful to mental health, and would increase greenhouse gas emissions. Stuart Andrew agreed that the level of unmitigated emissions would conflict with

national policy. The appeal was dismissed. bit.ly/planner0822ellesmere

LOCATION Land at Ellesmere Port Wellsite, Portside North, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire AUTHORITY Cheshire West and Chester Council INSPECTOR Brian Cook PROCEDURE Recovered appeals DECISION Dismissed REFERENCE APP/ A0665/W/18/3207952

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

Outline planning permission has been granted for up to 165 homes within a strategic development location.

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE SUBS to our appeals ap digest:

https://su https://subs.theplanner. co.uk/reg g co.uk/register

Lack of playing field provision proves fatal for housing development A development of 51 homes in Middlesbrough has been rejected after an inspector determined that the proposal would result in the unacceptable lack of an alternative play provision. bit.ly/planner0822-playprovision

Loss of agricultural land outweighs gr green energy benefits of solar farm A solar farm in Norfolk has been refused after an inspector determined that the agricultural land it would be constructed on was too valuable to lose. bit.ly/planner0822-solarfarm

Inspector rejects crematorium plan in Surrey green belt

Marina on Oxford Canal not in suitable location

Plans for a crematorium and memorial gardens within the Metropolitan Green Belt in Surrey have been rejected after an inspector found that “very special circumstances” did not exist to allow the scheme. bit.ly/planner0822-greenbelt

A 192-berth marina on the Oxford Canal has been refused because an inspector decided that its location did not accord with local policy, and also concluded that the development would have an impact on the surrounding countryside. bit.ly/planner0822-marina

Shortterm permission for hydrocarbon mineral exploration would limit harms

Listed L pub may still be viable and cannot become a home

Housing minister Stuart Andrew has granted permission for hydrocarbon mineral exploration for a period of three years in Dunsfold, Surrey. Andrew accepted an inspector’s conclusion that the short-term nature of the proposal would mitigate both harm to the landscape and the impact on residents and businesses. bit.ly/planner0822-hydrocarbon

An inspector has dismissed a change d of use from pub to dwelling at the Red d Lion Inn, in Great Bricett, Suﬀolk, saying Bric the business was still viable. bit.ly/ planner0822-pub

Next warehouse refused in green belt despite employment benefit Next plc has been refused permission for an extensive ‘regional service centre’ near Waltham Abbey in Essex because of its impact on green belt. bit.ly/ planner0822-next

Hertfordshiree warehouse plan an approved for rare moth conservation vation

Inspector sides with appellant on housing land supply dispute

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Plans for two warehouses on n unused employment lland been d near Rickmansworth Ri k th have h b approved after an inspector backed the appellant’s proposals for biodiversity net gain and conserving a rare moth. bit.ly/planner0822-moth

Outline planning permission for up to 100 homes has been granted for a site in Yatton, Somerset, after an inspector concluded that the proposal would help to address a shortfall in the area’s housing land supply. bit.ly/planner0822-yatton

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LANDSCAPE

LLegal landscape OPINION

How a ‘presumption in favour of refurbishment’ can lead to net zero With multiple challenges to the government’s Net Zero Strategy in train, Claire Petricca-Riding considers the need for policies that address housing emissions

The UK government has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, setting out a plan to achieve this in incremental steps. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) released a progress update in June, saying “Current programmes will not deliver net zero” – in part because of a lack of delivery mechanisms. So the likelihood of sectors highlighted by the government not achieving net zero is high. We face soaring energy prices and over-reliance on fossil fuels. New energy schemes have for too long been caught in a political quagmire, so it’s no surprise we’ve fallen behind some countries in developing an alternative energy mix. We lead in some sectors (offshore wind), but lag in others, especially retrofitting homes to be more energy efficient and climate resilient. We still build on flood zones and reportedly the UK has the leakiest homes in Europe. It’s worth considering what the CCC report said about heating our homes: “There is a shocking gap in policy for better insulated homes. Government promised significant public spending in 2019 and committed to new

