The Planner - January 2019 by The Planner

JANUARY 2019 PLANNING POLICY WALES: PUTTING PEOPLE & PLACES FIRST // p.4 • THE WISDOM OF THE COLLECTIVE // p.22 • RESHAPING ROTHERHAM // p.26 • TECH LANDSCAPE: THE FUTURE OF #PLANTECH // p.30 • NATIONS & REGIONS: YORKSHIRE // p.34

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

NEW RTPI PRESIDENT IAN TANT CHALLENGES PLANNERS TO SHOUT ABOUT PLANNING

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View our brand new 2019 list of courses at: rtpi.org.uk/training

Book today rtpi.org.uk/training training@rtpi.org.uk + 44 (0)20 7929 8400 @RTPIPlanners #RTPICPD

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06/12/2018 18:41

CONTENTS

JANU ARY

07 NEWS 4 Planning Policy Wales: New year, new planning policy 6 NPPF 2 comes under the microscope in Bristol

“IT’S TIME TO SPEAK UP FOR PLANNING: TO TURN UP THE VOLUME ON IT; AND TO SELL OUR MESSAGE ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS.”

7 Scale of NI decision backlog revealed

OPINION

8 Raynsford Review: Planning in England lacks accountability

14 Louise BrookeSmith: Role models and resilience – plus the shock of the new

10 Britain faces ‘discontent’ in Brexit regional fallout

20 19

COV E R | J ON E N O C H

16 Sarah Clinch: Green belt may hold key to unlocking the UK’s housing woes 16 Nairita Chakraborty: Character-based development can resolve an age-old planning struggle 17 Darren Shirley: Joinedup planning is the key to better journeys 17 Jim Shannon: Housing quality, not quantity, is the key to good health

15 QUOTE UNQUOTE

“EVERYBODY SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THE COMPANIONSHIP THAT COMES ALONG WITH A PET, REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE OF HOME THEY LIVE IN” PLANNING MINISTER KIT MALTHOUSE, WHO HAS A CAT

FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 Ian Tant comes to the 2019 RTPI presidency with a wealth of experience and a burning zeal to communicate the purpose of planning

30 Tech landscape: The future of #Plantech: Innovators and planners predict how technology will shape planning and placemaking in 2019/20

22 Communal living need no longer be like The Young Ones. Serena Ralston reports on the wisdom of the collective

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

26 Progressive management has won Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s planners the status of RTPI team of the year 34 Nations & Regions: Yorkshire

42 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B presents Ye Olde Planners Almanac 2019

22 J ANU AR Y 2 019 / THE PLA NNER

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NEWS

Report { The PPW relates its ‘Active and Social Places’ theme to housing, retailing, community facilities and open space to show what creates thriving communities

PLANNING POLICY WALES

New year, new planning policy By Laura Edgar

Q. How was the revised PPW and the consultation received? Were there any surprises from the feedback? NH: Many of the responses to the consultation were positive, particularly with regard to the new focus on placemaking and improving quality in the planning system. The Well-being of

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Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 has meant that we were more proactive with our consultation methods and officials attended many meetings with stakeholders to talk about the new-style PPW. We also used social media for the first time to get the message out. As a result ON of this, the breadth of consultation responses from different sectors was large, helping to shape the final document. We also received more than 2,000 organised responses on one issue relating to perceived change to ancient woodland policy. This was not intentional on our part and any confusion has been remedied in the published version.

NEIL HEMIN GT

The Welsh Government’s 10th iteration of Planning Policy Wales (PPW) focuses on putting people and place at the heart of the planning system, states that coalrelated development “should not be permitted” – and includes instructions on the Welsh language, new settlements and good design. Writing in PPW, planning secretary Lesley Griﬃths said it will “help prepare for a more diverse population and a greater ageing population, by supporting the integration of services, embedding social cohesion, and ensuring, for example, that sites of new housing ensure equality, access to the Welsh language, and encourage a sense of belonging”. The Planner ﬁrst spoke to chief planner Neil Hemington MRTPI (NH) about ºPPW in March. Since then, a consultation has taken place and responses been considered. We have spoken to Hemington again about the consultation responses, and how PPW supports communities and sustainable development.

Q. Did you make any changes as a result of the consultation? If so, why? NH: Respondents to the consultation, particularly local planning authorities, questioned the structure of the document and the number of different ‘concepts’ it contained, especially in the first few chapters which introduce placemaking. As a result of this, we have simplified the look and feel of the document and reduced the number of terms used. The aligning of traditional planning policy topics around themes has been retained as it enables holistic

thinking about the places we want to create and to respond with appropriate local policies and decision-making.

Q. Will there be any guidance to support the new version of PPW? NH: We are currently looking at ways in which we can support the culture change needed in the planning profession in Wales to embed placemaking at the core of the planning system. This could be through events, training or further guidance. Further details on this will be announced in due course.

Q. Will there be transitionary arrangements for the introduction of new policy for local development plans and development management? NH: Many local planning authorities in Wales are at the start of the reviews of their local development plans and so publication of a new PPW is timely so that it can be taken into account for local policy formulation. We will work with those local planning authorities who have not got an adopted LDP in place to see how the concepts and policies in the new version of PPW can be most appropriately integrated into their emerging or draft plans. PPW continues to emphasise the importance of a planI M AG E | S H U T T E RSTO C K

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PLAN UPFRONT

WHAT YOU TOLD US

led system in Wales as the most eﬀective way of delivering sustainable places.

Q. How does PPW support the provision of community facilities in new developments, such as schools and GP surgeries?

encourage more active travel, as well as other sustainable, more environmentally friendly forms of transport?

NH: The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 makes walking and cycling the preferred option for shorter journeys in Wales and requires local authorities NH: Planners need to think about to develop maps with a fully integrated the places they are creating and what network of walking and cycling routes essential ingredients are needed to to access work, education, services make them function. PPW does this in and facilities. PPW has integrated the two ways. Firstly, in the example you Active Travel Act with have given the ‘Active the planning system, and Social Places’ “WE HAVE SIMPLIFIED including ensuring theme brings the topics THE LOOK AND FEEL of housing, retailing, OF THE DOCUMENT AND development plans community facilities and REDUCED THE NUMBER identify and support the delivery of these active open space together into OF TERMS USED” travel networks, and one place and helps draw requiring the provision out the linkages which for active travel to be an these areas have to make essential component of thriving communities that development schemes. provide adequate services New development must be located to residents and reduce the need to and designed to reduce the reliance on travel. Secondly, PPW introduces national the private car and support a modal shift sustainable placemaking outcomes that to walking, cycling and public transport. every policy or development proposal Greater emphasis is given to the should consider. sustainable transport hierarchy and there is a new policy on the creation of well Q. Is the PPW linked to Welsh designed, people-oriented streets. Government transport policy to PLANNING POLICY WALES GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Strategic & Spatial Choices Good Design / Promoting Healthier Places / The Welsh Language / Sustainable Management of Natural Resources / Strategic Planning / Placemaking in Rural Areas / Managing Settlement Form

Placemaking Active & Social Places

Productive & Enterprising Places

Transport / Housing / Retail & Commercial Centres / Community Facilities / Recreational Spaces

Economic Development / Tourism / The Rural Economy / Transportation / Infrastructure / Telecommunications / Energy / Minerals / Waste

Distinctive & Natural Places Landscape / Coastal Areas / Historic Environment / Green Infrastructure / Biodiversity / Water, Air, Soundscape & Light / Flooding / De-risking

Simon Coop, planning director at Lichfields, said: “We applaud the focus on placemaking, which is important but ultimately it is only relevant if development is actually happening. There are too many areas of Wales where development is held back by deliverability and viability issues that require active policy intervention.” Ben Lewis, infrastructure and energy director at Barton Willmore, said it was good to see that PPW has not just been redrafted and tweaked. “It has been completely overhauled.” It is positive to see planning authorities asked to engage with the energy industry, said Lewis. He also welcomed a revised approach to site allocation for renewable energy projects. The draft PPW stated that sites acceptable for renewable energy must be included in local plans; the final version says they should be identified. “This softer approach means sites not identified can still be considered if the development is appropriate.” Naomi Luhde-Thompson, a PhD researcher, said PPW sets out clear requirements on what sustainable development should look like. “If these policies are implemented it will make a real difference on the ground to the quality of places in Wales,” she said. “Taking a strong stance against fossil fuel extraction is crucial for tackling climate change." Roisin Willmott FRTPI, director of RTPI Cymru, said: “[It] won’t be straightforward to use but it offers the hooks needed to enable planners to reclaim their original role as leaders of placemaking, so should be embraced. Having a planning system designed around people’s lives and well-being and not just drawing on a map or for builders’ convenience will transform how we will shape and use our buildings and communities.” Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, expected to see “all planning decisions from hereon demonstrate how they are contributing to the seven well-being goals and using the five ways of working when planning for housing, transport and infrastructure”. J ANU AR Y 2 01 9 / THE PLA NNER

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NEWS

Analysis { PLANNING LAW AND POLICY CONFERENCE

NPPF 2 comes under the microscope in Bristol By Martin Read

The potential for NPPF 2 and the variety of housing mix and tenure were among topics debated during an annual regional planning conference Bristol’s Planning Law and Policy conference is typically a refreshing event, comprising an enterprising mix of local and national planning debate. This year saw that mix at its most potent in an afternoon session entitled ‘The NPPF 2 – will it deliver?’ – quite the big question for a three-speaker afternoon session in which chief planner Steve Quartermain focused so much on delivery that Barratt Developments’ group land and planning director Philip Barnes picked up on it. “You’ll hear ‘putting the customer ﬁrst’ from us as much as you’ll hear ‘delivery’ from Steve Quartermain,” said Barnes. “Speed is our biggest planning issue, not policy.” With delivery indeed his watchword, better use of existing land for housing was among Quartermain’s themes, as was the need for a better mix of sites and tenures, with more housing for private rental key to the latter. In a concise detailing of the NPPF 2’s aims, Quartermain spoke of “building at higher density“ not necessarily meaning high-rise and poor design”). For Barnes and Barratt Developments, the potential for more homes, better and faster was their hoped-for outcome. Barnes also welcomed NPPF2’s referencing of the Building for Life 12 (BfL 12) standard for new housing development design. Claire Pearce, assistant director of inward investment and growth and chief planner for Sedgemoor District Council, completed the NPPF 2 session – and included a call

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for the housing delivery test to be made applicable to highways authorities as well as other statutory and private sector bodies.

Holding others to account “We would like to see this as an opportunity to hold other people to account,” explained Pearce. “We want to see the system work better with the performance regime and housing delivery test applying to the system as a whole, not just planning authorities.” Pearce explained that she sees delays in the system caused by statutory agencies and highways authorities. ”We see many barriers from different statutory agencies, which slow us down. The NPPF’s positive planning approach and the presumption in favour must apply to the system as a whole, not just local planning authorities.” On the NPPF, Pearce called NPPF 2 a “strong steer,” but further described the document as being “fragmented” and “light on economy,” expressing her concerns about the greater complexity it introduces into the planning process. “If I’m trying to encourage my staff to work faster and to get applications through the system quicker, there’s an awful lot they have to take on board now; practice guidance, ministerial statements, and the new guidance post-Letwin. One of my concerns is the impact of the NPPF 2 on processing time and staff caseloads, and obviously any legal issues or judicial

reviews.” Pearce further described NPPF 2 as perhaps overly housing focused. “In Sedgemoor we see a focus on economic development as being the real key to tackling the issues we face. We have a low-wage, low-value economy and we have to transform that to drive up the quality and sustainability of employment long term. We want to do that in ways which create a higher-quality and more diverse housing market.”

Rental messages Earlier in the day, Jon Neale, head of UK research at JLL, had presented eloquently on the issue of weakening household development, wondering whether, in retrospect, the era of mass home ownership will be seen as a temporary phenomenon. Neale pointed to how trends in tenure figures were typically missing the fact that many children are now staying in the parental home. “Significant life changes – getting married, having children, etc. – are increasingly happening in the rental sector, the result of Generation Rent ageing.” As for housing delivery, Neale spoke of the structure of the housebuilding sector having become far less diverse, for example with just 2,500 SME constructors today compared with 12,000 in 1988. Yes, said Neale, government was beginning to take a different approach, with the 2017 housing white paper clearly seeking to address these concerns. But in an echo of further calls during the day, build to rent was lauded as a solution, so well established in other countries, whose time in the UK has surely come again. I M AG E S | i STO C K / G E T T Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

Scottish planning bill places about 60 new duties on planners

Scale of NI decision backlog revealed More than 160 key decisions and regulatory policy issues have piled up since the collapse of Stormont because there are no ministers to make decisions, a series of Freedom of Information requests by the Belfast Telegraph has revealed. In respect of the Department for Infrastructure, schemes waiting for ministerial decisions include: n Three wind farms with between four and 33 turbines. n An underground compressed air storage facility at Islandmagee n A ﬁsh farm at Kilkeel. n A tourist development at Gublusk Bay. n Several waste projects. n A 16-storey oﬃce block earmarked for a site at Belfast’s City Quays. Research by The Planner has shown that also in limbo are: n Proposals involving the reporting on the implementation of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011. n Removal of existing permitted development rights for some oil and gas exploration. n An uplift in planning fees and reviews of strategic planning policies for both energy and the countryside. In some cases, legislation has been held up, waiting on ministerial approval, for more than 600 days.

The Planning (Scotland) Bill will place up to 63 new duties and responsibilities with planners without providing additional resources to undertake them, according to RTPI Scotland. Another 25 responsibilities will be placed on the Scottish Government. The obligations were introduced into the bill after debate in the Scottish Parliament at stage 2 of its passage. These include the need for planning authorities to make sure that local development plans assess the need for public toilets, water reﬁll points, and preserving disused railway infrastructure. RTPI Scotland warned that this work comes at a time of severe resourcing pressures on planning departments, which have already seen a 23 per cent loss of planning staﬀ since 2010. Fraser Carlin, convenor at RTPI Scotland, said: “Adding these new duties to the workload of already stretched planning departments could see the system grind to a halt. If we are not able to process planning applications and agree development plans we won't be able to build more new homes, help regenerate our town centres or protect our most treasured buildings and landscapes. “Many of these new duties could be covered by existing processes. We urge MSPs to consider carefully if they really need to be included in the bill. The alternative would be to fund them properly and this could cost planning authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds.” n See the RTPI website: bit.ly/planner0119-duties

Millions awarded for urban and rural regeneration in Ireland Ministers have announced the first projects that will be allocated a total of €100 million under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, launched in July this year as part of Project Ireland 2040. The funding aims to help rejuvenate significant but underused areas in Ireland’s five cities and other large towns. There are 88 schemes included in this first tranche. The applications included:

n Converting the former school on Rutland Street within the North East Inner City of Dublin into a community hub. n Support for large-scale strategic sites on both sides of the river in the Cork Docklands regeneration areas. n Regeneration for O’Connell Street and projects in the city centre of Limerick. n Public realm and riverside enhancement for the Abbey Quarter in Kilkenny.

