The Planner October 2018 by The Planner

OCTOBER 2018 DESIGNING WELL BEING INTO CITIES // p.4 • LAND VALUE: SHARING IT MORE FAIRLY // p.18 • HOUSING CRISIS IN LOCKDOWN // p.26 • TECH LANDSCAPE: THE BEAUTY OF BIM // p.30 • NATIONS & REGIONS: WEST MIDLANDS // 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

COUNTRY WOMAN ROSEMARIE HARRIS TELLS THE PLANNER HOW RURAL POWYS IS PLANNING FOR GROWTH

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CONTENTS

O CTO BER

06 NEWS 4 Can we design wellbeing into modern cities? 6 Excellence in the Everyday – RTPI Northern Ireland Planning Conference 7 Land Development Agency launched in Ireland 8 Study revealing poor quality of office to residential conversions wins RTPI’s top research award 9 Sturgeon promises major boost for infrastructure spend

20 18

“WE NEED TO UPGRADE OUR TRANSPORT AND ROAD NETWORKS. WE NEED TO ESSENTIALLY OPEN UP THE COUNTY”

22 OPINION

14 Chris Shepley: Nursery crimes: How Mr Pickles tore up the magical planning book 16 Sheron Carter: Don’t overlook accessibility when planning social housing 16 Louise BrookeSm Smith: Planners must no not be back-seat drivers as cities prepare for au autonomous vehicles 17 Colin Lavety: The Pl Planning (Scotland) Bill is breaking with key aims 17 Gemma Jerome: New be benchmark for design an and maintenance of gr green infrastructure

15 QUOTE UNQUOTE

“DUE TO THEIR TEMPERAMENT AND ATTRACTIVE FEATURES, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A RECREATIONAL DEMAND FOR ALPACA” INSPECTOR AJ MAGEEAN, CONSIDERING AN APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATION AT AN ALPACA FARM

C O V E R | S I M O N R I D G WAY / U N P

FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 To build healthy, sustainable settlements we must change our attitude to land and its development, says Hugh Barton

30 Tech landscape: BIM is widely used by architects and contractors. But why not planners? asks Mark Smulian

22 Pragmatism is the key to managing planning in a county the size of Powys, council leader Rosemarie Harris tells Simon Wicks

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

26 George Turner reflects on the practice of lockdown; cheaply converting homes for maximum profit 34 Nations & Regions: The West Midlands

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: We’re marking The Planner’s fifth birthday

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NEWS

Report { DESIGN AND WELLBEING

Can we design well-being into modern cities? By Catherine Early

Valuing Landscape Conference 2018: Connecting People, Places and Nature How can planners and landscape designers ensure that tomorrow’s cities withstand the pressures of climate change, poor health and population growth? Landscape design is fundamental to masterplanning; well-designed space improves the resilience of communities to external challenges that include increasingly extreme weather, health and social problems, and population growth. Built environment professionals need to work together to face up to such global changes, the Landscape Institute’s annual conference heard in September. Climate change, for example, means that cities need to be designed to be more energy eﬃcient, population growth may require densiﬁcation of living spaces, and health problems such as obesity and depression can be relieved through access to green space. Dr Wei Yang MRTPI, masterplanner and vice-chair of the RTPI’s International Committee, told the conference that the landscape profession is the only one that connects human settlements and nature. “It’s so important for planners, landscape designers and architects to work closely together to have a joint approach to the built environment,” she told the conference. But politicians and developers around the world were missing a fundamental point. In viewing development as an instrument for growing GDP, they overlooked the value of retaining green

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there soon would not be any restrictions to what can be measured, including whether people take time to stop and shop, or interact with each other. “This will make it easier for us to document that attractive outdoor spaces create a sense of belonging and community. In other words, technology will help us put a value on good landscape architecture.”

