5 minute read
Louise Brooke Smith: Yin and the yang of the renewables rising
Opinion
Yin and the yang of the renewables rising
For those who have even the slightest Buddhist leanings, yin and yang will have some resonance. For everyone else, the edict of ‘for every positive, there’s a negative’ might ring louder bells.
Consequences are inevitable when there is change, whether change to the evermoving feast that is planning policy, statute and regulations, or simply attitudes and trends. They are even more apparent when there are technological breakthroughs and changes in how we live, work and play.
When all of these collide, as they appear to have done as an outcome of the pandemic, the benefits can be fabulous. I cite the emergence of a vaccine in a matter of months; the adoption of a national green mindset, acceptance that mental health isn’t something to hide under the carpet and that you don’t have to be chained to a desk in the city to be productive.
But while we are seeing many positives, the practical outcomes that follow big changes need to be carefully managed to avoid complications, unintended consequences and confusion.
Let’s look at the enthusiasm for renewable energy. Almost everyone appears to think this is a positive and long-awaited move and good for us and the environment. If you ignore the political blip that meant that the taxable benefits of creating solar farms across the countryside were placed in a state of disarray for a few years, then even the government seems to have now got its act together and there is genuine support for all things green.
Wind farms are raising their sails across land and sea, tidal barrages are being constructed, helping to remove those unsightly mud flats and creating much sought-after ‘waterfront locations’ and even biogas plants seem to be accepted by local parish councils who are presenting themselves as ‘totally with the green agenda’. So, it’s all rosy.
But we’ve been here before with big socio-economic changes. Granted, the decision by a certain female prime minister to topple unions and close pits was less to do with technological change and more political dogma, but remember the impact on the coalfields, pit towns and iron and steel plants? Those monotown economies
ran huge risks and many succumbed to desolation, with massive unemployment.
The move away from fossil fuels will hit the Middle East and the oilfields of Texas, but also our own oil-centred towns. The petrochemical and fossil fuel industries with their huge ports and depots will need to look to new uses. The same applies to petrol stations, which will go when electric charging is possible anywhere on the grid system.
Retail outlets and leisure facilities will lure us into parking areas with cheap or free electricity for our Teslas, while we watch a film or shop. And all those petrol filling stations can be repurposed for anything the next imaginative round of PDRs thinks up. I’m sure there are inventive architects who could squeeze at least six or seven twobedroom units around those leaded and diesel pumps and have them as features in the corner of the room. If we can turn offices, barns and warehouses into liveable space, then transforming underground fuel tanks should be easy.
At the moment, the upside of the fast-paced adoption of renewable energy is clear. Creating renewable industries and constructing swathes of battery plants across the country are to the fore at every switched-on local authority. They get that we will all need the appropriate battery packs to keep our motors running and our smart cities will need the electrical wizardry to keep us powered. So, provided we don’t put all our eggs into one basket and become entirely dependent on a single electro-industry, then the yin and yang of the renewable revolution will be a happy and balanced one.
Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director
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FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB
A LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION SPOKESPERSON RESPONDS TO THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE REPORT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE “Build-to-rent was always destined to dominate the long-term vision of developers and residents alike, but the pandemic has now expedited that process of evolution”
GED MCPARTLIN OF ASCEND PROPERTIES ON THE SURVEY HIS FIRM HAS DONE TO ESTABLISH HOW BUILD-TORENT DEVELOPMENTS ARE ‘BEGINNING TO DOMINATE’ THE NEW-BUILD SECTOR
ANDREW WHITAKER AT THE HOME BUILDERS FEDERATION BEMOANS THE CONTRAST BETWEEN NEW LICHFIELDS RESEARCH SUGGESTING THAT NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH PLANNING PERMISSIONS EXIST TO MEET GOVERNMENT TARGETS – AND RECENT STATEMENTS BY THE LGA THAT ENOUGH EXTANT PLANNING PERMISSIONS DO INDEED EXIST FOR THAT PURPOSE.
MELANIE LEECH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE BRITISH PROPERTY FEDERATION, REVS UP THE ORGANISATION’S NEWLY ESTABLISHED AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE
GARY DICKSON OF THE SCOTTISH FEDERATION OF HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS ON HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS PUSHED THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL SKILLS UP THE AGENDA (“IT’S ABOUT BUSINESS STRATEGY, STRUCTURE, LEADERS, TEAMS, STAFF SKILL AND CONFIDENCE LEVELS AND MUCH MORE”) “Barely a year after work ground to a halt on building sites across the UK, builders are now busier than they have been at any time in nearly seven years”
GARETH BELSHAM, DIRECTOR OF PROPERTY CONSULTANCY NAISMITHS, WELCOMES THE UK’S LATEST CONSTRUCTION PMI DATA “We find ourselves at a critical moment. With planning playing a central role in supporting a green and economic recovery postCovid, the system must be resourced effectively.”
RTPI SCOTLAND CONVENOR BARBARA CUMMINS ON THE INSTITUTE’S RESEARCH SHOWING A STEEP DECLINE IN RESOURCING FOR SCOTTISH PLANNING AUTHORITIES OVER THE PAST DECADE