of the Climate Change Act policies last year; neither has 2008 (CCA) requires the yet occurred... Much now secretary of state to prepare rests on the promised energy policies and proposals that advice service, which must they consider will (rather be a major undertaking.” than could) enable the Retrofitting insulation carbon budgets to be met. and looking at new ways of heating homes are vital The section 14 ground: to meeting our climate Kwarteng didn’t include data obligations. The lack of legally required by section policy to support either, 14 of the CCA in the Net highlighted in the report, is a Zero Strategy. This requires core argument of three cases the government to lay currently being decided before Parliament a report by the High setting out Court. The its proposals “BUILDINGS similar, but and policies CONTRIBUTE 20 separate for meeting PER CENT OF claims each carbon OUR EMISSIONS; challenge budgets. the adoption The human RETROFITTING of the Net rights ground: INSULATION AND Zero Strategy To construe LOOKING AT NEW by Kwasi sections 13 WAYS OF HEATING Kwarteng, and 14 of the HOMES ARE VITAL” Secretary CCA in the way of State for in which the Business, government Energy and contends they Industrial should be Strategy. They were filed by construed would contravene, Friends of the Earth, Good or risk contravention, of the Law Project and ClientEarth. Human Rights Act. Their three grounds for In essence,the claimants challenge are: are arguing that the Net Zero Strategy is insufficiently The section 13 ground: detailed or evidenced Kwarteng misdirected enough to meet the standard himself about his obligations required by the CCA. The under section 13 of the quantified policies in the Net Climate Change Act. This Zero Strategy only add up claim argues that section 13

to 95 per cent of the carbon reductions needed to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget. The shortfall would, says the government, be made up by additional policies still to be developed. This information was not included in the Net Zero Strategy, and has not previously been available to Parliament or the public, reducing the possibility of effective scrutiny. This has the potential to create further disparity between the policy requirements and what action is required to be taken to meet the target. What can be done? Architect Carl Elefante has said that “The greenest building is the one that is already built.” Retrofitting is an effective tool, but one that needs policy support and financial incentives. The permitted development regime is a vital mechanism for household schemes, but more could be done to highlight this. Changes to the NPPF to seek carbon reduction would also assist. Perhaps, as one recent campaign put it, there could be a “presumption in favour of refurbishment”. Claire Petricca-Riding is partner and national head of planning and environmental law at Irwin Mitchell

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

NEWS Legal challenge to consent for 4,000home development granted Local campaign group Fews Lane Consortium has been granted a judicial review in the High Court against the approval of a 4,000-home new town by South Cambridgeshire District Council. The homes, planned for Northstowe, a new town near Longstanton, were approved earlier this year. The Northstowe development will ultimately comprise 10,000 homes. The Fews Lane Consortium pressure group argues that the cumulative eﬀects of previous phases of the development are responsible for the loss of water from ponds and wetland habitats in the neighbouring village of Longstanton. It also contends that the council did not consider that there is no sustainable drinking water supply available for the development and that the council acted irrationally in allowing developer Homes England to exclude the impacts on Cambridgeshire’s chalk streams from the Environmental Impact Assessment. South Cambridgeshire District Council believes that none of the grounds for a legal appeal are “arguable”, but Mrs Justice Lang granted the judicial review on all four grounds. The Royal Courts of Justice, London, is set to hear the case later this year.