This is the first round of funding and more allocations are expected annually from 2019 to 2027. In a related move, 18 rural communities will benefit from the first tranche of the €1 billion Rural Regeneration and Development Fund. The fund is designed to regenerate

towns, villages and rural communities across the country. The projects that will share in the initial €35m funding announced include a Yeats Trail, the National Centre of Excellence for Surﬁng in County Sligo, and the Kinsale Library Project. n See the full list of recipients: bit.ly/planner0119-regeneration

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NEWS

Analysis { RAYSNFORD REVIEW

Planning in England ‘lacks accountability’ By Laura Edgar policy instrument on well-being or “Clear accountability is perceived to “RESTORING climate change. be missing” from the English PUBLIC Planning 2020 states that it “was planning system and consultation is CONFIDENCE IN the extent and outcomes of the often considered “tokenistic”. THE PLANNING expansion of permitted Democratic safeguards for the SYSTEM IS development which gave the strategic planning process should ONE OF OUR clearest sense of the weakness of be introduced to address this. GENERATION’S planning in upholding wider public This is just one recommendation GREATEST interest outcomes”. Raynsford in Planning 2020, the final report of CHALLENGES” – the 18-month Raynsford Review, led NICK RAYNSFORD categorises this as a “shadow planning system” based on “lightby former housing and planning touch land licensing”, warning that minister Nick Raynsford. this (land licensing) must now be The current system includes seen as the government’s potential referendums on neighbourhood model for the future of the system. plans, but nothing else, and there is Evidence submitted to the review revealed no accountability for strategic plans set out by barriers to community participation, including: new devolved partnerships. Strong democratic and legitimate governance for planning requires transparent accountability in decisions; clear n The power of developers to exploit and citizens’ rights, and meaningful community dominate the planning system. participation in decisions. n Complex language and procedures deployed With Raynsford stressing in his foreword that to exclude non-professionals. planing is about “outcomes for people across all n Unequal legal rights in decision-making. parts of our country”, the report outlines the changes that have shaped the 2018 planning Raynsford said restoring public confidence in system. It concludes that there is “no single planning is one of our generation’s greatest planning system in England”, that planning has challenges. “Visionary planning is not just about less effective control over development, and has creating great places in which to live and work. narrowed in scope and capacity to the point It is also about ensuring that we meet the huge that it is no longer regarded as a key public environmental challenges our society faces.”

Victoria Hills, chief executive at the RTPI, said the review "makes a strong case for the public value of planning”. “We welcome calls for strengthening the planning system and for more resources for local authority planning departments. ”In particular, we’re glad to see support for our campaign to make sure there are more chief planning oﬃcers at the top table.” Tom Fyans, director of campaigns and policy at the CPRE, said: “We need to rebuild trust in the system to deliver positive outcomes for people, not help line developers’ pockets, in particular by striking a new covenant for community participation, and eliminating ‘hope value’ in the land market. Introducing these two measures would go a long way to getting the right development in the right place.”

Download Planning 2020 (pdf): bit.ly/planner0119raynsford

RECOMMENDATIONS

Planning 2020 makes 24 recommendations, including: n The government should legislate to create a legal purpose for the planning system. This aims to ensure that planning has a clear and long-term objective to secure people’s health and well-being. n A new kind of positive and powerful local plan. Its legal status should be enhanced and timescales for their preparation should be binding. n Shift control of speciﬁc forms of development back to the local level to ensure that communities have the

power to promote planning in the public interest. n Introducing a Sustainable Development and Wellbeing

Act to both consolidate legislative changes that have occurred over the past 28 years and to introduce the key changes in Planning 2020. n Create a statutory post of chief planning oﬃcer for local planning authorities to support a culture change in which planning is seen as a central and positive local authority function. This would also ensure that the best impartial advice is available to communities.

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PLAN UPFRONT

Welsh planning law set for major shake-up The Law Commission has proposed a wide-ranging shakeup of planning law in Wales in a report that calls for more than 190 technical reforms. New primary legislation in the shape of a planning act is expected to carry through the changes, designed as the centrepiece of a fresh planning code for the country. The report found that the legislation governing the planning system in Wales was “confused and unhelpful”. It has been much amended and supplemented over the past 30 years, is full of obsolete provisions and does not meet current best practice. The report contains 193 recommendations to simplify the legislation and make it ﬁt for purpose. These include: n Making clear the principles underlying the planning system in Wales; n Simplifying the law in respect of when planning permission is required;

n Clarifying the status of outline planning applications; n Tightening up the law on precommencement conditions; n Rationalising penalties for breaches of planning control; and n Clarifying the deﬁnition of some technical terms.

The commission has also proposed the repeal of unused legislative provisions such as those relating to planning inquiry commissions, simpliﬁed planning zones, enterprise zones and new towns. “Most of these have not been used for 30 years or more and some have never been used at all,” commented the commission. The Welsh Government will provide an interim response to the report by the end of May 2019, and a detailed response by the end of November 2019. n The report and more information can be found on the Law Commission website. bit.ly/planner0119commission

Need for aggregates outstrips new planning permissions Demand for aggregates vital to construction and infrastructure is continuing to exceed the amount of new reserves permitted under the planning system. A survey by the Mineral Products Association (MPA) found: n 24 per cent of sales of sand and gravel reserves were replenished via new permissions in 2017. n 3 per cent of sales of crushed rock last year were replenished through new permissions. n 15 submissions for sand and gravel, two more sites than in 2016, mostly for extensions. n 10 mineral applications were approved and ﬁve were refused, across both sand and gravel and crushed rock sites – down from 30 in 2008/09. n It takes 29.4 and 29.9 months respectively to secure permission for both sand and gravel and crushed rock reserves. Data for 2017 suggests that sand and gravel determinations took four months less than for those determined in 2016.

Mark Russell, MPA executive director of planning and mineral resources, said the revised National Planning Policy Framework had reinforced the importance of minerals, but the survey showed their supply cannot be assumed. “A steady and adequate supply of aggregates needs to be planned, monitored and managed, all of which require strong direction from central government,” he said. “A well-managed aggregate supply system is vital to allow mineral planning authorities to plan for future demand, and to give the industry the conﬁdence to plan forward investment to meet that same demand.” I M AG E S | I STO C K / S H U T T E RSTO C K

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13/12/2018 11:50

NEWS

News { INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Britain faces ‘discontent’ in Brexit regional fallout By Huw Morris Britain faces a ‘geography of discontent’ amid a slowdown in productivity that is the worst in Europe bar Greece and Italy, according to a leading academic. Philip McCann, professor of urban and regional economics at Sheffield University Management School, said the UK displays high levels of interregional imbalances across a variety of indices including incomes, wealth, jobs, quality of life, health and well-being, education, town centre viability, civic engagement and infrastructure. This has resulted in three different economies with London and the South East broadly more prosperous Accompanying the imbalances, Britain has than the North, the Midlands, Wales and “the most centralised and top-down Northern Ireland, while Scotland heads in a governance system of any industrialised separate direction since devolution. country”. This is “uniquely ill-equipped to “The geography of Brexit is like comparing address the realities or the UK economy and rugby league to rugby union,” he told the the EU referendum result expressed “where Institute of Economic Development annual half of the people see themselves conference. locally”, arguing that “productivity “To the outsider, they are “THE UK IS underlies prosperity which identical but they are THE SECOND underlies political voting”. fundamentally different games in MOST UNEQUAL London is “hyper-globalised” and rules, number of player, size of the COUNTRY IN THE is less exposed to any fallout from field, the institutions, the culture INDUSTRIALISED Brexit, but disadvantaged areas are and the geography. When you likely to suffer the most from understand the details they are not WORLD AND BREXIT WILL leaving the EU. “The UK is the the same. MAKE THAT second most unequal country in “It’s all there in the data,” he WORSE” the industrialised world and Brexit said. “However, it is hidden in our will make that worse,” McCann national and political narratives added. “Whatever the scale of the about who we are and where we shock, these places will have to are going. Political and media restructure more to cope with narratives are shaped by the whatever comes down the line.” experience of the people who develop those The UK should move towards a bottom-up narratives and the vast majority of advisers, and place-based approach to policy and specialists, government people, consultancies, governance. The country had made a start with media and think tanks are in London. city regions, devolution and debates around “They reflect their understanding of the infrastructure, but this was at an “embryonic” world, but it does not speak to half the stage for tackling inequalities and imbalances. country.”

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NATIONAL DATA

£60m – the budget for new renewables auctions, announced by energy minister Claire Perry.

£1.4bn – the value of the ﬁnancial package agreed between the government, the Mayor of London and Transport for London to cover the costs of Crossrail's delayed opening.

12% – the increase of the number of aﬀordable houses in England from 2016/17 to 2017/18, as published by the government. 26,838 were new homes for aﬀordable rent.

20,891 – the number of social housing dwellings sold in 2017/18, according to government statistics.

27.6% - the decline in retail ﬂoor space in England and Wales between 2008 (157m sq m) and 2015 (114m sq m). Analysis undertaken by Northumbria University’s R3 intelligence team.

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12/12/2018 17:18

LEADER COMMENT

Opinion onn Quality and variety of design is driving interest in planning – ‘Mundane, monotonous and mediocre’. The standard of New Year’s entertainment on television, perhaps? An instinctive response to a relative’s decision-making in having once more gifted you socks and/or handkerchiefs at Christmas? Understandable, for sure; but no. Let’s face it, no one would want anything they’re associated with to be described as such. Which is why it is refreshing to report that the mundane, monotonous and mediocre in this case is from inspector David Nicholson in his refusal of plans for 175 homes in Worcestershire back in the middle of last year. The houses would be “simple and relatively similar to each other, with a lot of repetition in style and materials”, said Nicholson. There would be nothing cohesive about the design to elevate it above the ordinary,

Martin Read he found, and nor would there be a central focus. Instead of “bold terraces or proudly detached houses”, the dwellings would be “closely packed, with meaningless small gaps in between, and little to integrate them as a coherent whole”. Among other material considerations, Nicholson understandably ranked the scheme a fail under the NPPF’s poor design paragraph. But perhaps more powerfully, the design was

such that it could be found “in any part of the country”, said Nicholson. And that really should be as damning as it sounds. As we begin another year with housebuilding in the front line for planning, there is potential for a debate on regional variation, in all its forms, to feed more substantially into determinations on quality of design, as in the case here. Certainly it’s a topic that’s got the attention of Planner readers online. Our reporter Matt Moody has been tracking the most viewed planning appeals stories published on The Planner’s website in 2018, and in doing so he has found that readers are particularly keen on stories where quality of design, and by association

variety of design, have come to the fore. And these issues are increasingly garnering a wider local response, too. A story from nearly a year ago on the poor design of a sixstorey building on the site of a former pub was also in our top 20 viewed appeals of the year, the result of it being shared on social media for further local consumption. One of our aims for 2019 is to make our planning appeals service all the more accessible for those within the profession and beyond. And at the risk of turning this column into a full-on promotion of the service, it really does bear repeating that on every working day we sift through the latest appeal decisions and write up the most interesting of them for readers. You can click straight to a Google Map image of the sites in question, before clicking straight through to the actual decision letter – all for free to RTPI members. If you haven’t yet done so, please consider signing up for our Decisions Digest newsletter.

“READERS ARE KEEN ON STORIES WHERE QUALITY AND VARIETY OF DESIGN HAVE COME TO THE FORE"

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£120 – UK £175 – Overseas Average net circulation 18,373 (January-December 2016) (A further 5,700 members receive the magazine in digital form) © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about planning issues and articles do not necessarily reﬂect the views of the RTPI nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in part in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither RTPI nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed by PCP Ltd.

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11/12/2018 11:16

CORRESPONDENCE

Inbox

YOUR NEWS, VIEWS AND QUESTIONS F E E D B A C K

Phil Cobbold – I have a current planning application which is now on its 7th planning oﬃcer. Can any of your readers beat that? Phil Cobbold MRTPI

(Good question, Phil. Can anyone beat that? Ed.)

David Archer – While any attempt to reduce plastic is commendable my copy arrived through the post wet through and in bits today and I’m trying to dry it out on the radiator. Can’t you use a biodegradable plastic cover? David Archer MRTPI

Wai Shan Sandi Tang – I notice The Planner has gone plastic-less and I’m totally impressed. Thank you for loving the planet; we planners should take the lead in making the environment sustainable. That said, my copies are not in a very good condition when they arrive. As an overseas (Hong Kong) member I believe the longer delivery process makes it easier for the copies to be ruined on the way. Can you send me them in a wrapped envelope as the magazine actually stays with me in bed before I go to sleep. Wai Shan Sandi Tang, MRTPI

(David, a biodegradable cover was considered but our decision to go without any form of wrap has been well received by the vast majority. However, we’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for other

similar stories to yours and feeding them back to our production department. And Sandi, we’ll certainly look to asses the extent of this problem over the longer term. (Also, thank you so much for taking us to bed.)