space. This, stressed Yang, underpins biodiversity and provides recreational space for populations. Jan Christian Vestre, chief executive of Norwegian public space furniture design company Vestre, explained that the best way to persuade politicians and developers that green space was valuable was to use practical examples to NATURE DEFICIT DAMAGES HEALTH demonstrate how it could help solve their problems. A dominant theme of the conference was For example, when Vestre installed the idea that well-designed spaces can outdoor seating in Brixton in South help to tackle physical and mental health London, there was a fear that it would problems associated with modern living encourage antisocial behaviour. After one and the environments we create. year, however, police had “UK children spend over recorded none. 30 hours a week looking “On the contrary, it was at screens,” said Jennette “UK CHILDREN a place for young people Emery-Wallis, director of SPEND OVER 30 to meet, and elderly landscape architecture HOURS A WEEK people spent more time at environmental LOOKING AT outdoors because there consultancy LUC. “They SCREENS. THEY was somewhere to rest on also spend less time ALSO SPEND LESS the way to the shops. That outdoors than an average TIME OUTDOORS is what creates a sense of prison inmate. Only 10 per THAN AN AVERAGE belonging,” he said. cent of children play in PRISON INMATE.” Good landscape design the countryside, compared – JENNETTE was becoming more with 40 per cent of adults EMERYWALLIS svalued, added Vestre, with when they were younger. technology playing a part We are literally holding in this. Advances in sensor their childhood under technology mean that house arrest,” she said.

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

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PLAN UPFRONT Centre: Utrecht aims to promote healthy urban living through an integrated and systemic approach to ‘greening’ the city

Children were becoming disconnected from nature, she said, which contributed to aggression, obesity and depression. Habits form early; when these children become adults, they are less likely to value nature. For example, children who did not walk to school were less likely to choose to walk over going by car. How to reverse this trend? One glimmer of hope was that there was increasing evidence that creating rich play areas for children helped them to develop physically and mentally, said Emery-Wallis.

There were also a growing number of good examples of how urban design could promote health and well-being. Miriam Weber, senior adviser with Health Urban Living and Resilience in Utrecht, explained how the Dutch city expects to grow from 345,000 to 400,000 residents by 2030. This meant that 100 homes had to be built each week. The incoming local government, noting a 12-year difference in life expectancy in different parts of the city, had made the reduction of health inequality a priority. But conflict over land use – the tension between the need to protect green space and the need to build housing – created a challenge. A cross-sector group worked on 250 projects to ‘green’ the city, which were connected together. These included including an 80-kilometre route for joggers, cyclists and walkers. Development had to be high-rise to avoid expansion into the countryside, but nature was still incorporated, including a building with 370 trees planted on it, she said. The €44 million project was funded through the EU, governments and residents, Emery-Wallis explained. “It’s about co-creation and interdisciplinary working, and putting health at the forefront. That’s the way to connect people, place and nature.”

SPEAKING OF LANDSCAPE

“Trying to persuade people to take seriously that there was any value in integrating art and design with construction and landscape [at London’s Olympic Park] was like pushing jelly uphill, for seven years. “But it was when the construction workers, landscape architects and artists saw that they had created together more than they could have done on their own, the group of people who thought it was the right thing grew and grew.” Sarah Weir, Design Council chief executive “Funding levels in local authorities are not sustainable for the number of services they’re expected to provide, but this could be addressed if there was a better way to capture land value. Service charges should be introduced to pay for long-term maintenance of landscapes. “We don’t build buildings without utilities maintenance, we shouldn’t build landscapes without long-term maintenance that goes with it.” Daniel Cook, Landscape Institute chief executive O CTO B ER 2 018 / THE PLA NNER

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NEWS

Analysis { RTPI NORTHERN IRELAND PLANNING CONFERENCE

Everyday places By Simon Wicks

Excellence in the Everyday – RTPI Northern Ireland Planning Conference, Europe Hotel, Belfast Can planning enhance the well-being of communities? If so, how? For speakers at the annual RTPI Northern Ireland conference the answer to the first question was a definite ‘yes’, and bound up with ideas about ‘place-shaping’. This, and the healthy, sustainable communities that follow, can be achieved through the conference theme of ‘Excellence in the everyday’: in particular, clear principles, a ‘contract’ with communities, use of data and purposeful leadership. Katrina Godfrey, new permanent secretary at Northern Ireland’s Department of Infrastructure, felt that devolution of planning powers to local government had given planners in Northern Ireland a more a solid working platform. The system was “designed to put planning at the heart of the local placeshaping agenda and to provide businesses and communities with more certainty about what would and wouldn’t be acceptable”. Though operating with a suspended government, planning teams across Northern Ireland were making progress, she said. “We are moving away from a narrow land use focus towards a placeshaping approach.” Victoria Hills, the RTPI’s chief executive, stressed the significance of leadership. RTPI research had found few planners in England at the ‘top table’ in local government. There had been a loss of appreciation of how planning was integral to corporate goals. “We can have much more engagement with chief executives at local authority level,” she said. “They have a strategic vision and they are clear what they want to do with local communities.