ANALYSIS

LEGAL BRIEFS Consultation on new Scottish Land Reform Bill launches The Scottish Government is seeking views on proposals for its new land reform bill, which promises “transformative changes”. bit.ly/planner0822-landreform

Tourist registration scheme accommodation proposed in England Consultation for a tourist accommodation registration scheme has begun as part of the UK government’s Tourism Recovery Plan. The debate closes on 21st September. bit.ly/planner0822-tourism

East Midlands Planning Law Update RTPI East Midlands and Howes Percival LLP are hosting a webinar on the latest developments, legislative and case law changes in the region. bit.ly/planner0822-lawupdate

Wiltshire man is ﬁned for unauthorised use of land

Councils can bid for money to prep brownﬁeld land for housing

A Wiltshire man has been ﬁned £26,166, which includes full costs and a victim surcharge, for failing to comply with planning enforcement notices at a site in the village of Bromham. The case was heard at Salisbury Magistrates’ Court. Enforcement notices issued by Wiltshire Council to Douglas Robert Ward of Greenacres Mobile Park in the village of Semington covered a number of unauthorised breaches including the use of the land for residential purposes, the stationing of caravans, the erection of fences and gates, creation of hardstandings, and the introduction of domestic paraphernalia. Ward did not attend court, but the case was permitted to continue in his absence. Councillor Nick Botterill, cabinet member for strategic planning, said: “We don’t seek prosecutions lightly but take all breaches of planning enforcement very seriously. When we’ve seen such a ﬂagrant disregard for the law as we did with this case we were left with little option, and I’m pleased with the outcome.”

Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru ruling on second homes

High Court to resolve Welsh coal mine expansion plan Activist group The Coal Action Network, which seels to ‘take action to stop coal mining and coal burning’, has been granted a judicial review over the UK and Welsh governments’ decision to approve the mining licence at Aberpergwm colliery near Glynneath. In January, approval was given for a further 40 million tonnes of coal to be extracted from the mine. The campaigners note that the expansion will lead to an estimated 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and up to 1.17 million tonnes of methane emissions. Energybuild, the mine’s operator, has said that rather than being burnt, most of the coal will be used for processes like water ﬁltration and to make batteries for electric vehicles.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that councils can now apply for a share of £180 million from the Brownﬁeld Land Release Fund 2, a fund intended to help prepare disused urban areas for new homes. bit.ly/planner0822-brownﬁeld

First Minister Mark Drakeford and leader of Plaid Cymru Adam Price have announced new planning laws, a statutory licensing scheme and proposals to change land transaction tax to address the issue of second homes, writes Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner0822-secondhomes

York MP joins bill committee Rachel Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, will scrutinise new planning and levelling-up laws as a member of the bill committee, reports The York Press. bit.ly/planner0822-maskell

Lessons TfL can take from Hong Kong’s public transport system Guilherme Rodrigues and John Gibson look at Hong Kong’s mass transit railway system in this blog post for the Centre for Cities. They say London’s public transport could learn from Hong Kong’s land development-based funding models. bit.ly/planner0822-transport

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NEWS RTPI news pages are edited by Ashley Lampard at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

THE FUTURE OF THE PLANNER

Apprentices become chartered through RTPI scheme Two town planners have become the ﬁrst apprentices to achieve Chartered status through the new Degree Apprenticeship End Point Assessment route. Amy Powell from Edgars and Alice Higgitt from Savills completed their academic studies and period of on-the-job training followed by a Professional Discussion and Assessment of Professional Competence. “I’m incredibly proud to have got to this milestone in my career, and for being one of two apprentices to become chartered members of the RTPI through the apprenticeship scheme,” said Powell, who later went on to win the award for the RTPI South East Young Planner of the Year 2022. “I cannot extol the virtues of the apprenticeship enough; the combination of working and studying develops all the knowledge, skills and behaviours required of a professional planner, alongside working with other local authority colleagues at work,” added "THESE SHARED and private consultancy EXPERIENCES ARE Higgitt. planners through the The Chartered THE FUNDAMENTAL Town degree course. These Planner Degree BUILDING BLOCKS apprenticeship shared experiences are allows the fundamental building FOR DEVELOPING employers to grow their A CAREER IN TOWN own talent through blocks for developing a PLANNING" career in town planning academic and handsthrough providing insights on work experiences. into different topics and With 11 planning schools allowing you to develop now delivering the your interests within the apprenticeship, those discipline.” interested in recruiting or The Chartered Apprenticeship is a upskilling a member of their team great way to become Chartered while can reach out to a planning school having the opportunity to learn on nearby for support through the the job. “This is something I found process. extremely beneficial as the course For Powell, the support from her was very relevant to my job and employers, Edgars Limited, had if I ever had questions I could ask been instrumental in her success,