Daniel Scharf – Under 'Customer Choice' (The Planner, December 2018) Richard Bacon MP was recommending government support for custom building through a Help to Build fund to mirror the £billions being pumped into Help to Buy that is assisting middle class home buyers. The Letwin Review has recommended that self-building could increase the overall supply, but also concluded that there is a need to train thousands of bricklayers to assist the development of larger sites. It does not seem to have filtered into official thinking that the housing sector will need to be close to net carbon neutral or zero within the next 12 years (IPCC report October 2018). When considering solutions to the shortage of housing (and/or its inequitable distribution) it is essential to bear in mind the finding of Whole Life Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment (RICS 2017) that half of the carbon emissions attributable to new housing are embodied in a dwelling and its servicing at substantial completion (ie before occupation) - bricks and mortar being a significant cause. The obvious need is for a Help to Split fund to encourage the demand for self/custom building to be

met by sub-dividing a large number of the under-occupied houses around the country; enabling down-sizing in place and bringing some of the 20million sub-standard dwellings up to a reasonable level of energy eﬃciency, and insulating and heating the space actually being used. Only by utilising space in well located existing dwellings, close to existing services and infrastructure, will it be possible to meet housing needs within carbon budgets. Daniel Scharf MRTPI

Alan Wenban-Smith The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is consulting on changing how housing needs are calculated for local planning. Instead of the ONS 2016-based household projection, planners will be required to revert to MHCLG’s 2014-based version. Ministers don’t like the latest projection because it undermines their 300,000 a year target for new homes. This target is, they say, vital to meeting housing needs with more affordable housing, So who are these people? Analysis of both projections show that about 90% of newly-forming households over the next 20 years are currently under 25. The lower number of households now being projected is the result of a ‘perfect storm’ affecting this age group: low and uncertain incomes (eg low growth, the gig economy and zero hours contracts), higher living costs (eg child care and student loans); rising prices and rents and the sell-off of socialrented homes. The majority of new young households will depend on the

turnover of existing homes (around 10 times the volume of new build), especially homes in cheaper areas. New housing for sale (the tenure favoured by present policy) will meet the needs of very few new households. According to The Times, ‘Help to Buy’ on new properties accounted for up to 40% of some volume builders' output last year, contributing greatly to their proﬁts. However, there are around 350,000 new younger households each year, – and this accounts for only about 5% of them. There is an almost complete disconnect between needs and the market: new homes are mainly bought by those with money from the sale of their present home – so not in need. The new build target will not be viable if required to make provision for non-market housing, as well as necessary services and infrastructure. Whether or not built, attempts to make such provision would be highly damaging to the housing opportunities of newlyforming households because it would divert resources and attention from regeneration of exactly the places they might be able to aﬀord. The more new land is provided, the worse it becomes – and that’s before starting on the collateral damage to congestion, climate change, air quality, social structure, economic agglomeration and productivity. That is where the crisis becomes disaster: not just a ’broken housing market’ a broken housing policy too. Alan Wenban-Smith, proprietor, Urban & Regional Policy consultancy

J ANU AR Y 2 0 19 / THE PLA NNER Correspondence_January 2019_The Planner 13

12/12/2018 17:19

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

O Opinion

Role models and resilience – plus the shock of the new It’s challenging taking over a role when you’ve admired the previous incumbent for years, especially when they’ve done a great job and have an enviable reputation. Should it be replication or innovation? I’m not one for imitating others. I’d rather be me, with my own approach. After all, that’s the current mantra; #BeYourself. So this will indeed #BeMe with my take on ‘planning and beyond’ that feels pertinent and worth shouting about. Sometimes I will hit a nerve, other times I will be political. I hope I can combine the two without inciting a riot. I’ll draw on some of my mentors and the role models who have lit the path I have chosen to travel. I’ll try to stay topical and relevant, but also push the boundaries a little. After all, the worst thing the planning community should be is insular, monocentric or – heaven forbid – boring. So I’ll start by shouting about the need to recognise our role models. We all have them. It’s not just a trendy thing for students in this longawaited era of diversity and inclusion. We can all name people who have inspired, impressed or even shocked us. And that impact can hit us at any time. Indeed, age should bring a greater ability to listen to diﬀerent views as opposed to becoming entrenched in one political dogma. I was reasonably left-wing when starting out on my journey. Miners’ strikes and demos in Sheﬃeld and being kettled by police when Maggie

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Thatcher came to town; all made lasting impressions. So I was as surprised as anyone when, after seeing Meryl Streep at her best, portraying Mrs T’s rise and fall from glory, I had to admit admiring her tenacity to keep going when thwarted in her early years. No matter what the politics, that element of her character was impressive. Why am I saying this? Because when circumstances get tough simply because ‘that’s life’, then it helps to remember that other people have pushed through equally diﬃcult situations. Notwithstanding the claim that ‘austerity’ is now behind us, local government funding is falling through cracks in the pavement and the ‘planning system’ is being blamed for all the evils of the housing crisis. Developers are seen as money-

“THE PLANNING COMMUNITY NEEDS TO PULL ON THE ABILITY TO BE IMAGINATIVE WHEN GIVEN SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE SITUATIONS” grabbing bastards and there are people sleeping rough every night outside Homes England oﬃces in Westminster. If that’s not irony at its worst, I don’t know what is. So the planning community needs to pull on the ability to be imaginative when given seemingly impossible situations; ﬁnding new ways to achieve and support appropriate development. That might mean reminding ourselves that other seemingly

impossible situations have been addressed. Would it be too glib to cite the Good Friday Agreement or the release of Nelson Mandela? What has that got to do with the systematic problems of the British planning system and the Herculean challenge of buildings homes in the right places at the right price? Well, perhaps remembering our individual role models and the reason they are important to us can instil a renewed appetite to ﬁnd solutions, as opposed to wringing our hands and claiming it’s all too hard. Planners need to be at the heart of things, bringing their own sense of fair play and inclusivity with tenacity and dogged determination. So, a mixture of Mandela and Thatcher – that should be a match for the economic challenges ahead! And to add to the mix I will draw on my role models John Pilger and Barbara Castle, who have shaped my approach to life. Now, together, that’s an awesome dinner party!

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a partner at Arcadis LLP and UK Head of Development and Strategy Planning I L L U S T R AT I O N | Z A R A P I C K E N

12/12/2018 17:20

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“I think housing is important, but housing is more than housing. It needs to be really accepted by a local community. It needs to have all the services in p place to support it.”

“Adding these e new duties to o the workload d of already stretched planning departments could see the system grind rind to a halt” FRASER CARLIN, CONVENOR NOR FOR RTPI SCOTLAND,, PONSIBILITIES IN THE ON NEW PLANNING RESPONSIBILITIES PLANNING SCOTLAND BILL

ROBERTA BLACKMAN WOODS,, SHADOW PLANNING MINISTER AT THE TCPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON PLACEMAKING

“When we think of the future this is what springs to mind: The future re is already here, it’s just ust unevenly distributed” ted” EUAN MILLS, URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING T,, ON LEAD AT FUTURE CITIES CATAPULT, TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF SUBURBS AT THE RTPI LONDON SUMMIT

“Everybody should be able to experience the companionship that comes along with a pet, regardless of the type of home they live in” PLANNING MINISTER KIT MALTHOUSE ON HEARING OF A LOCAL AUTHORITY THAT HAS BANNED PETS IN ITS SOCIAL HOUSING. THE PLANNING MINISTER HAS A CAT CALLED PUNKY.

I M AG E S | I STO C K

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“Region “Regional nal planning comes and goe goes es in waves waves. There There was a wave in the late 60s, then a gap until it started again in the 90s, then it was abolished in 2010.” CHRIS SHEPLEY, FORMERLY OF THIS PARISH, ON THE REGIONAL PLANNING CIRCLE OF LIFE. ROLL ON 2033.

“The new NPPF has focused on local plans,, so if you’re trying to introduce duce strategic planning there re is no rule book; we are in uncharted waters” LAURA AMBLER, HEAD OF HOUSING AND PLANNING AT THE WEST OF ENGLAND GES OF COMBINED AUTHORITY, ON THE CHALLENGES S WORKING ACROSS MULTIPLE AUTHORITIES

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

O Opinion

Sarah Clinch is a principal planner with WYG

Green belt may hold key to unlocking the UK’s housing woes

The Cam Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) says nearly 5,000 hectares of England’s green belt was developed last year in a bid to meet ambitious housing targets. This figure may seem alarming, but if the figures are correct, this represents a loss of just 0.3 per cent of the green belt’s total 1.6 million hectares. Many local authorities proactively plan to expand their existing towns into previously allocated green belt areas to create the best places for people to work and live. Releasing green belt is an important part of solving the housing crisis so that homes can be built where they are most needed. When considering whether releasing green belt is justified we need to balance the function and importance of green belt land with other planning considerations. If plans are sustainable and promote the role and function of the green belt, and the alternatives available to local councils for meeting their housing needs are limited, then it can often be the best solution. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states that green belt should “assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment” and “assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land”.

This supports the principle of developing brownfield land first to make the best use of previously developed land in urban areas before developing in the countryside. This approach has been successful, particularly in the South East – so much so that the brownfield sites now available for development are few. In most local authorities, the total brownfield land available falls short of the land needed to deliver the required housing growth. This means greenfield locations, and sometimes the green belt, are required. Another purpose of green belts is “to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas”. This is a spatial planning consideration that prevents unrestricted growth of large settlements. Settlements growing outwards will often achieve the most sustainable patterns of development, meaning it will be appropriate to amend green belt boundaries to support such growth. The NPPF provides the mechanism for this. Amendments to the NPPF seeking to engage local people in this process provide opportunities for collaborative working and better engagement. The hope is that this will result in increased support for house building schemes, which could help to solve the UK’s housing crisis.

“WE NEED TO BALANCE THE FUNCTION AND IMPORTANCE OF GREEN BELT LAND WITH OTHER PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS”

2 BLOG

BLOG

Nairita Chakraborty MRTPI is an associate, heritage, at Iceni Projects and sits on Historic England’s advisory committee

Character-based development can resolve an age-old planning struggle

There’s an unprecedented number of de densification programmes across big cities alongside new planned urban extensions to existing smaller towns. In London, larger ‘opportunity areas’ are introducing new urban characters near the established neighbourhoods, often at what seems (to residents) too fast a pace. In delivering such schemes, how do we resolve that age-old planning struggle and balance the needs of developers and local communities? Historic England has been promoting character-based approaches to development for some time. Urban characterisation studies are a useful way of understanding an area’s context and providing design guidelines on development opportunities. The NPPF and the London Plan require developments to respect local character and context, defined by area-based assessments. This design-led approach makes local context a key part of the process. The challenge is to ensure that the policies deliver viable schemes. A design-led approach prompts a much-required ‘bottom-up’ method, making local character and context an essential part of the plan process. Haringey in London has seen huge development pressure; Tottenham is identified as part of the mayor’s housing

zone. Undertaking a borough characterisation study as part of the local plan helped us to identify areas of intensification, location of tall buildings, and where urban regeneration and townscape improvements could be targeted. The analysis was used for greater insights into the kinds of interventions that were appropriate for the physical characteristics of the place and its social and cultural issues, informing the site allocation plan. But there was no way for the study to consider the commercial viability of the identified sites which questioned the deliverability of the corresponding design and density guidelines. This was a continual battle with the developers bringing forward the identified sites, almost all with much higher densities and heights than anticipated. It also didn’t consider economic context or the timeline of deliverability. One way to overcome this would be to undertake an economic viability review at the site allocation stage. But such studies require specialised urban design skills, which are scarce. Most planning policy comes down to viability, and the need to build for realistic commercial gains becomes a priority to the detriment of the character of a locality. Urban characterisation studies should help towards finding the middle ground.

“HOW DO WE RESOLVE THAT AGEOLD PLANNING STRUGGLE AND BALANCE THE NEEDS OF DEVELOPERS AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES?”

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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

Darren Shirley is chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport

Joined-up planning is the key to better journeys

nearly 20 years since the It is nea Commission for Integrated Commi Transport (CFIT) was created with a bold vision of joinedup transport planning and infrastructure. With journey planning now easier than ever, why are we waiting for physical interchanges to catch up? The commission’s vision was intended as a boon for eﬃcient and sustainable transport, wiping out at a stroke all those car journeys when you drive because you can’t work out how else to travel. In their place there would be integrated journeys across bus, train, bike, and taxi. As new Campaign for Better Transport research makes clear, it hasn’t quite worked out that way yet. Since the commission’s day (it was abolished in 2010), technology has transformed the way we can plan our journeys. Out have gone the road atlas and the paper timetable and in has come realtime smartphone information and maps allowing each trip to be planned to make it as fast and convenient as possible. But while the virtual transport world has been revolutionised, the physical world still looks much as it did. The few parkway train stations that have been built in recent years cannot disguise how few genuine interchanges exist. And even where bus and rail are co-located a seamless

4 BLOG

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Jim Shannon MP represents Strangford, Northern Ireland, and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Healthy Homes and Buildings

Housing quality, not quantity, is the key to good health

journey is unlikely to be easy. Not only will it be down to luck as to whether the two timetables coincide, but multimodal smart tickets remain rare. Consider Luton. Nearly a quarter of a million people live in the Luton/ Dunstable/ Houghton Regis area and there is pressure for more growth. Local roads are among the most congested in the country. Outward connections are also challenging; Luton is only 18 miles from Milton Keynes – another growth hotspot – just half an hour in a car, or 50 minutes on the hourly bus or up to 90 minutes by train. Just north of Luton, the M1 motorway and the Midland Mainline railway run adjacent to one another, providing a strategic opportunity to link national networks and local transport with a new passenger rail station with car parking and coach interchange, and a connection to local bus networks and the guided busway. To make ‘mobility as a service’ real requires good interchanges. Our report recommends not just new funding, but reforms to the NPPF to explicitly set out the beneﬁts of good modal interchanges. Sub-national transport bodies should be encouraged to think multimodally, and new ways of bringing Highways England, Network Rail and local transport planners together are needed.

“THE VIRTUAL TRANSPORT WORLD HAS BEEN REVOLUTIONISED, BUT THE PHYSICAL WORLD STILL LOOKS MUCH AS IT DID”

Homes a and buildings are an integral part of our everyday life. We eat, sleep, work, rest, play and W learn in them. Given that we spend around 90 per cent of our time indoors, poor-quality or unhealthy homes and buildings impact on the nation’s general health, well-being and happiness. Unhealthy homes and buildings cause and aggravate poor health, which in turn aﬀects educational attainment and career progression and productivity. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Healthy Homes and Buildings was founded to raise political awareness of the plethora of health and wellbeing problems generated by unhealthy homes and buildings. Its recent white paper, Building Our Future: Laying the Foundations for Healthy Homes and Buildings, makes a series of important recommendations. It calls on the government to establish a cross-departmental committee for healthy buildings, generate more research to prove the need for further government action on improving new building standards, and renovate and retroﬁt existing housing stock and infrastructure with a view to maximising health and well-being. The responsibility for healthy buildings currently lies with several government departments, public bodies and NGOs. Coordinating work on this issue, as the white paper suggests, would be a bold move to acknowledge the key links

between housing, health and happiness. We know the pressure is on to build homes, but there must also be an emphasis on quality as well as quantity. It makes no economic sense not to build and retrofit homes to make sure they are healthy. The cost to the health service linked to poor housing in England is estimated to be a whopping £2.5 billion. In reality, the associated costs are estimated to add up to at least two-and-a-half times this number. The white paper is the start of our campaign to raise public and political awareness about a significant problem. To date, it would seem that unhealthy homes have not been considered ‘sexy’ enough to warrant media or campaigning attention. Indoor environments expert Professor Derek Clements-Croome told us that this was probably because the “Health & Safety Executive is mainly concerned with extremes, rather than less obvious but still critical problems”. By framing housing as the key to improving the nation’s health, wellbeing, safety and productivity, the white paper shines a light on a significant problem. Its recommendations must be acted on by government. While undeniably challenging, the facts and cost benefits are simply too serious for government to ignore. Download the white paper: bit.ly/planner0119-healthyhomes

“IT MAKES NO ECONOMIC SENSE NOT TO BUILD AND RETROFIT HOMES TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE HEALTHY”

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I N T E R V I E W : I A N TA N T