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“Most of it comes down to planning.” It was equally vital for planners to challenge and change the prevalent narrative about planning. We needed a debate: “What’s the purpose of planning and professionalism in planning?” Planners also needed to challenge topdown development. Wendy Maden, design adviser for the Design Commission for Wales, and James Harris, policy officer for the RTPI, both contended that the UK government’s focus on housing numbers as a means to measure successful delivery was misguided. Volume alone tells us nothing about quality of place or sustainability of development. Detailing ‘good’ placemaking, Maden observed: “The developer has a perception that to do this costs more. They just want to do what they have always been doing because they have all the numbers in the spreadsheets and they know that it works. “But it doesn’t need to cost more if the design team is doing it from the outset.” Again, leadership was necessary. But so was an understanding with communities about what makes a good place to live. James Harris said that compact, strategically located developments were more effective in delivering the well-being policymakers sought. There was a need to counter the ‘car-centric’ mindset that dominated approaches to development. RTPI research had shown that where housing was placed near to transport hubs and amenities, and where more was invested in public transport and active travel, people used cars less. The result: reduced congestion and pollution, and more walking and cycling. The impact on climate change goals and public health services would be significant.

WHAT THEY SAID

“Planning is at the heart of strategic visions for communities. This means there’s a responsibility on all of us to be challenging colleagues and elected members to put the purpose of planning right at the heart of community.” – Victoria Hills, RTPI chief executive “Developers can be diﬃcult to convince but it’s logical: if you make a great place to live and work there’s demand for it” – Wendy Maden, design adviser, Design Commission for Wales “ Electric vehicles are just going to shift all of our emissions from the transport sector to the power sector. That’s just going to result in an increase in emissions overall.” – James Harris, RTPI policy oﬃcer The impact on place would be equally profound. What planners needed to make their case, however, was data about the relationship between planning and place. Data. Clear principles. Community consent. Leadership. In a United Kingdom steeped in the uncertainty of Brexit, obtaining this was far from straightforward, noted one delegate. But the speakers pointed to good examples of place-shaping. Katrina Godfrey noted the ‘Better Bedford Street’ pilot scheme in Belfast city centre. Its objective in temporarily shifting space from cars to pedestrians was “to look at how we make one street more accessible and interactive to pedestrians”. It was also a demonstration of what planning, given its head, might achieve. I M AG E S | A L A M Y / G E T T Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

Land Development Agency launched in Ireland The Irish Government has set up and formally launched its promised Land Development Agency, which is designed to build 150,000 new homes within the next 20 years. Creating the €1.25 billion agency, which has a chief executive and management team already in place, was a key element of Project Ireland 2040. The new body has an immediate focus on managing the state’s own land to develop new homes, and regenerate underused sites. It will also have compulsory purchase powers. In the longer term it will assemble strategic land banks from a mix of public and private lands, making these available for housing in a controlled manner, which should bring some essential long-term stability to the Irish housing market. It has an initial pipeline of state land that can deliver 10,000 homes, with 3,000 of those homes on land that has already been secured. The agency is already in the process of expanding its portfolio. The agency will be a commercial state-sponsored body, acting within a clear government policy framework that all public land disposals must deliver at least 40 per cent of any housing potential on such lands in the form of social (10 per cent) and aﬀordable (30 per cent) housing. The body will be underpinned by dedicated legislation, overseen by an independent board, and provided with both the initial and long-term capital to function on a commercial basis.