as well as supporting her through the degree course and in preparing for the APC submission alongside that from London South Bank University and the RTPI. “The combined resources provide an apprentice with everything they need to build a successful career in the industry,” said Powell. “Overall, I would recommend this route to anyone considering a career in planning as the whole process has taught me a great deal.” n More information about how apprenticeships work can be found in the RTPI’s Apprenticeship Employer Handbook – bit.ly/Planner0822Handbook. More information about apprenticeships for employers can be found at. bit.ly/Planner0822-RTPIApp

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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

NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

Conduct and Discipline Panel Decision The RTPI Conduct and Discipline Panel has found a member of the iInstitute to be in breach of the RTPI Code of Professional Conduct at its recent panel meeting. The member had started their own planning consultancy and took on unpaid work before obtaining Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) for their activities. The period without insurance was approximately two months. As a result, the panel found the member had breached clause 19 of the code, which requires members to hold PII when they are engaged in professional practice, irrespective of whether they are being paid for their services. The member was warned as to their future conduct without being named in this published report of the decision. n If members have any queries concerning the Code of Professional Conduct they should contact Ruth Richards, the institute’s complaints investigator, by email: ruth.richards@rtpi.org.uk

I M AG E S | RT P I / S H U T T E R S T O C K

National Planning Conference to take place in Birmingham Planning Portal and the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) have announced the launch of the National Planning Conference in Birmingham in November 2022. “We’re thrilled to launch our fabulous collaboration between the RTPI and Planning Portal, building on our already successful relationship,” said Victoria Hills, chief executive of the RTPI. “It is one that we hope will serve to beneﬁt the wider planning profession and stakeholders as we seek to broaden the engagement

on planning. Together, the RTPI and Planning Portal are creating a dynamic event that will support the entire planning community to engage, debate, and thrive.” The two organisations will join forces to curate an interactive twoday conference, bringing together

speakers from across the industry to explore cutting-edge ideas in the world of planning today. The conference will focus on how the industry can embrace the opportunities in planning reforms taking place across the UK. The event will take place in Birmingham at the Hilton Metropole on 17 and 18 November 2022. “We are delighted to be collaborating with the RTPI on this major event for the industry,” said Sarah Chilcott, managing director of Planning Portal. “The RTPI is a natural partner for us in so many areas. We are looking forward to working together to make this the must-attend event of the year.”

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NEWS

PRESIDENT’S EAST OF ENGLAND TOUR

Crawshaw surveys TV production heartlands in Hertfordshire RTPI President Timothy Crawshaw visited key locations in his tour of the East of England in June, including Platinum Stages, BBC Elstree and Sky Studios in Hertfordshire. Each year, the president seeks out inspiring locations throughout the United Kingdom to visit during the term of office. This year Crawshaw spent time in the recently expanded Elstree Studios in Hertsmere district – home to Netflix production The Crown and top television entertainment shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice, and A League of Their Own. The aim was to see how planning has supported the heritage and creative industries. “My visit to the East of England was an inspirational example of planners working to secure great outcomes in a challenging context. Whether experiencing the blend of cutting-edge sustainability and traditional approaches to building around Hatfield House or the rapid and efficient delivery of new film studios in and around Borehamwood in Hertsmere, the work of professional planners was evident on the ground,” said Crawshaw. At BBC Elstree, Crawshaw viewed the external set for the long-running soap opera EastEnders. In November 2015, planning permission was approved to create a new set on the front lot of the site, which would be built in full, with interiors and exteriors out of “bricks and mortar”. In December 2019, Sky Studios – the next leg of Crawshaw’s tour – announced plans to develop a new studio facility at Rowley Lane, Borehamwood, creating 2,000 jobs.