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PHOTOGRAPHY | JON ENOCH

IAN TANT COMES TO THE 2019 RTPI PRESIDENCY WITH A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE AND ONE OVERRIDING OBJECTIVE: TO COMMUNICATE THE VERY POINT AND PURPOSE OF PLANNING AND TO DO SO LOUDLY. MARTIN READ REPORTS The pictures tell the story. Ian Tant, it is fair to say, is no wallflower when it comes to communicating. Having amassed a wealth of experience during nearly three decades as both consultant and partner at Barton Willmore, he’s recently taken on a more flexible portfolio of roles, with RTPI volunteering uppermost among them. And as he steps up to the role of RTPI president for 2019, his theme, he says, is simple. “It’s time to speak up for planning: to turn up the volume on it; and to sell our message about how important it is.” Tant wants nothing less than to emphasise the underlying purpose – the ‘why?’ – of planning. “The planning process enables us to give rational thought to how we want things to change, and to control and direct that change,” he explains. “We should be explaining what the benefits of planning are. It’s not just about the value of planning - it’s about creating enthusiasm around the idea of planning how our towns, cities and countryside evolve.” And the audience for this message? “The profession itself, for one. We need to encourage it to be more outspoken. Planners are good at balancing views, but ultimately what we do

is make recommendations – to clients, if we’re in consultancy, or councillors if we’re in the public sector. We shouldn’t be afraid to sell our recommendations; to speak up, perhaps more loudly, in defence of them. Because by doing so, we gain more of a presence.” Tant is impressed by RTPI CEO Victoria Hills’ attitude since assuming office, and hopes to reinforce some of her campaigning - particularly concerning planning’s profile. “So often when the press mentions planners it’s actually councillors they’re referring to,” says Tant. “Planning’s visibility would definitely benefit from having more chief planning officers with status and presence within an authority.” As for taking a stand, “our members’ survey shows that members want the RTPI to be more vocal and outspoken. That involves courage and, on occasion, being controversial, too. To get to the public through the media you sometimes need to say something with a little force behind it.” Tant also suggests that planners cultivate a wider range of talking points, too. “Planners should be prepared to discuss delivery; not just the future aims of plans but the results actually delivered post-project, particularly where

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I N T E R V I E W : I A N TA N T

those results are producing economic value. We need to more often recognise and publicise positive planning outcomes.” Beyond the wider public, there’s another key audience – potential planners. “We need to get more people into this profession,” says Tant, “and we need to excite them about the kind of career it can be. If we can get into schools to explain how there’s this wonderful profession which is both fun to work in and has a real purpose to it, then I’m sure we’ll win some fresh hearts and minds.” He’s hopeful that the current resident of No.10 Downing Street might help the cause, recalling Theresa May’s appearance at the launch of last year’s National Planning Policy Framework review – “the first time in my career that I have seen a prime minister take the stage at a planning event”. Giving back by looking forward Tant is a man adapting to a freelance life having spent 30 years with one of the country’s biggest planning consultancies. Of his many projects, two that stand out are the wholesale relocation of the Meteorological Office from Berkshire to Devon, and the redevelopment of the Greenham Common airfield. “It’s every consultant’s dream for a site like that to land on your desk. The US Air Force just decided it was pulling out. The site was suddenly sitting there, completely vacant. “There was no planning policy for it, so in four years working with Newbury District Council we devised a planning brief for it. We achieved temporary planning permission for a number of initial uses and I then worked with the MoD on disposal of the sites to a trust established by the district council.” Where the runway once stood is a nature reserve. The control tower is a museum, there’s housing, and a business park. “It was a classic example of the way that planning can benefit the economy, surrounding community and the environment.”

C A R EER

HIG HL IG HT S

I A N TA NT MR TP I

OFFDUTY IAN

Born: Manchester (raised in Rainford, near St Helens) Educated: University of East Anglia (BSc Cons, Environmental Sciences); University of Manchester (Bachelor’s Degree, Town & Country Planning)

1979 Moves south to take ﬁrst planning role in at Broxbourne District Council

1981 Moves to Hertsmere District Council

for 18 months in development management

1983 Senior planner at Wokingham District Council in Berkshire – the county he’s called home since.

1986 Becomes senior planner for Barton Willmore

1990 Becomes director at Barton Willmore

2004

Barton Willmore is keen on succession planning, giving its partners what’s essentially a ‘sell-by’ date after which they are obliged to relinquish partner status and release their equity in the ﬁrm. Suddenly, 2016 – so distant to Tant when he signed his own such agreement in 1990 – was upon him. And with it, time for new challenges.

Becomes senior partner at Barton Willmore

2016 Leaves Barton Willmore for a freelance consulting career, and to put more time into RTPI activity.

Ian Tant lives in Wokingham, Berkshire, with his wife Elaine, a retired school teacher. He has two sons – Ewan, a lawyer, and Alistair, a business manager. A Manchester United fan by inheritance, he also follows St Helens’ rugby league exploits. Although professing no natural sporting talent himself, he was once a regular swimmer and has recently taken up golf. More tangible is Tant’s artistic bent. He learnt to play the guitar while at university, where he helped to form a folk rock band called Nearly Blew It (“or as I used to joke, ‘Barely Knew It’”). He still ﬁnds occasion to ‘get the band together again’, mainly for garden parties.

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IAN’S PLANNING COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

“WE NEED TO GET MORE PEOPLE INTO THIS PROFESSION AND WE NEED TO EXCITE THEM ABOUT THE KIND OF CAREER IT CAN BE”

“I took the view that I would give something back to the profession, so I stood for General Assembly in 2014, then for election to the Board of Trustees in 2016, and from that came the suggestion I run for vice-president. And so here I am!” As well as his RTPI work, Tant’s freelance portfolio includes chairing the Coast To Capital local enterprise partnership’s housing investment task force, acting as strategic adviser for a land promotion company, and giving business management advice to consultancies. A business-minded approach is something Tant is keen to foster in his fellow professionals. “Part of the problem is that, for planners, understanding the economics of development is not easy,” says Tant. “Even as a planning consultant you don’t get told the economics of the schemes you’re working on. I had to learn it by osmosis. “We often misunderstand the various players in the development process. Look at Letwin; he started with the view that housebuilders were land banking, but in his interim report he was saying it was the land promotion companies and essentially the landowners causing the problem. “I don’t think people appreciate developers’ objectives enough, and they can misunderstand what motivates landowners too. As a society, we tend to put people into boxes, for example ‘greedy landowners who run oﬀ to The Bahamas with all the money’ – missing the fact that actually a lot of landowners are public sector institutions. We need to ask: What are their drivers?” In the spotlight It certainly feels as if Ian Tant is ﬁred up for his year in the presidential spotlight. “Yes, the RTPI is about maintaining professional standards,” he tells me. “But at its heart I think it’s both a mouthpiece by the profession, explaining it to the outside world; and for the profession, encouraging planners to be the very best they can be.” So he’s up for the challenge? “Oh yes.” It is going to be entertaining watching him in the months ahead. NB: An extended version of this interview appears on www.theplanner.co.uk

“By and large, all planners can write something down. But the ability to turn out a coherent piece of text? That’s a skill which needs honing.” “There’s a tendency to write a report or proof of evidence document in a dry and logical fashion. But the reader has to churn all the way through it to establish what it’s about. It’s easy to pick up on the received wisdom and just write in ‘plannerese’. But while we might love complicated sentences and long words, both the public and our clients end up baﬄed by it. “I treat it like writing a story; you’ve got to do it in a way that’s readable too.”

“Too many planners veer away from the mathematical part of the job. I always tried to stay in the centre with a broad enough view to appreciate what’s important, but always with a degree of mathematical awareness to get a practical understanding of a project’s mechanics. In the past I’ve had engineering consultants draw me lines describing the maximum curve for a road, just so I could understand what kind of curve is technically possible. “I don’t mean understanding the economics to the point where I can carry out a site assessment myself – but it means being able to ask the intelligent questions needed to speed up the process.”

“It’s a serious thing, putting roofs over people’s heads, creating space for jobs, making new green space… but you can still really enjoy what you’re doing. Injecting a degree of humour into a meeting never goes amiss. It’s what makes people tick. “If you enjoy what you’re doing then you open your mind more to it, you get more information in and you enjoy what you’re learning. It becomes a positive spiral.”

n Martin Read is editor of The Planner

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F U T U R E O F H O U S I N G : C O M M U N A L LI V I N G

LET’S STICK TOGETHER Co-living: The Collective, Old Oak, West London. Opened in 2016, The Collective Old Oak has 546 en suite rooms with private bathrooms, some having a private kitchenette. Three, six and 12-month contracts oﬀer monthly rents ranging from £850 to £1,250 inclusive of bills. There is a 24-hour concierge, fortnightly linen change, cleaning, gym membership and co-working membership. Small rooms are oﬀset by plentiful communal facilities including gym, library, communal dining areas and kitchens, cinema room and restaurant. An events programme includes yoga, cookery and a coding club. 22

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COMMUNAL LIVING HAS HAD A BAD PRESS RECENTLY. IN MANY TOWNS, LOCALS FEAR THE RELENTLESS EXPANSION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS HMOS. BUT COLIVING NEED NO LONGER BE LIKE ‘THE YOUNG ONES’. SERENA RALSTON REPORTS ON THE WISDOM OF THE COLLECTIVE

becoming shared and monetised,” says Philip Whether as an antidote to loneliness, Hillman, chairman, living, at JLL. “They are punitive property prices or poor-quality more chilled about renting and like being in HMOs (houses of multiple occupation), a ‘buzzy’ environment.” communal living, in its various guises, is a growing phenomenon. It’s nothing new, of course. In the medieval A challenge to planning? European village it was common for people The precursor to The Collective was a student to share a household with friends and lettings agency launched 10 years ago by extended family. The industrial age brought Reza Merchant, then a student at London with it a focus on the nuclear family as the School of Economics, which became The ideal unit, and housing followed. The 1960s Collective in 2010. The Financial Times counterculture saw a flirtation with reported last autumn that The Collective’s communes; somewhere in there, too, has management bought the 75 per cent of Old been the growth of houses of multiple Oak in north-west London it did not already occupation (HMOs). own in a deal valuing it at about “YOUNGER But there may be another £125 million. revolution in the air as developers PEOPLE ARE In May, the business will open MORE USED TO A and communities reinvent its second space, with 700 rooms SHARED WORLD communal living for the 21st in Canary Wharf. Stratford in – WHETHER IT'S century in the form of large East London may follow. While AIRBNB, CO co-living spaces and smaller there are no official statistics on WORKING OR co-housing communities. co-living in the UK, the focus is COLIVING” The UK Cohousing Trust London, and big players are defines a co-housing community hovering – property data as intentional, created and run by company EGi reported last year its residents. Each household has that co-working giant WeWork’s a self-contained, private home as subsidiary WeLive had submitted well as shared community space. plans for a site near Old Street Co-housing communities range in size from Roundabout, EC1. Roam, the international around 10 to around 40 households. co-living network will open a space in In contrast, the world’s largest co-living London this year, having already tested the space, Old Oak in London, run by The market with a leased property. Collective, has 550 rooms. Co-living, as This expansion of co-living presents a identified by property consultancy JLL and challenge to the planning system: should it the British Property Federation, is a purposehave its own use class (it is currently sui built and managed development that generis)? What is the difference between an includes a combination of personal and HMO and a small co-living development? shared amenity space. What about space standards? Affordable It is aimed particularly at younger people housing contributions? What’s an acceptable who may be struggling to find affordable ratio of rooms to facilities? accommodation and who may well be used To answer such questions, the Greater to the communal atmosphere of university London Authority (GLA) has created Policy halls accommodation. H18 ‘Large-scale purpose-built shared living’ “Younger people are much more used to a in the Draft London Plan. This sets out shared world – whether it’s Airbnb, various stipulations, including that a scheme co-working or co-living – and private space is should meet an identified need; be under

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F U T U R E O F H O U S I N G : C O M M U N A L LI V I N G

single management; the units should be for rent with minimum tenancy lengths of no less than three months; and the minimum communal facilities and services to be provided. To qualify, the development must be of at least 50 units and private units must demonstrably not be C3 dwelling house accommodation. “The Draft London Plan provides a clear policy position for co-living projects to be progressed through the planning process and allows for transparency and regulation of the sector,” says James Penfold, planning and zoning director for The Collective. “Things have really turned a corner as the co-living sector comes of age, and the boroughs we are working with and the GLA are generally very positive about engaging with how co-living can come forward.”

The Seaside, one of several CoLiving Spaces developments in Brighton and Hove

A note of caution The RTPI, which contributed to the consultation on the policy and the wider Draft London Plan, has adopted a more cautious tone. “Members felt it important that development follows trends in living, and co-living could make a contribution in certain circumstances,” explains Tom Kenny, policy officer. “Some of the schemes such as Old Oak look like good innovations. However, there is significant concern that schemes like this could be a way of getting away with lower housing standards such as micro flats which defy space standards.” Daisy Onubogu, head of community at Roam, calls for a revision of use classes to accommodate this new approach to housing: “The new policy is a big step in the right direction, but still unnecessarily limited in scope,” she observes, adding: “Spaces featuring much fewer units than The Collective seem to fall outside. “The three-month minimum would also somewhat exclude offerings like ours. We would hope to see either a significant expansion of the C4 (HMO) class, or a new one to accommodate this emerging form of residential accommodation that cuts across the characteristics of both a hotel and a dwelling house.” Penfold notes that Hackney, Lambeth and Westminster are bringing in draft shared living policies. Some are also looking for onsite affordable housing, as well as offsite contributions, in shared living schemes. At Old Oak, 30 per cent of the rooms are available at a discount market rate, which are 24

Co-housing: LILAC, Leeds Low Impact Living Affordable Community, (LILAC) is a co-housing community of 20 eco-build households in west Leeds. The homes and land are managed by residents through a ‘mutual home ownership society’, a financial model that guarantees permanent affordability. LILAC started in 2006 with five residents interested in building their own homes so they could live and bring up their children in a different way. Building began in 2012 and comprises straw bale houses and blocks of flats, a central ‘common house’ (with shared post room, kitchen, dining room, multifunction rooms, office, workshop and laundry facilities), bike sheds, a pond, allotments, communal gardens and play area.

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A communal area at The Collective, Old Oak, West London

marketed at local people and key workers first – an approach the company says it will continue elsewhere.