Commissioner for Wales urges ministers to drop M4 project and invest in public transport Wales could transform its transport system by investing active travel and in public transport – and delivering all phases of the South Wales Metro instead of spending £1.4 billion on a new section of the M4. The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe, has branded the M4 project mooted for Newport an unambitious solution to transform the country’s transport system. Howe’s challenge to the government’s motorway project is buttressed by a report written in partnership with the Centre for Transport and Society, University of the West of England, Sustrans and New Economics Foundation. It shows illustrates how a sustainable transport system could be designed for any part of Wales. Howe said: “Wales has a choice to make. It must choose whether to spend £1.4 billion on building a 14-mile section of M4 motorway [the so-called Black Route], or to invest in alternative sustainable transport infrastructure that’s ﬁt for future generations. “The Welsh Government’s obsession with addressing 21st century transport issues with 20th century solutions must not continue. The Black Route fails to consider future trends and does not reﬂect the ambition or intention of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. A public inquiry into the planned M4 relief road ended in March and is due to report back soon.

Funds launched to overcome land contamination and infrastructure setbacks Housing secretary James Brokenshire has announced two new government grants to speed up housebuilding. Homes England will be able to use the money to help the government to deliver its promise to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid2020s. The government proposes that the cash should be spent on problems such as land contamination, infrastructure requirements and complex

land ownership that prevent homes being built “where they are needed most”. The £1.3 billion Land Assembly Fund will be used to buy land that needs work and prepare it for the market. The government says this will make it less risky for developers to invest in it to build homes. Outside London, this work will be undertaken by Homes England. The Small Sites Funds, which is worth £630 million,

aims to help public landowners and local authorities that are struggling to build on land in their area. Money will go towards getting the right infrastructure in places quicker on stalled sites. The government added that it would work with the Greater London Authority to help to

guarantee that the money delivers additional homes in the capital. Brokenshire said the government needed to act so that the homes the country requires are built. “The availability of this investment will help us intervene in the sort of sites that aren’t yet ready to build on, or where developers have been put oﬀ.”

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NEWS

News { RTPI AWARDS FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

Study revealing poor quality of office to residential conversions wins RTPI’s top research award By The Planner’s editorial team A study that exposes the low quality of residential dwellings converted from offices without the need for planning permission has won the leading award at the RTPI’s 2018 Awards for Research Excellence. The paper, submitted by a team at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London found that following the deregulation of the English planning system in 2013, just 30 per cent of converted ‘studio flats’ meet national space standards, and many office conversions on industrial estates have undergone few changes to make them fit for habitation. “This pool of new evidence is welcome particularly in the light of the revised National Planning Policy Framework, which puts new focus on the importance of design amid ambitious government housing targets,” said Tom Kenny, acting deputy head of policy & research at the RTPI. The study picked up the Academic Award in Sheffield in September at a ceremony in which many of the winners shared a common theme of interest in the link between design and quality of places and well-being. Dr Jessica Ferm, lecturer in planning and urban management at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, told The Planner: “Our case study research across five local authorities in England, examining hundreds of building conversions on the ground, revealed diverse outcomes. Quality, in particular, varied enormously; although there were some high-quality conversions, there were many examples of ’studio’ flats of just 15 metres square.” Just 30 per cent of permitted

development units in the case study areas were meeting national space standards compared with 94 per cent of conversions with planning permission, she continued. “The findings of our research have enabled us to challenge the mainstream view of increasing supply at all costs to solve the housing crisis, emphasising that quantity should not be privileged over quality. The ongoing deregulation of the planning system, in our view, needs to have some limits if we are to maintain basic standards and more ambitiously to deliver on the government’s sustainable development agenda.” The Sir Peter Hall Award for Wider Engagement was won by a project exploring how green infrastructure can be better planned through the creation of the UK’s first green infrastructure benchmark. Conceived by a team from the University of the West of England, the ‘Building with Nature’ benchmark defines and sets the standard for high-quality green infrastructure design and aims to address the gap between policy aspirations and practicable deliverability. . The Consultancy Award went to a study that helps planners in Southwark, London, to achieve healthier outcomes. They found evidence that changes in built environment design such as street layouts can improve residents’ health. Kenny said: “The winners and highly commended entries show how academic researchers can positively reach out to practitioners and policymakers with insights and finding to inform and influence their work.”