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Sky predicts that up to £3 billion would be invested in production at the site over the next five years. “We’re fortunate to have a dedicated, efficient and hardworking planning team at the council. Through their efforts, we’ve been able to facilitate the changes needed to enable the creative industries to thrive, while retaining the distinctive character of the area, and the needs of

other residents and businesses,” said Councillor Dr Harvey Cohen, portfolio holder for planning at Hertsmere Borough Council. Crawshaw also spent time at Hatﬁeld House, one of the most important stately homes in the region, to hear about the way the council’s team has balanced sustainability and heritage and its aspirations to deliver a series of new garden village schemes in Hertfordshire.

I M AG E S | RT P I

14/07/2022 14:15

BUILT ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY NEWS

OBITUARIES

In memoriam

Wei Yang takes up CIC post The Construction Industry Council has appointed RTPI past president Dr Wei Yang as its deputy chair

It is with regret that we announce the deaths of the following members. We oﬀer our sincere condolences to their families and colleagues.

n Ian Thompson London n John Michael Jones Wales/

Cymru n Geoﬀrey Chapman West

I M AG E S | RT P I / R I C H A R D G L E E D

Midlands The Construction Industry Council (CIC) appointed past president of the RTPI Dr Wei Yang as its new deputy chair in June. She is the ﬁrst female chair in the CIC’s 34-year history. "I’m delighted to have been appointed as the new deputy chair of the CIC,” said Dr Wei Yang. “It is a pleasure not only to represent the planning industry, but to represent women in the built environment industry as the council’s ﬁrst female chair. I would like to lead with empathy, inclusivity, and creativity and to work closely with our fellow council members at the CIC to create genuine, positive change within the built environment sector.”

“As a planner, I am keen to forge a common and collaborative sense of purpose within the built environment industry and with good forces in the wider society. The professional boundaries are merging; what joins us together is our shared sense of purpose – what should be done now to make our world a better place for our future generations,” said Dr Yang. She takes over from former CIC chair Professor Stephen Hodder MBE, who has been the integral lead on CIC’s Climate Change work and will stay engaged with CIC as chair of its Climate Change Committee.

n Steven Paul Louth West Midlands n Martin John McKay South East n David Anthony Clews South

West n Michael John Legg South West n Roger Pierce Wales/

Cymru n Brian Paul Raggett South East n Stephen Brady Ireland n Nigel Robin Walker Carter East

of England n Michael John Barker West

Midlands n Michael John Bridges North West n George Pease Scotland

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Here is a selection of the most recent opportunities from a few of those organisations working with The Planner to recruit the best quality candidates in the marketplace.

Team Leader/ Senior Planning Officer Salary: £32,798 £46,662 Location: Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Development Consent Orders Casework Manager – National Infrastructure Planning Salary: £32,775 £34,863 pa Location: Flexible

Planning Of cer/Senior Planning Of cer Salary: £35,736.00 £42,509.00 pa Location: Crawley

Area Planning Of cer Salary: £30,984 £33,486 pa Location: Wrexham

Planning Manager Principal Infrastructure Officer

Salary: £42,015 £50,910 Depending on Skills and Experience Location: Wandsworth

To a dve r ti s e pl ease em ai l : t he pl a n n e r jobs@redact ive. co. uk or ca l l 0 2 0 7 880 623 2

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Salary: £57,168 p.a Location: Cambridgeshire

theplanner.co.uk/jobs 15/07/2022 14:55

Activities

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CONTENT THAT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT

A digest of planning-related material. Each month our work takes us around the internet in search of additional detail for our stories, meaning we invariably come across links to items we think you’ll ﬁnd educational, entertaining, useful or simply amusing. Here’s our latest batch.