From co-living to co-housing Schemes are springing up outside London, too. In Brighton and Hove, an area with a severe housing shortage, Coliving Spaces has opened eight spaces – a mix of standard houses converted under permitted development into six rooms with social spaces, and larger commercial buildings divided into shared living and apartments. Founder Stuart Scott says: “Policy tends to be HMO policy, but HMOs have a bad name and aren’t reflective of new co-living. We would welcome working alongside planning departments to identify new ways to provide modern co-living and to preserve houses for families.” In Bristol, the council and United Communities, a local housing association, are working together on a new type of co-living scheme to be located in a surplus council car park on a 10-year lease. LaunchPad, aimed at students, key workers and young people moving on from supported accommodation, uses modular apartments that are relocatable. Its 31-bed apartments include communal space and laundry facilities, and the pilot scheme gives its young residents access to university facilities and support. “What we are trying to do here hasn’t been done before,” says Oona Goldsworthy, chief executive of United Communities. “We know that we will need everyone to be flexible in imagining a new way of living which may challenge existing planning policies. If this is successful, we can see that others will be interested in using the model to provide modular housing on meanwhile sites, such as homes for keyworkers on NHS land.” LaunchPad’s residents play an active role in managing the scheme – in which respect it begins to cross over with co-housing, as opposed to co-living. Self-management is central to the co-housing ethos, which is growing in popularity, according to The UK Cohousing Network. Currently there are 21 listed established communities; 38 listed as developing projects and 11 listed groups forming memberships. The most common form of co-housing is intergenerational, but senior co-housing is the fastest-growing type. It is becoming easier to develop a scheme, thanks to more money from the government’s Community I M A G E S | C O L I V I N G S PA C E S / T H E C O L L E C T I V E / L I L A C

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DEFINITIONS

Use class C3 Dwelling houses Allows for groups of up to six people to live together as a single household. Aimed at groups that do not fall within the C4 HMO deﬁnition. Use class C4 Houses in multiple occupation covers shared houses occupied by up to six unrelated individuals who share basic amenities. Larger HMOs are sui generis and require planning permission. National space standards A single bedroom, single-storey dwelling with bedspace for one person should have a minimum gross internal ﬂoor area of 39 square metres. With bedspace for two people, that should be 50 sq m. London Plan policy H18 Large-scale purposebuilt shared living See: bit.ly/planner0119-shared

Housing Fund and more advisers around the country. The UK Cohousing Network says that the planning system can accommodate co-housing but it needs the collaboration of co-housing groups, local councils and technical advisers to help councils think of co-housing as an option in local plans. There is little specific policy. Although the London Housing Strategy has a target “to identify a pipeline of community-led housing schemes with capacity to deliver at least 1,000 homes”, the Draft London Plan simply includes a definition of community-led housing, and mentions it in the context of the Small Sites Policy H2. Levent Kerimol, project director of Community Led Housing London, calls this ‘passive policy’, of which there are a number of examples across the country. CLH London is calling for a new policy specifically on community-led housing to encourage boroughs to work positively and collaboratively to identify and allocate appropriate sites for community-led housing. It is clear that communal living, in many forms, is here to stay. If planning can grasp this, it has a positive part to play. n Serena Ralston is a freelance journalist specialising in planning and the built environment

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The McLaren factory at the Advanced Manufacturing Park – another building block in the transformation of Rotherham’s economy

RESHAPING ROTHERHAM A COMBINATION OF IT ENABLEMENT, PROGRESSIVE MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS MINDEDNESS HAS AFFORDED ROTHERHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL’S PLANNERS THE STATUS OF 2018 RTPI TEAM OF THE YEAR. MARTIN READ REPORTS

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) took the title of team of the year at the 2018 RTPI Awards. In making their determination, judges lauded the council team’s “dedication to improving their community through planning” and a “high level of community satisfaction”. They also claimed to have been “blown away” by the team’s various efficient working initiatives, including its paperless document management system. Indeed, be it policy or development management, it certainly seems that those interacting with Rotherham’s planning service are impressed by it. The team’s awards submission was awash with quotes from customers: “Applications are dealt with promptly and efficiently – an approach that allows development to commence without delay”; “The best planning team we have dealt with in 25 years of regeneration”; “Rotherham planners are amazingly supportive of innovative schemes”; and “The best planning authority we, as a national housebuilder,

deal with nationally.” Bronwen Knight, Rotherham Council’s head of planning and building, says: “Not only to be shortlisted but to win is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the hard work of Rotherham planners and support staff. “With the council recording 100 per cent performance last year and making excellent progress with our local plan, as well as recently winning the Yorkshire Property Game Changer award for the Advanced Manufacturing Park and the McLaren project, this is truly fantastic news.” Rotherham’s planning profile is such that the team has received two RTPI presidents in recent years; John Acres, in recognition of the 2018 awards, and Peter Geraghty, who during his term in 2013 commented: “The willingness of officers to work collaboratively with other agencies and the private sector is an example of the value planners can bring to society.” So how has Rotherham’s planning team managed to introduce a point of

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

T H E A D VA N C E D M A N U FA C T U R I N G PA R K In the decade to 2010, Harworth Estates (see box on Waverley) worked with others to establish the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) at Waverley in Rotherham with a university research centre at its heart in order to attract high-tech, specialised steel and manufacturing firms. Boeing and RollsRoyce are now among the big names operating in the park. An obvious standout name on the AMP is McLaren. Harworth Estates submitted an application in 2017 for a 7,000 square-metre facility on the Advanced Manufacturing Park for the luxury sports car manufacturer, with RMBC planning officers then working with Harworth Estates so that all material considerations were looked at both before the submission of the application and during the determination process. The application was presented to members of the planning board and determined within five weeks of submission; the facility – which makes carbon fibre parts – opened in November.

difference so marked thatat least six other councils have visited to find out how to become similarly efficient? It certainly feels like the RTPI Awards success is the culmination of a series of events. Recognised by the National Planning Advisory Service as one of its 10 planning champions, Rotherham boasts of almost every application being determined in time, application numbers increasing, development management costed at a third less than other councils, not to mention much lauded work on its local plan.

SYSTEM FOCUS Some of this comes from the happy confluence of a change in IT system followed closely by a shift in both office location and structure. The planning authority’s investment in paperless working began more than a decade ago as part of a full business process re-engineering targeted initially at eliminating duplication of effort. The subsequent elimination of paper applications was a huge step – one that I M AG E S | MC L A R E N

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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridgeshire open the new McLaren factory in Waverley, November 2018

“THE WILLINGNESS OF OFFICERS TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY WITH OTHER AGENCIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE VALUE PLANNERS CAN BRING TO SOCIETY” J ANU AR Y 2 0 19 / THE PLA NNER

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

WAV E R L E Y Designed as an urban extension to meet the future housing needs of Rotherham, the former Orgreave coal mine site had its development promoted through a masterplanned approach. The site’s scale and associated infrastructure requirement forced planners to work pragmatically in order to ensure the site could be delivered. RMBC planners and Harworth Estates work with a single dedicated oﬃcer from each establishment to ensure continuity on the scheme. Fortnightly meetings between the parties resolve issues ahead of each phase of development, sustaining momentum on this large scale project. Waverley is being developed for both housing and business purposes. Since 2008, RMBC’s planning department and Harworth (formerly UK Coal’s property subsidiary), have worked together on housing, with 660 homes built there since 2014, and more than a million square feet of commercial development at the adjacent Advanced Manufacturing Park.

other authorities are still surprised and inspired by today. But this change of IT system was also aimed at re-engineering the way the team worked, streamlining its workflow with the aim of creating a single point of contact for each project and bringing the business support operations directly into the rest of the team. The result is an authority named as one of Planning Portal’s ‘Smarter Planning Champions’. The office move that followed the early days of the IT project also helped to reinforce the sense of fundamental change in how the department communicated both amongst themselves and with both internal and external clients. RMBC’s decision to relocate the authority to the newly constructed Riverside House in the heart of the town offered its planning team a great opportunity. The various components of the planning team used to sit in different areas in the old building, which generated the sense amongst each, the support team in particular, that they were not part of this team. What the move to Riverside House offered was the introduction of flexible/agile working, with the entire planning team housed both in a smaller overall corporate footprint, and as well in an open-plan environment, all for the first time. The team spent time working out how best to bring its departments together in this new space, in so doing building further on the sense of team cohesion that

was already developing as a result of the more integrated IT. The cumulative effect today is a development management team whose members have a greater sense of autonomy, can work from home when necessary, who support and socialise with each other, and who together project a genuine sense of purpose. Case officers take responsibility for their own work, “right from the beginning of the application to the end. They see that full transparent process”. “We’re incredibly lucky because of the team we have,” says Knight, “and we’ve taken them with us through every change we’ve made.”

PLANNING POLICY – ROTHERHAM’S LOCAL PLAN Rotherham’s local plan has been developed to address the challenge of moving the area away from its industrial roots – based on coal and steel, and reliant on large employers – to a more ‘modern’ economy. The previous unitary development plan’s focus on regeneration worked to a rigid green belt policy as it moved development to brownﬁeld land. However, with brownﬁeld land close to exhausted as a result and 70 per cent of the borough designated green belt, it was clear that a review of the green belt would be vital to a successful new local plan. (“Setting appropriate targets for growth, while minimising loss of Green Belt land, is the cornerstone of the Local Plan.”) At the time of its awards submission, Rotherham was the only local

planning authority in South Yorkshire to have adopted a core strategy compliant with the National Planning Policy Framework. This was adopted in 2014, its public consultation lauded by observers for its thoroughness. A Sites and Policies document, identifying the speciﬁc development sites required to deliver the Core Strategy targets, was submitted to the government in March 2016 and, following examination, the aim was to adopt the document in 2018. The new local plan will replace the old unitary development plan in its entirety. The speed at which the borough moved to submit its local plan is put down to RMBC planning oﬃcers accepting a “new way of working, focusing on key priorities”.

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

RMBC claims to be the first planning service to use a “true cloud-based” solution for its development management function, with all the back-up and disaster recovery benefits that entails. Across the desk the authority’s planning policy team also uses the system to manage projects, allowing access to external partners where close collaboration on projects is necessary.

BUSINESS MINDEDNESS

Left: The Bassingthorpe Farm Urban Extension will provide 13 per cent of the borough’s new housing. Below: RMBC‘s Riverside House HQ.

Another key element in RMBC‘s local planning success is just how much it has earned the respect of developers for its proactive approach, appreciated for its awareness of how a positive planning approach can “kick-start" regeneration of the region away from its former commercial dependence on coal and steel. Rotherham is particularly proud of the way its planning officers engage with developers on major applications, looking beyond any constraints that may come up and to work with applicants on what changes can ensure delivery. “We will always work with them,” says Knight. “We won’t put up barriers to development.” It is a view endorsed by the Rotherham investment and Development Office (RiDO), which is tasked with attracting investment into Rotherham. Its head, Tim O’Connell,, says that the planning service has proved its vital role here, earning a reputation for providing “clear, reliable, professional planning advice” through “transparent and efficient planning processes”. This has boosted the market’s perception of the town, in particular helping in the securing of the Advanced Manufacturing Park in general and the McLaren application in particular. Ultimately, the recent history of Rotherham’s planning team is one of positive response to change in all its facets.

B A S S I N G T H O R P E FA R M RMBC’s consultation on its local plan included the site at Bassingthorpe Farm, close to the centre of Rotherham. Bassingthorpe is the largest allocated site in the Sheﬃeld City Region; in total, RMBC’s core strategy has it delivering 14,000 houses by 2030 – with the Bassingthorpe Farm Urban Extension providing 13 per cent of this total. Active communication with residents over tricky issues was one of the main reasons for RMBC’s RTPI awards success, its consultation with the community over green belt release a key element. Rotherham’s planners worked with the community by organising drop-in sessions and workshops, explaining the importance of green belt release, resulting in changes to the masterplan.

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E THE FUTURE OF #PLANTECH HOW WILL TECHNOLOGY SHAPE PLANNING AND PLACEMAKING IN 2019/20? WE ASKED A SELECTION OF INNOVATORS AND PLANNERS TO MAKE THEIR PREDICTIONS

The march of data I think that some of the main ways that technology will shape planning and placemaking are: ndata-driven insights nbetter-designed places using real-time data nbetter transparency ngreater accessibility. The advances in technology will not only mean that there can be better access to diﬀerent data sets, but also they can be displayed in a user-friendly manner – making them more accessible to a bigger audience. The increase in datadriven insights will have a positive inﬂuence, planning will become more data-driven, the use of realtime data will be used to optimise the design of places so that they work best for the people who are going to use them. Technology can be used to increase transparency in planning, making people within and outside of the profession more aware of the process, decision-making, and what is happening in an area. Grace Manning-Marsh is a planner and product manager for Land Insight

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LANDSCAPE P30 TECH P34 REGIONAL P38 DECISIONS P42 LEGAL P50 PLAN B P51 ACTIVITY

#PlanTech goes mainstream

The future is now

A more open face

After all the banging on about the potential for technology in the planning system for a few years, 2018 was the year it took off, with #PlanTech services being developed in Hackney, Milton Keynes, Southwark, and many other local authorities. As more and more planning data is opened up and made machine readable, I’d expect there to be applications that make use of more sophisticated data analytics (I won’t say AI or even Machine Learning…). As different #PlanTech solutions are developed around the planning application service, there will be more attention outside in areas such as the pre-app process, design quality and masterplanning. The continuing march of digital companies into the built environment will no doubt continue – with Google, Amazon, Facebook, We Work and now AirBnB moving into property development, the only question is when will they start to disrupt planning?

When it comes to visions of future technology, 2019 is an important year. This is chiefly because it provides the setting for the sci-fi film Blade Runner and so is a good moment to reflect on how far we’ve come. Although we don’t have flying cars (which would be a nightmare for parking standards, anyway), there is something in the air that says ‘The Future is Now’. From autonomous vehicles to artificial intelligence, the way technology is changing our cities is both exciting and alarming. Recently, British cities were flooded with innovative dockless, shared bikes. The immediate reaction of built environment professionals was to issue some highway obstruction notices. This begs the question of whether our processes are keeping pace with technological change. What role does the planner have in an increasingly digital city? Can emerging technology be harnessed to secure the loftier goals of planning, such as equality and sustainability? In 2019, we need to be proactive and open-minded when it comes to new urban technologies, or we might get left behind.

Technology can’t solve everything in planning. But over the next 12 months technology could dramatically increase the delight and meaning of those residents and businesses that interact with planning. That would be a huge win that catalyses public trust and generates better quality data about places. The new NPPF called for ‘eﬀective engagement’ with stakeholders, which can only happen if planning becomes more accessible. That means going where the people are (which is often online), creating digestible plans (more visual, less jargon), and making it more interactive (or digital). Technology can help with all of this. Accessibility is one facet of trust. Another is openness, which technology can also readily help to achieve. On Commonplace, for example, comments from the public remain public. Which makes it feel transparent and trusted, and increases the richness of the data, for example, by enabling people to agree with other comments. Planning needs technology to open it up to the public because otherwise it can’t achieve its promises of better places. Engagement technology is becoming as essential to the planner’s toolkit as GIS.

Stefan Webb is director of digitising planning for Future Cities Catapult

Ross O'Ceallaigh is an urban design and planning consultant with Urban Initiatives Studio

Mike Saunders is chief executive of Commonplace

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LANDSCAPE

TTech { L A N D S C A P E AI breaks through I believe there is a technological revolution heading planning’s way. In the next few years increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) will change how planners work and the way applications come forward. The use of AI to validate planning applications is already being trialled by a number of local authorities and this will only spread as the technology becomes more advanced and more affordable. Technology will also shape the way applications are engaged with, for both the public and those assessing the applications. Virtual reality (VR) allows people to see how a development will look in context from the comfort of their own office, site visits can be conducted without going outside and public consultations will use VR to democratise the planning process. Better, easier engagement with planning and improved efficiency will ensure that planning progresses positively through the 21st century.