AWARD WINNERS

Academic Award Assessing the Impacts of Extending Permitted Development Rights to Office-toResidential Change of Use in England By Ben Clifford, Jessica Ferm, Nicola Livingstone, Patricia Canelas (Bartlett School of Planning, University College London) Sir Peter Hall Award Building with Nature By Gemma Jerome (Gloucester Wildlife Trust and the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England), Danielle Sinnett, Nick Smith, Tom Calvert, Sarah Burgess, Louise King (Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England) Consultancy Award Healthy Planning and Regeneration: Innovations in Community Engagement, Policy and Monitoring By Helen Pineo (BRE and Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, UCL), Simon Bevan, Andrew Ruck, Clizia Deidda (Southwark Council) Early Career Award Estimates of Transaction Costs in Transfer of Development Rights Programs By Sina Shahab (School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin), J Peter Clinch (Geary Institute, University College Dublin), Eoin O’Neill (University College Dublin) Student Award What Do They Know? The Power and Potential of Story in Planning By Jason Matthew Slade (Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield)

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PLAN UPFRONT

£1bn NI secretary promises action on departmental planning powers Karen Bradley has conﬁrmed that the UK Government will table legislation soon to allow civil servants to determine key projects, including infrastructure schemes. This move was promised as the political impasse at Stormont continues with no ministers available to make key decisions The Northern Ireland secretary said measures would be introduced in the UK Parliament when the party conference recess ends early this month. She insisted that the current lack

of ministerial decision-making was “holding Northern Ireland back”. “Construction projects worth up to £2 billion are at risk owing to the lack of key planning decisions, including plans for a new £30 million quay for cruise ships, a new £175 million transport hub for Belfast, a £280 million power plant, the North-South electricity interconnector worth around £200 million and a £50 million oﬃce block at Belfast Harbour.” Bradley has promised consultation on the measures before they are introduced.

Sturgeon promises major boost for infrastructure spend a cornerstone of the high-innovation, Moves to significantly increase low-carbon economy we want to spending on infrastructure and create here in Scotland,” she stressed. legislation for a Scottish National She also confirmed a “firm Investment Bank to play a key role intention” to move towards net-zero in the initiative are the Scottish emissions of all greenhouse gases Government’s priorities for – not simply carbon dioxide. the year ahead. Sturgeon also used her First Minister speech to bang the drum Nicola Sturgeon for affordable housing, spelt this out in a promising to increase keynote speech support for affordable to the Scottish homes by a more than Parliament. a quarter this financial She committed year – from £590 million the administration to to more than £750 million. providing an additional She argued that investment £7 billion – over and in housing and infrastructure to above existing plans – for benefit communities required a “fair schools, hospitals, transport, digital connectivity and clean energy by 2026. and effective” planning system. “In the coming months, we will Sturgeon explained that the new progress the new planning bill bank, which will require primary legislation, would finance ambitious through Parliament and ensure that people get a chance to have an early companies and key infrastructure say in shaping developments in their projects in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “It will be area.” I M AG E S | G E T T Y

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£1bn of development to be provided by Barclays (£875m) and the government (£125m) to help increase the pace and volume of housing provision across England

44% of SME house builders say a shortage of skilled workers is a major barrier to their ability to build more new homes (FMB research)

51% 51% of SME house builders view the planning system as a major constraint on their ability to grow (FMB research)

Landowners in England proﬁted more than the global proﬁts of Amazon, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola combined, totalling more than £13 billion in 2016/17, according to the Centre for Progressive Policy and the National Housing Federation. Additionally, agricultural land becomes 275 times more expensive once it receives planning permission.

2,452 Local authorities sold an estimated 2,452 homes under the Right to Buy scheme between April and June 2018, according to MHCLG statistics. O CTO B E R 2 01 8 / THE PLA NNER

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NEWS

News { Tell us about your planning career – and you could win a smart watch

Small decline in decisions made to June 2018, statistics suggest 20

Are you happy in your job ob and with your choice of profession? n? Do you expect the outlook for planning to improve? How would d you attract more young people ple into the planning profession?? The Planner’s Careers Survey 2019 is asking these ese questions, and more – and nd we want to know your answers. You can access it via the link below and let uss know what you think and how w you feel across three critical areas: ⦁ happiness ⦁ future expectations ⦁ ideas for improving planning lanning careers.