What’s caught our eye Town Planning Comedy at Edinburgh Bright Club

Is Copenhagen the World's Most Sustainable City? Well, is it? You’ll know by 2025, when it certainly intends to be. It aims to be carbon-neutral by 2025, and this video explains how it is doing it, outlining the strategies it is implementing that could be a model for the future of cities. This is part of the ‘solutions’ news provider Freethink’s series The Future of Cities. bit.ly/planner0822copenhagen

Watch Jenny Wood, then (2013) a researcher in town planning, telling planning-focused jokes at Edinburgh’s Bright Club. Example: “This communication contains jokes, for which a joke is deemed a form of communication, be it aural, physical or otherwise, for which a comedic eﬀect is produced. For indication of comedic eﬀect, please refer to audience reaction.” bit.ly/ planner0822-jennywood

Zionist Architecture and Town Planning: The Building of Tel Aviv Tel Aviv has grown over the past century to become Israel’s financial centre and the country’s second-largest city. Author Nathan Harpaz’s book examines a period in the city's establishment when Jewish architects, including Alexander Levy of Berlin, moved from Europe, and attempted d to establish a new style of Zionist urbanism in the years after the First World War. ISBN: 9781557536730

’When Urban Planning Tries To Destroy an Entire City’ “What was Czechoslovakian urban planning like, and why was it a crime against humanity?” Come on, if that header doesn’t attract you to spend 10 minutes on YouTube, what will? “Deliberate and planned barbarism” is on the menu here – the picture above is a screenshot of a video; the building gets blown up in the next frames. Meticulously produced with plenty of genuinely fascinating archive images and footage. bit.ly/planner0822-czech

‘Three pioneering cities, one sustainable future’ Norman Miller, a journalist specialising in science, design and business, envisages the 2030s at which point, through bold decisions and inventive technologies, three cities have reached ambitious climate goals set a decade earlier. From bike highways to fish lifts, “here’s what urban life looks like in the age of kept promises”. Some out-there gifs in this one. bit.ly/planner0822-miller

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LANDSCAPE

A New Way of Living: Georgian Town Planning in the Highlands & Islands A New Way of Living tells the story of the development of new towns in the Scottish Highlands and Islands post1750. It pulls together the various strands that influenced the development of the North-West

Podcast: Urban Eyes

Alleys – ‘the unsung heroes of urban planning and design’

Hosted by Walle Brown, a MURP (master’s student in urban and regional planning) at Portland State University, this podcast interviews professionals, students and community members about their take on urban planning, public health, contemporary American society – and how each intertwine to affect the local socio-economic environment and community-at-large. For starters, check out the interview with Victor Tran, an urban planner and designer. apple.co/3R7soiq

Chicago has 1,900 miles of alleys – the largest network of any city in the United States. In the context of the US’s rigid grid system, the value of alleys to facilitate daily life is immense. Such is the view of architectural design educator Alex Hicks. This video explores how alleys shape modern Chicago, explaining recentt renewed interestt in their ability to foster equitable and diverse social al spaces. bit.ly/planner082222chicago

Podcast: The Built World

Highlands after the risings and charts governmentbacked attempts at establishing fishing villages from Argyll to Sutherland, as well as private initiatives to do likewise along the Moray Firth. ISBN: 9781849951531

Hour-long interviews with interesting entrepreneurs, executives, and investors – those whom the interviewers deem to be “redefining the business of the built world” in real estate, urban design, architecture, technology and leadership. There’s considerable variety to those interviewed, so it is worth scanning existing episodes for one that fits your frame of mind. apple.co/3ymP7OR

What we’re planning You’ll have read earlier of change afoot for The Planner affecting both our online and physical presence. We’re keeping some of our powder dry, but be advised that Joanna Averley and Steve Quartermain are appearing in our next print edition, with the work of active travel commissioners amongst our features. Any feedback? Reach us here: editorial@theplanner.co.uk

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If undelivered please return to: The Royal Town Planning Institute 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

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