Placemaking + tech = integrated transport The way that we travel has significant impacts on productivity, well-being, air quality and climate change. To tackle these issues, planners have to work in partnership to radically increase rates of walking, cycling and public transport use – a complex and challenging task. So as technology transforms planning, I’m particularly excited by the possibilities it creates for integrating sustainable transport into placemaking. Some cities are already using data to model levels of public transport accessibility, helping planners to set appropriate standards for density and parking. But real-time information on the movement of people and freight, drawn from anonymised mobile data and other sources, could soon be used to create sophisticated transport models for city-regions, showing accessibility between homes, jobs and services across transport modes and income groups. Open-source platforms, built on this data, could offer fresh insights into the transport impacts of site allocations, planning applications and traffic policies, giving us better evidence for shaping development in a way that tackles car dependency and promotes sustainable mobility. James Harris is policy oﬃcer for the RTPI

Alison Broderick is a senior planner with Savills

Even bigger data, right now

“WE SHOULD BE VIEWING TECHNOLOGY AS A TOOL TO HELP US REDUCE COSTS AND TIME SPENT IN MUNDANE ACTIVITIES – NOT A THREAT TO EXISTENCE”

We’ve been working on the digital transformation of the planning system since 2014. This hasn’t been an easy task – given the entrenchment of existing processes and cultures, and the number of parties involved. But a lot of our work will be coming to fruition as we shift our focus from serving planners and professionals to using data and technology to provide insights to developers. We have developed a new algorithm that includes over four billion data points covering England and Wales. We’re using an unprecedented level of data to analyse the indicators that lead to planning permissions to support developers, both in locating land for development and in maximising success with applications. One of the biggest advances will be decoupling from traditional evidence base documents. Let’s face it, they’re unﬁt for purpose as they are out of date from publication. Instead, we’ll be developing live databases to monitor planning theme areas such as transport, housing and infrastructure in close to real-time. This will enable developers (and those open to new ideas in the public sector) to identify the trends, risks and opportunities at scale and pace. I believe that in 2019 we will start to see the most innovative in the industry separating themselves from the pack. Again, we should be viewing technology as a tool to help us reduce costs and time spent in our most mundane activities as planners – not a threat to existence. Let’s make it happen. Daniel Mohamed is chief executive of Urban Intelligence

In the next few months we’ll be looking speciﬁcally at how the marriage of mapping and data is becoming more sophisticated, and useful; how local authorities are using tech to standardise contested processes; how engagement platforms are continuing to develop; and the support networks that are helping to fund such innovation. Keep reading – there’s an awful lot going on.

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Visualisations for a positive outcome

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Nations & Regions focus { A new Yorkshire accent Perhaps more correctly called Yorkshire and the Humber, this is a large region that comprises just over 10 per cent of England, with around 10 per cent of its population. It includes England’s largest county (North Yorkshire), lengthy coastline and ports, extensive farmland, cities built on the Industrial Revolution, market towns, rural villages and two national parks (and a bit of a third) with some of England's most spectacular countryside. Following decline in traditional industries, its economy is now as diverse as its geography; many parts of Yorkshire are thriving, though stubborn pockets of poverty remain. Nowadays, Hull is becoming a centre for renewables and high-tech manufacturing linked to the ‘energy estuary’ of the Humber; Leeds is one of England’s fastest-growing cities outside London, strong in ﬁnancial services and with a growing digital and creative sector – evidenced by the decision of Channel Four to locate its new headquarters in the city; Sheﬃeld, extensively regenerated, continues to thrive as a manufacturer, backed up by a strong university research base; Scunthorpe makes all the UK’s rail tracks, and much for Europe, too; North and

FACTFILE 2018 2018 2018

North East Lincolnshire are vital to the UK’s agri-food sector. The region is a logistics hub, a manufacturing base, a financial services and a research centre, but it is let down by poor transport connectivity. There are various schemes to address this, broadly incorporated within the idea of the Northern Powerhouse – Transport for the North, which promotes a revitalised East-West rail network as a foundation for economic growth, has been given statutory status, and the RTPI itself is a driver of the Great North Plan, looking at the relationship between people and place. There is huge potential for Yorkshire’s towns and cities through working in tandem with counterparts across the North. Beyond economy and geography, Yorkshire and the Humber has a powerful regional identify rooted in a strong sense of place. Its cultural, sporting and built heritages are significant and frequently celebrated – indeed, the awardwinning regeneration of the Piece Hall in Halifax, a former cloth hall, exemplifies how these different strands of identity are interwoven and can be adapted to a modern, post-industrial world.

Counties: North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire Area: 6,074 square miles Population: 5.45 million* Major population centres* Sheﬃeld 544,402 Leeds 503,338 Bradford 361,046 Kingston upon Hull 288,671 Huddersﬁeld 170,269 York 161,994 Doncaster 114,900 Rotherham 110,751 Grimsby 88,500 Scunthorpe 82,472 *ONS 2017 estimates Parliamentary constituencies: 60 (20 Conservative, 40 Labour) Planning authorities 1 Non-metropolitan county council, 8 unitary, 9 metropolitan borough, 7 district, 2 national parks (Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire Moors), plus a segment of a third (Peak District)

IN THE PIPELINE

1. New Channel 4 HQ, Leeds The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership wooed Channel Four Television Corporation to create a Northern headquarters in the city – adding weight to already buzzing creative industries. The location is yet to be decided, but the smart money is on the South Bank creative quarter. bit.ly/planner0119-C4

2. Sheﬃeld Heart of the city II The city council is developer for this £500 million second phase of city centre regeneration. A revised

masterplan adapts to changing trends by accentuating oﬃce and residential space alongside reduced retail, as well as bigger roles for restaurants/hotels. bit.ly/planner0119-heart

3. Leeds road route overhaul Some 15,000 people have been consulted on improvements to the transport network within the city and city region. Proposals would improve the A58 inner ring road, the A647 Leeds to Bradford, and include bus route upgrades and new rail stations.

bit.ly/planner0119-routes

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Yorkshire COMING UP

Major Minerals Development in Yorkshire’s Iconic Countryside: Mining and Hydraulic Fracturing 20 February, York A consideration of the pros and cons of mining and fracking in environmentally sensitive parts of Yorkshire, with particular reference to mining in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park and proposed fracking at Kirby Misperton. bit.ly/planner0119-fracking

Planning Policy: Process and Practice 21 March, Leeds New event looking at how planning policy professionals can contribute to spatial, sustainable and inclusive planning in an increasingly complex regulatory and political environment. bit.ly/planner0119-process

Development Management: Law and Practice 16 May, York Well-established conference to keep professionals up to date during a period of change to planning policy and law.

bit.ly/planner0119-law These and other events will be available to book online shortly at: bit. ly/planner0119-yorkshire

RECENT SUCCESSES

1. Green Port Hull Hull City Council won RTPI Yorkshire’s top planning award for delivering Siemens’ new oﬀshore wind turbine blade manufacturing, assembly and servicing facilities at the city’s Alexandra Port. The project is the centrepiece of the vision to establish Hull as a centre for renewable energy. bit.ly/planner0119-porthull

2. The Piece Hall, Halifax The £19 million conservation of the grade I listed Piece Hall, the only surviving intact cloth hall in the UK, has produced an award-winning commercial and cultural centre that hosts

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markets, theatrical performances, workshops, exhibitions, restaurants and more. bit.ly/planner0119-piecehall

3. Holbeck Neighbourhood Plan An exemplary urban neighbourhood plan prepared by Holbeck Neighbourhood Forum with support from Leeds City Council. The Holbeck neighbourhood, in central Leeds, has struggled with the impacts of industrial decline. The plan addresses these problems and lays the foundation for a more vibrant and healthy community.

bit.ly/planner0119-Holbeck

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Yorkshire INSIGHT: MIND THE GAPS

The Yorkshire Dales National Park

Bob Wolfe is chair of RTPI Yorkshire and project chair for Ambitions for the North of England: People and Place, the RTPI-led strand of the Great North Plan project. “The Great North Plan can only be viewed in the context of other things that are happening across the North of England, such as Transport for the North, the Northern Energy Taskforce, the People’s Powerhouse and even increased devolution. Most of these are framed within the economic structure in some way. Quite properly, this work will focus on the people and the places they inhabit. The approach we’re adopting is nuanced and inclusive. We’re looking at places across the North and ﬁrmly asserting that they all have a role to play. What is missing from all the talk around the Northern Powerhouse is proper consideration of the important spaces and places between the major cities. The North already has strong trading partnerships, and there’s a massive amount of foreign and inhouse investment. But there are a number of large towns such as Huddersﬁeld, Blackburn and Wigan, that are underperforming relative to the cities. Smaller towns, rural and coastal areas also play a fundamental part of life across the North. What’s the future of town centres in smaller market towns? What could happen to sustain towns that currently do not have economic capacity? What about the decline in coastal communities? What’s happening with rural depopulation across the North? How can the strong university sector be sustained and graduates encouraged to stay and develop their skills for the North? It’s putting the people and places in that wider context, making the wider than economic case for a fair

distribution of wealth, and looking at things that planning has traditionally wanted to influence, such as education and schools. Where and how we can we improve the life chances of the people who live in the north of England? The work with Peter Brett Associates and Newcastle University is called ‘Ambitions for the North: People and Place’. The outcome is to underline the ambitious nature of a plan for the North. There’s a professional hunger. When we ran the first stage of this process one could see an interest and a desire to look and think strategically about how we might get ahead.” The Ambitions for the North of England project team will be holding roundtables to feed views into the Great North Plan. The first will take place on 14 January in Bradford. rtpi. org.uk/greatnorthplan

SIGNPOSTS n National chair: Chair: Richard Wood MRTPI n Regional web address: bit.ly/planner0119-yorks n Annual review: bit.ly/planner0119-review n Yorkshire Young Planners: bit.ly/planner0119-yps n Email address: yorkshire@rtpi.org.uk n Twitter: @RTPI_Yorks

NEXT MONTH:

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I M AG E | G E T T Y

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If a job role’s worth filling… Don’t just take our word for it - here’s what our customers are saying about Planner Jobs, the oﬃcial planning recruitment service of the RTPI “We got a good number of applications for the planning officer posts and, having a brief look through the submissions, the candidates are from various necks of the woods. Placing the advert with you has certainlyy helped us to reach a wider audience.” MAY 2018 – MATTHEW PARRYDAVIES, DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT MANAGER, WIRRAL COUNCIL

“I have to say that the calibre of planners we have had apply through The Planner has really improved over the last three months.”

“I’m pleased to say we were able to appoint to this role (senior planner) and had a good calibre of applications. an Many of them, including the successful Ma candidate, were from yourselves, so ca thank you.” th AL ALEXANDRA KELLY, RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT, KINGSTON BOROUGH COUNCIL KIN

JULY 2018 – CJ OBI, UK HEAD, TOWN PLANNING AND REAL ESTATE, OSBORNE RICHARDSON

“I am pleased to say that following our advertisement with The Plannerr we have successfully recruited high calibre candidates to each of the three vacant posts. There was also significant response to the advertisement from which we were able to shortlist suitable candidates. This is due in no small way to the quality of the advertisement itself and its circulation. I would like to place on record my thanks for your support and assistance, and the professional manner in which dealt with our requests.” OCTOBER 2018 ALAN N COLEMAN, HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING & ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL

“As a startup practice, we had a very limited budget to recruit new graduate level planners. We also wanted to make sure that our job advert was exposed to the greatest amount of RTPI members. After shopping we decided that The Planner offered us the best possible value and reach among the planning community. As a result we were inundated with applications, and have been able to select some very high calibre candidates.” TOM VENABLES, PLANNING DIRECTOR, PRIOR + PARTNERS

“We have had really positive results with the adverts we have placed in The Planner. Our two new principals started with us this week, and we have had a series of interviews off the back of the advert.” JULY 2018 KEVIN JAMES, SUPPORT TEAM MANAGER, AYLESBURY VALE DISTRICT COUNCIL

“The Planner worked fantastically well for our client’s senior planner role and massively exceeded expected applications! We would heartily recommend them to any client or business for their planning roles.” DEAN TRANTER, ACCOUNT MANAGER, JUPITER ADVERTISING

Make sure your job role is seen by the largest possible audience of planners: contact Gill Rock on 020 7880 6232 recruitmentsales@theplanner.co.uk Find the right candidates for your planning roles by visiting:

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C&D { C

CASES &DECISIONS

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

Previously recovered 600-home Salford scheme rejected again Housing secretary James Brokenshire has refused plans for 600 homes on “green wedge” land near Salford, after his predecessor Eric Pickles’ 2015 dismissal of the scheme was quashed by the High Court. The appeal concerned three separate sites to the east of Worsley, Greater Manchester. The appellant sought permission for an “aspirational housing” development comprising 600 homes, of which 30 per cent would be aﬀordable, along with a 130-berth marina, playing ﬁelds and other ancillary development. The council initially rejected the application in late 2013. The subsequent appeal was recovered by then-housing secretary Eric Pickles, who upheld the inspector’s decision to dismiss the appeal. But Pickles’ decision was then quashed by the High Court and a new inquiry set up, with inspector Michael Boniface appointed to report to new housing secretary James Brokenshire. The appeal centred on the Worsley greenway, a “strategically important green wedge” covering 195 hectares and incorporating part of the appeal site. Policy EN2 of the council’s development plan restricts development that would “fragment or detract from the openness and continuity” of the greenway. Even in the absence of policies covering the need

LOCATION: Worsley AUTHORITY: Salford City Council INSPECTOR: Michael Boniface PROCEDURE: Recovered appeal DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ U4230/W/13/2209607

for and distribution of housing, Boniface ruled that in policy EN2 the council had “a policy relating to the land in question which unambiguously restricts

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development of the type proposed”. The development plan could not therefore be considered “absent, silent, or out of date” with regards to the greenway, he found. Brokenshire agreed, ruling that unacceptable harm would arise from the scheme’s conflict with policy EN2. The appellant argued that the council’s housing land supply figures should be considered a “work in progress”, given the thenforthcoming government consultation on calculating housing need. In response, Brokenshire undertook his own calculation, finding a supply

of over 13 years. On this basis he considered that the development plan was clearly not hindering the council’s delivery of housing. Despite its large housing land supply, the appellant argued, the council was not meeting the needs of the Salford housing market as a whole, pointing to “significant deficiencies” in the number of larger “aspirational” homes and “wider issues with homelessness and affordability”. RAID (Residents Against Inappropriate Development) – a community group opposed to the scheme that had been granted Rule 6 status at the inquiry – challenged this view, stating that “to suggest that the proposed development will make any meaningful contribution to tackling homelessness is simply an insult to our intelligence”. Brokenshire gave no additional weight to the appellant’s voluntary “enhanced offering” of 30 per cent affordable housing – 10 per cent higher than the 20 per cent requirement set out in the development plan – however, because it failed to meet the regulations for planning obligations set out in the NPPF. In his conclusion, the housing secretary ruled that despite the benefits of the scheme’s provision of “aspirational and affordable housing”, there were no material considerations to justify departing from the development plan. The appeal was therefore dismissed.

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These are just a few of the 40 or so appeal reports that we post each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions

Family disagreement does not justify farm worker’s log cabin A log cabin for use as a rural worker’s dwelling on a Leicestershire farm was refused because a farmhouse occupied by the appellant’s mother already exists on the site, despite her refusal to move out or share the house with her son and his family.

Oxfordshire housing deal adds weight to refusal of 245-home scheme An inspector has blocked plans for 245 homes on unallocated land near the Chilterns AONB, citing the Oxfordshire housing deal and its “key objective” of “avoiding speculative and unplanned development”. The appeal concerned land within a wider “open agricultural landscape” north of Reading. The appellant, Gladman Developments, planned 245 homes on the site. In November 2017, Oxfordshire’s six local authorities agreed with the government to deliver 100,000 new homes by 2031. In return for £215 million of funding, the councils must produce a collaborative joint spatial plan. A ministerial statement (MS) has introduced “temporary planning flexibility” in Oxfordshire while this plan is prepared. During this period, the “tilted balance” of NPPF paragraph 11 will only be applied when a council’s housing land supply falls below three years, rather than five. “It is clear that the ambitious level of planned growth in Oxfordshire is primarily to be achieved through the development plan process”, observed Inspector Nick Palmer, while noting that the housing deal aims to “avoid incremental, speculative and unplanned development”. He noted that local policy requires development outside towns and villages to relate “to specific needs LOCATION: Emmer Green such as agriculture”. The scheme fell foul of this. AUTHORITY: South Oxfordshire Palmer gave substantial District Council weight to the new housing delivery test INSPECTOR: Nick Palmer because of its “imminent introduction”, and PROCEDURE: Inquiry calculated a supply of at least three years. In line DECISION: Dismissed with the MS the “tilted balance” was not engaged. REFERENCE: APP/ Palmer concluded Q3115/W/17/3185997 the benefits were not sufficient to outweigh conflict with the local plan.

The appeal concerned a Leicestershire farm, near Osbaston. The appellant had recently “taken majority control” of the farm, having worked there for over ﬁve years. Both parties agreed that there was an essential need for a rural worker to be readily available at the farm at all times, so the appellant sought permission to build a log cabin on the site for him and his family to live in. Inspector H Porter referred to the local development plan, which states that where an exception to policies restricting countryside development is to be made, there shouldn’t be any existing buildings suitable for residential conversion on the site or in the local area. A three-bedroom farmhouse already exists on the site, she noted, but it is occupied by the appellant’s mother, who did not wish to move or let the appellant and his family move in. The proposal would replace two mobile homes on the site that he and his family had been living in, which do not

LOCATION: Osbaston AUTHORITY: Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council INSPECTOR: Hannah Porter PROCEDURE: Hearing DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ K2420/W/18/3206304

have planning permission, the appellant said. Porter was not persuaded. “It seems to me, that at some unknown but not necessarily distant point in the future, the farmhouse could become available.” She ruled that although the proposal would “satisfy the challenging personal circumstances of the appellant and his family”, it could not be considered an option of last resort, because alternative options such as an extension to the existing farmhouse had not been exhausted. The appeal was dismissed.

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C&D { C Brokenshire overrules inspector to refuse 225 homes on Hoo Peninsula

LOCATION: Cliffe Woods AUTHORITY: Medway Council INSPECTOR: Inspector: Matthew Nunn PROCEDURE: Recovered appeal DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ A2280/W/17/3175461

The appeal concerned three fields west of Cliffe Woods, on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent. The site has no specific landscape designations, but is close to several European protected sites. Appellant Gladman Developments planned to build 225 homes on the site. In his decision letter, housing secretary James Brokenshire agreed with inspector Matthew Nunn’s finding that the scheme conflicted with local

Design panel comments outweigh policy in 527-bed student scheme An inspector has approved plans for student accommodation in Guildford with a capacity of 553 students despite non-compliance with local design policy, in light of a recommendation from the design review panel Design: South East (DSE). The site comprised various large, disused college buildings to the rear of Guildford College’s Stoke Park campus. The appellant planned to replace these with 527 bedrooms of student accommodation across four buildings. The scheme included four “substantial” cuboid buildings arranged around a central courtyard. The buildings would be ﬂat-roofed, with “little or no articulation” to their façades other than brickwork detailing.

The council refused the scheme because its design conﬂicted with the Guildford local plan, which prohibits ﬂat roofs and recommends the

landscape policies. . Brokenshire noted that although the site is close to Cliﬀe Woods, which has a range of amenities residents would still need to travel farther aﬁeld to access larger supermarkets, secondary schools and jobs. Public transport to and from the site would be limited, he considered, noting that the nearest train station is 2km away and buses do not run in the evening.

Unswayed by the appellant’s proposed mitigation measures, he found that the scheme did not offer “a genuine choice of transport modes”. He considered this an intrinsic conflict with local and national policy. Although he described the provision of housing as a significant benefit, Brokenshire afforded more weight to the scheme’s sustainable transport shortcomings than Nunn had.

use of “chimneys, dormers, cupolas and clock towers” to add interest. However, the design review panel DSE, which had previously considered alternative iterations of the proposal, recommended the appellant’s “stripped-back” approach, Inspector P W Clark referred to a more recent council supplementary planning document, which states that the design review panel’s recommendations should “carry great authority” because they will help to “secure a higher quality of design in new development”. He also noted that the council did not intend to carry forward the conﬂicting policy into its emerging local plan. Although it would be twice the height of the existing and adjacent School of Art building, Clark noted, the new buildings would be half

its length, creating a “not displeasing proportional relationship”. He approved of the building’s proposed façades, calling them “stolid, though not unpleasant”. Clark ruled that although the scheme would be contrary to local design policy, the comments of DSE were a material consideration. The appeal was allowed.

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

The housing secretary has refused permission for a major housing scheme in Kent against the advice of his inspector, citing the scheme’s failure to oﬀer a genuine choice of transport modes.

LOCATION: Guildford AUTHORITY: Guildford Borough Council INSPECTOR: P W Clark PROCEDURE: Hearing DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ Y3615/W/18/3195333

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE to our appeals digest:

https://subs.theplanner. co.uk/register

NPPF revisions protect pub from conversion An inspector has refused plans to convert a pub in the Gloucestershire countryside to residential use, citing the revised wording of the new NPPF regarding the retention of community facilities. bit.ly/planner0119-pub

Risk to highvalue tree from MRI unit’s concrete platform

Paddocks not ‘previously developed land’

An inspector has refused retrospective pective permission for a “concrete pad” to accommodate a mobile MRI scanner anner at a hospital in Swansea, citing potential harm to the roots of a highquality yew tree. bit.ly/planner0119-pad

An inspector has refused plans for 75 homes at a riding school in North Yorkshire, after ruling that the school’s adjacent paddocks were not within its curtilage and could not be considered “previously developed land”. bit.ly/planner0119-paddocks

Rainham site renewal is ‘of Londonwide importance’

Plan to house old hobby horse refused over heritage harm

Plans to build 56 flats and three houses on a neglected roadside near Rainham, East London, can go ahead, an inspector has ruled, after the appellant sacrificed a portion of its projected profits to improve its affordable housing offering. bit.ly/planner0119-rainham

Plans for a building in Minehead, Somerset, that would house a permanent display for the town’s traditional hobby horse have been blocked, after an inspector found unacceptable harm to the setting of two nearby listed buildings. bit.ly/planner0119-hobbyhorse

Lee green space shortage Leeds pr precludes 46home scheme An inspector has cited a green deﬁciency of three hectares space d iin Guiseley, Yorkshire, in his decision to refuse plans for 46 de homes on a disused allotment, hom despite the council’s housing land supply shortfall. bit.ly/planner0119-guiseley b

‘Sweat equity’ makes rural worker’s home viable An inspector has approved plans for a rural worker’s dwelling at an equestrian rian business in Shropshire, accepting the appellant’s argument that ‘sweatt equity’ would lower the build cost off the house to a viable level. bit.ly/0119-sweat /0119-s

Driving test centre run from hotel room can continue

Sp decision on Edinburgh Split Airbnb flats in same building

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An inspector h has issued a split proposed change decision on the pro of use of two ﬂats in the same Edinburgh building for central Edinburg holiday letting, citing short-term hol street-level access of the private str one of the ﬂats. bit.ly/planner0119-airbnb bit.ly/plan

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A driving test centre operating from a hotel in Bromley can continue for another 12 months, an inspector has ruled, calling the facility ‘an important public service’. bit.ly/planner0119-test

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LLegal landscape OPINION

The evolution of CIL in 2019 The community infrastructure levy is one of the more contested areas of planning. Katherine Evans reads the runes to consider how it is likely to change over the next 12 months Ensuring that developers contribute to the infrastructure required as a result of their schemes is an important consideration for local planning authorities. The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was introduced in April 2010 – a planning charge aimed at developers to help raise funds for these purposes. A local authority can only charge CIL if it has adopted a charging schedule. But the government’s view is that the protracted procedure for adopting a charging schedule is a major barrier and one reason why CIL is not used in many areas. Simplifying this process is just one of the reforms on the horizon for 2019.

Section 106 pooling requirement Since April 2015, local authorities have not been able to fund an infrastructure project or type of infrastructure by pooling contributions from ﬁve or more separate section 106 agreements. This was designed to encourage local authorities to adopt CIL charging schedules, however, in some circumstances it can stiﬂe development. We are going to see a lifting of the pooling restriction in

all areas. However, so that CIL remains an eﬀective mechanism, the government will put measures in place to incentivise the uptake of CIL. There is no indication yet of what those measures will be.

Greater ﬂexibility in relation to exemptions If a commencement notice is not submitted before the development begins, entitlement to CIL relief is lost. Anyone not accustomed to dealing with CIL can inadvertently miss out. The introduction of a two-month ‘grace period’ was mooted, but this has been rejected owing to the complications and increased administrative burden this would introduce. Instead, we are likely to see a modiﬁcation of the penalties for failing to submit a commencement notice before development is started so that these are ‘proportionate’ and do not result in total loss of the exemption.

Indexation In 2018 the Community Infrastructure Levy (Amendment) Regulations 2018 came into force. These clarify what should be done in relation to permissions granted under section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

But there is still concern that the indexation provisions in the CIL regulations are underperforming. CIL charges are indexed to the Building Cost Information Services (BCIS) All-In Tender Price Index. This reﬂects changes in contractor costs and is used to account for changes in the costs of delivering infrastructure. However, house price inﬂation does not rise at the same rate as contractor costs. 2019 will see a consultation on changes to the indexation of CIL rates.

Regulation 123 lists Regulation 123 of the CIL regulations provides for charging authorities to set out a list of those projects or types of infrastructure that it intends to fund, or may fund, through CIL. Although charging authorities are required to report annually on how much CIL has been received and how it has been spent, the depth of information varies. Viability guidance now sets out the government’s recommended approach to reporting through an Infrastructure Funding Statement – a standard template that includes anticipated contributions from both CIL and section 106 obligations, together with how these will be used. The government will also make it clear that local planning authorities can seek a fee from applicants to cover the costs of monitoring planning obligations.

Strategic Infrastructure Tariﬀ (SIT) A SIT is intended to work in a similar way to Mayoral CIL: • Combined authorities with strategic planning powers will be able to take forward a SIT; and • Groups of charging authorities will be encouraged to use existing powers to deliver strategic infrastructure through a pooling of CIL receipts. The latter will only be eﬀective where neighbouring authorities have CIL charging schedules in place. In the longer term, the government intends to allow joint planning committees to charge SIT, and will review options to expand this further. Katherine Evans is partner and head of planning at TLT

In brief The ‘protracted procedure’ for adopting CIL charging is a barrier to take-up. Potential reforms aim to make it easier for authorities to adopt CIL. These will seek to balance the interests of developers and local authorities. Measures may include: making it easier to claim CIL relief, resolving tensions in indexation of CIL rates; standardising reporting on infrastructure spending, and enabling combined authorities to pool CIL contributions.

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS £1.5m fine for planning breaches in North London Harrow Crown Court has ordered a rogue landlord to pay £1.5 million or spend nine years in prison after he was found guilty of breaching planning rules for five years in two London boroughs. Vispasp Sarkari, 56, from Harrow, converted several properties across Harrow and Brent into substandard flats without planning permission. The councils said he was cramming tenants into the dangerous conversions and charging them extortionate rents. Sarkari’s properties include one in Brent converted into eight ‘box room’ bedsits and four similar properties in Harrow. All planning enforcement notices were ignored. Brent Council secured a restraint order against Sarkari. This means he cannot dispose of his assets before the order is paid in full. If the fine is not paid, the council can force the sale of his properties. Judge Wood said the breaches were “a flagrant abuse of the Town and Country Planning legislation”. Sarkari was separately fined £12,000 and ordered to pay both councils’ costs in full. In 2012 a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was made against Sarkari for £303,112.00 for ignoring planning laws. He has also being prosecuted for fire safety offences and gas safety breaches.

Landlord fined £450k for illegal letting An Ealing landlord has been fined nearly £450,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) for illegally renting out outhouses and ignoring enforcement notices to demolish them. Samina Nadeem, from Southall, purchased the property – 201 Scotts Road, Southall – in 2012. She then rented out the outhouses, which were illegally converted from garages to residential units, to five tenants. Ealing Council issued Nadeem with a planning enforcement notice that asked her to stop letting the outhouses and demolish them in August 2014. This was ignored, and council officers stepped in to demolish the outbuilding and prosecuted Nadeem. She pleaded not guilty at her trial in February 2017 at Ealing Magistrates’ Court, but was found guilty. The case was then put before Isleworth Crown Court for a confiscation order to be considered under the POCA. Unable to prove her income over the preceding six years had been legal, she was fined £447,552.22 – the equivalent to the total equity of her rental properties. The fine must be paid by 18 January, otherwise she will receive a four-year prison sentence. Nadeem was also fined a further £18,000.

LEGAL BRIEFS Planning Bills Seminar and AGM 23rd January, Inverness bit.ly/planner0119-scotland

Inspector’s change to condition was lawful An inspector who revised a planning condition to permit two wind turbines to be built larger than the original permission allowed for was within her rights to do so, the High court has ruled, after considering contradictory case law. bit.ly/planner0119-turbine

RTPI North West Planning Law Update 4th March, Manchester bit.ly/planner0119-northwest

Holiday lets in Edinburgh – has the bubble burst? Planning law specialist Gillian Simpson blogs on the proliferation of Airbnbs in the Scottish capital, and how local and national government is reacting. bit.ly/planner0119-let

Government consulting on ‘Housing Court’ The government is consulting on the creation of a specialist housing court, until January 22nd. bit.ly/planner01190-court

Welsh public transport white paper The Welsh transport secretary has introduced a white paper aimed at improving public transport across Wales. bit.ly/planner0119-whitepaper

Landlord without HMO licence fined £20,000 A £20,000 fine has been handed to a landlord and his managing agent for failing to secure a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence. After its community safety team received complaints about waste storage and nuisance behaviour, Barnet Council discovered 13 tenants living in a three-storey property in Edgware. An eight-month-old baby was found living with a couple in the loft, which has been converted. Access to it was via a steep, twisting staircase that had no handrail or lighting. Seven lettings were in place at the property, which lacked the means to detect a fire or escape from one. The council’s environmental health team issued a prohibition order to stop the use of the second-floor room as living accommodation. Property owner Saeed Afolabi and letting agent Alvin Forbes were fined £21,168.40 including costs after appearing at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on 6 November.

Is it a listed building? Planning author Simon Ricketts considers an unusual case involving the sale of two listed limestone piers, which led to an enforcement notice and a ruling by the Court of Appeal. bit.ly/planner0119-listed

Planning (Appeals) Bill second reading The second reading of the Planning (Appeals) Bill is due on 25 January in the House of Commons. bit.ly/planner0119-bill

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NEWS

RTPI {

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

Independent Consultants Network 2018 Conference DEIRDRE WELLS, RTPI ICN CHAIR

Historic York was the backdrop to the annual ICN event. Its theme was ‘Making a Difference’, which concentrated on improving our professional performance on behalf of a wide diversity of clients, while reflecting our fundamental aims of delivering good-quality developments that practitioners can be proud of. For most of our working lives, Network members work independently with limited access to advice from colleagues. The Network, however, provides a highly valued virtual office for daily discussion and sharing learning. Our annual conference adds to this, enabling us to learn together, to develop ideas and to cement the bonds between us. Social bonding is a significant part of the event. Thus a walking tour of the city, led by the Civic Trust, kicked off informal discussions of townscape and heritage issues in our own areas. Regret was expressed by many about the continuing shortage of heritage skills in local authorities, and its adverse impacts. An evening reception sponsored by 39 Essex Street Chambers, The Planning Portal and Terraquest took place in the York Art Gallery – chosen to stimulate the aesthetic aspects of our work. Delegates were able to have direct access for the evening to expert speakers, government, Planning Portal and RTPI representatives. After an opening exhortation to ‘Make Planning Great Again’ from the Chairman, RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills opened the conference proper by making it clear that she valued input from the Network as the RTPI developed research programmes and strategies. Barrister Richard Wald then considered possible challenge areas arising from the new NPPF and the topic of effective challenges in a wider sense, with advice usually reserved for clients. MHCLG Infrastructure lead David Waterhouse spoke about the new NPPF and a focus on quality, delivery and developing more land in the right places, underwritten by environmental protection and securing benefits. Several areas in policy where

flexibility and responsiveness to local conditions are emphasised were highlighted, plus the need to plan holistically especially with large-scale change. Afternoon workshops were diverse, but all were designed to stimulate fresh thinking. We had the benefit of experts in Neighbourhood Planning to thank for an exploration of effective community engagement, with a distillation of practical advice. A factor that came to the fore was the importance of people skills in facing community groups, as well as a well-financed and organised process. A focus on the real outcomes sought is sometimes absent in non-professional groups, and firm guidance is essential. Research and a survey of network members in advance had established significant

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concerns about the appeals system and quality of decisions. Steering group members led a brainstorming session to identify areas for change and potential solutions, which we will discuss further with senior members of various organisations, where we have already established a willingness to work together. This was a particularly useful session with structured discussion rather than stories of disappointment. A legal expert gave the third workshop a concise, imaginative and entertaining presentation on the proper (and to many unexpected) use of Section 73 applications. Design excellence as a driving force in new development was the theme for the ﬁnal plenary session given by Colin Haylock, linking with other discussions on engagement with others and personal satisfaction in our profession. Although sad to see him go, the Network was grateful to have the chance to thank Robbie Calvert, RTPI network manager, for his partisan, skillful and cheerful support. The event enjoyed exceptionally high levels of participation, shared learning and enjoyment. It has become a ﬁxed part of the Network’s calendar, to be repeated next autumn with the help of our muchappreciated sponsors.

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no. 262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

3 POINT PLAN A planner explains how they would improve the Scottish planning system

Petra Biberbach CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PLANNING AID SCOTLAND Our network of 400 volunteers (almost one in ﬁve planners in Scotland) volunteer with PAS for the opportunity to develop new skills, work handson with communities and explore aspects of the profession outside their day job. Through our Advice Service, skills programmes and place-based projects, our volunteers give not just their time, but also their knowledge and skills to help individuals and communities across Scotland engage with the planning system. The Scottish planning system is currently going through reform, with new legislation making its way through the Scottish Parliament. There are growing calls for a system that favours inclusivity and collaboration over confrontation, with interest in the potential role for mediation in the planning system – early and sustained dialogue that can lead to improved outcomes for all. As part of improving outcomes for communities, the planning profession increasingly has the chance to initiate and facilitate dialogue between all areas of policy that impact on place in order to integrate the physical place with health and well-being and wider policy agendas.

S TAT S O F T H E M O N T H

7.5 million acres of land in England and Wales are still ‘missing’ from The Land Registry. Despite being set up in 1862, the Register is only about 80% complete.

An increasing number of planners recognise volunteering as a key part of their professional development

We need a more holistic and collaborative system rooted in place

Planning can play a lead role as facilitator in all the issues that impact on place

POSITION POINTS

REGENERATING SEASIDE TOWNS AND COMMUNITIES RICHARD BLYTH, HEAD OF POLICY AND RESEARCH The RTPI recently provided written and oral evidence to the House of Lords Committee for regenerating seaside towns and communities. We believe that enforcement powers can provide a crucial response to tackling substandard accommodation in these areas. We are interested in the possibilities for neighbourhood plans to impact on the issue of second homes, but with the caveat that plans can only inﬂuence new-build and have no impact on existing stock – this only works at the margin.

INTERGENERATIONAL FAIRNESS

According to 2018 UNISDR European Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction, 14 cities in the UK are involved in international partnerships and global initiatives to build resilience and adaptation.

7.5m

TOM KENNY, POLICY OFFICER The RTPI recently provided written and oral evidence to the House of Lords Committee for Intergenerational Fairness. We believe that planning can play an important role in promoting intergenerational fairness, in particular by identifying and balancing needs between and within generations. This can be achieved by incorporating need into plan-making at an early stage including setting housing targets, encouraging multigenerational housing, creating equitable places, and engaging with communities. Planning can help deliver compact, mixed-use, public transport-friendly settlements that work for all generations. However, this requires proper resourcing and planning is not a ‘silver bullet’ solution for intergenerational inequality. Other tools, for example, a move towards running public ﬁnances on a ‘balance sheet’ rather than ‘cash ﬂow’ basis, would allow greater investment in future generations.

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NEWS

RTPI { P L A N N I N G T H EO R Y A N D PRACTICE JOURNAL

Planning with rather than planning for DR AUDE BICQUELET LOCK, DEPUTY HEAD OF POLICY & RESEARCH This edition explores perspectives on reconciling diﬀerent world views that planners face in community engagement, asking us to reﬂect on principles of ‘true’ engagement and participation. Planners must actively respond to the demands of constituents; planning is at its best when it is responsive to diverse actors, neither presumptuous about their needs nor dismissive of their considerations. As a result, it is more likely that constituents

will care, listen, and act in ways shaped by planners’ work. John Forester warns against top-down planning. Despite planners’ good intentions in such scenarios, it is not about making decisions for people but with them. Planning, argues Forester, is “inescapably relational, not just informal”. Planning is thus less about collecting information than about being accountable, respecting others’ concerns, recognising others’ autonomy and thinking about what “we could do together”.

Lieselot Vandenbussche similarly explores the developmental challenge of assessing how stakeholder relations evolve throughout time and why they may evolve as they do. Vandenbussche explores the regeneration eﬀorts of Katendrecht, Rotterdam, and ﬁnds that “the pinnacle of the collaborative partnership... was characterized by the simultaneous accommodation of opposing values...rather than a uni-dimensional emphasis on consensus”.

The interface – the free section of the journal – looks at the challenge of addressing deeply polarised planning cases. Willow Lung-Amam and Gerardo Sandoval tackle the challenge of planners supporting immigrant communities while Ann Foss takes on the challenge of climate change. Planning Theory & Practice is an internationally regarded research journal. RTPI members can receive a signiﬁcant subscription discount. Volume 19, issue 4 is out now.

Plan your CPD with new guidelines ANDREW CLOSE, HEAD OF CAREERS, EDUCATION PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Institute has adopted a Core CPD Framework as a long-term strategy to guide your professional development and training needs. It supports the policy of 50 hours of CPD that all members must record over a two-year period – other than retired or student members. Developed with member, employer and sector research, the framework identiﬁes a programme of CPD that covers the key professional skills and planning knowledge topics that are core for members to meet the planning challenges of today and the future. Look out for the logo as the programme is rolled out.

The 10 topics are: Professional Skills n Championing Planning n Business Development n Ethics & Professionalism n Digital Planning n Design Planning Knowledge n Infrastructure Planning & Economic Development n Health & Inclusive Planning n Housing n Environmental Planning n Planning Law & Process The 2019 National Training programme is fully aligned to the framework, delivering quality and expertise. Other conferences and regional

RTPI Core CPD Framework

Delivery RTPI Training Regional events National events RTPI Learn Publications

events also form part of the RTPI’s CPD package. CPD takes many forms – conferences, training events, online learning, work-based learning, and so on. For example, the topic ‘championing planning’ is at the heart of the profession. Your focus for this topic might be on leadership, mediation,

Support CPD advice CPD templates PDP resources Annual monitoring Learning Partners

negotiation, political awareness, community engagement, or volunteering and advocacy, and you can choose how you learn about them. See these websites: n bit.ly/planner0119cpdframework n bit.ly/planner0119cpdmembers

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN

Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us APPLY TO BE AN RTPI FELLOW Being recognised by your peers as a Fellow is one of the highest professional attainments. Could you be next? The RTPI is inviting suitably qualified members to apply. Applicants wishing to be conferred must be Chartered Town Planners and will have made a major personal contribution to the planning profession in regard to: • Leadership: The applicant has shown leadership in their field, developing and delivering a vision, encouraging others and advancing the environment in the sector in which they operate. • Innovation: The applicant has demonstrated the ability to deliver new and creative solutions to existing and/or emerging issues and challenges in their area of spatial planning. • Contribution to others in the profession and the community. The member has been actively engaged in developing and supporting other members of the profession and/or the community. • Whether the member’s contribution is above and beyond that expected of an ordinary competent professional planner. Applications for Fellowship are considered by the RTPI Nominations Sub-Committee. To apply, you prepare a 1,0002,000-word statement addressing the criteria, which is supported by four Chartered Town Planners. Full details can be found at: www.rtpi.org.uk/fellow. Read the profile of Fellow Professor Cecilia Wong FRTPI here: bit.ly/planner0119-wong

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE RTPI PLANNING CONVENTION 2019 The RTPI Planning Convention is the largest national planning event of the year for industry professionals from all sectors. This year’s conference will take place on 19 June in London. Expect a packed and thought-provoking programme brought to you by the industry’s most inﬂuential names, sharing their expertise through a mix of keynotes, plenaries, interactive workshops and debates. Tickets will go on sale on the RTPI website shortly. For more information see: bit.ly/planner0119-convention

MAKE THE NEW YEAR YOUR YEAR WITH RTPI PLUS This January, enjoy discounted gym membership at thousands of gyms, leisure centres and health clubs across the UK and Ireland. Virgin Experience Days are also on offer this month with up to 20 per cent off*. These discounts are available through RTPI Plus – a scheme available to most classes of membership that offers a wide range of savings and benefits that can help you save on lifestyle, travel, insurance and business products. Start saving now: bit.ly/planner0119-rtpiplus *T&Cs apply. See website. Discount code cannot be used against the Excluded Range or against already discounted products.

RTPI NEWS

VOLUNTEERLED EMAIL ADVICE SERVICE MARKS ITS FIRST YEAR Planning Aid England’s email advice service has celebrated its first anniversary since becoming a volunteer-led service. The service provides free planning advice to help members of the public effectively engage with the planning system. This service is delivered by a team of chartered volunteers who respond to enquiries on planning topics including planning applications, change of use classes, planning appeals and enforcement. User satisfaction levels for the service are regularly over 80 per cent. Chartered volunteers based across England have been recruited and trained to deliver advice, each working up to 2.5 hours a week answering email enquiries. With local authorities increasingly charging for planning advice, the service has a high demand and responds to more than 150 emails a month. The service’s professional and impartial advice supports members of the public who are a faced with new developments in their local area but who know little about town planning and its complex processes. Volunteers report enjoying the role; one describes it as “the highlight” of their week. Another volunteer said: “It is satisfying to think that I am able to help guide members of the public through the often complex planning system. It has also increased my own knowledge of parts of the planning system I don’t get involved with as part of my day job, and I no longer have to worry about fulfilling my CPD requirements!”

2019 NATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME LAUNCHED The RTPI has launched its annual programme of national training events, starting in February. The 56 courses, which include 11 new topics, will be delivered at 14 locations across the UK. Designed and delivered by industry subject experts, RTPI national training reflects the needs of planners. Attending these courses will help you to expand your technical knowledge and skills, meet your CPD requirements, gain inspiration, learn about all the latest developments, and reflect on the impact you can make in your practice – everything you need to grow as a planning professional. The sessions are delivered in either a Briefing or Masterclass format. Briefings offer a combination of the latest updates with case studies giving practical insights into current issues. Masterclasses focus on specific technical and key development areas. All courses are aligned to the RTPI Core CPD Framework and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals where possible. Prices start from as little as £199+VAT. RTPI members and nonmembers can book online at www.rtpi.org.uk/training with special rates for multi-buy purchases. The national training programme is part of a wider CPD programme and complements RTPI conferences, regional training events and RTPI Learn online modules. n To find out more, visit rtpi.org.uk/training, or get in touch with our specialist in-house training team: t: +44 (0)20 7929 8400, or email training@rtpi.org.uk

CORRECTION Frances Haire MRTPI was listed as from ‘Unmanaged Regions & Nations’ in the ‘Chartered Members’ section of November’s edition. This was incorrect and should have been ‘London’. We apologise for this mistake and inconvenience caused.

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