Dist District level planning authorities in England granted 374,200 decisions in the year ending June gran 2018, a 3 per cent decline on the year ending June 2018 2017, according to statistics published by the 2017 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Min Government (MHCLG). Gov This includes 48,800 residential developments – 6,400 6,40 major developments and 42,400 minor developments. This is a decline of 2 per cent and 3 deve per cent respectively when compared with the year ending June 2017. end District councils granted 9,700 commercial D developments, 11 per cent less than the previous deve year. year

In return, we’ll enter you into a prize draw to win one of the new generation of smart watches – either Apple or Android, depending on the winner’s preference. The 12-question survey will help us understand how you feel about the state of the planning profession. We’ll wrap it all up in a report for RTPI members to be published in February 2019 alongside a month of careersorientated content and activities. Why do we want to know this? Because the recurrent question at every conference and event we’ve attended this year has been: How do we make planning a more attractive and rewarding profession, for those who are already planners and those who might become planners? So visit the link, take the survey, share with us your thoughts and let’s ﬁnd out what planning needs to do to genuinely become an attractive profession for the 21st century.

⦁ 118,100 applications received – 4 per cent down on the same quarter in 2017 ⦁ 94,300 decisions approved – a 4 per cent decline on the same quarter in 2017 ⦁ 87 per cent of major applications decided within 13 weeks or the agreed time ⦁ 11,900 residential applications granted – 1,500 major applications and 10,300 minor applications ⦁ 2,200 commercial development applications granted ⦁ 10,100 applications for prior approval for permitted development rights received. 1,200 were for changes to residential use – 880 were approved.

DISTRICT COUNCIL PLANNING STATISTICS FOR APRIL TO JUNE 20180920

n Take part in The Planner’s Careers Survey 2019 at bit.ly/PlannerCareersSurvey2019

n Planning Applications in England: April to June 2018 can be found on the MHCLG website (pdf): bit.ly/planner1018-MHCLG

London council issues Article 4 direction on permitted development Brent Council has issued an Article 4 Direction that means developers will need to apply for planning permission to convert oﬃce and light industrial space into homes. Permitted development rights, introduced in 2013, mean a developer can bypass the full planning system for certain types of development. The Article 4 Direction, which is laid out in the Town and Country (General

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Permitted Development) Order (England) 2015, covers a number of key employment areas in the borough, including Alperton, Neasden, Wembley and Staples Corner. Shama Tatler, Brent Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, highways and planning, explained that before issuing the direction, developers could convert properties in a “piecemeal way” that didn’t consider the quality or design of the property, or the loss of employment space.

“As every planning application is considered on its merits, by making developers apply for planning permission, it won’t stop the new homes that we need from being built, but it will allow us to ensure that the new homes meet our standards, that local issues are taken into account, that local people are properly consulted and that we ensure suitable levels of aﬀordable accommodation are secured in each scheme.” I M AG E S | I STO C K

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LEADER COMMENT

Opinion onn Opening up to a fresh way of working – The Riverside House headquarters of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is home to the planning team judged this year’s RTPI Local Authority of the Year. Institute president John Acres visited recently to congratulate head of planning Bronwen Knight and her team on this feat, and I tagged along. There are several planning outcomes for which Rotherham’s comprehensive submission was ultimately rewarded: almost every application being determined in time, application numbers increasing, and a proactive approach to communication with residents over tricky issues, not least over green belt release. A local plan has since been adopted. All of this has served to put Rotherham’s planning team in the spotlight. RTPI aside, external plaudits have come from developers and local community groups, while

Martin Read the council has also been recognised by PAS as one of its 10 ‘planning champions’. So what’s the special sauce here? Intriguingly, the team has worked through quite the business process reengineering project over the past decade or so, resulting in – among other things – a paperless document management system as part of a wider customised software system. Hmm. So far so workaday, right? Well, hang on. There will be reasons why six

other councils have recently visited Rotherham’s oﬃces to understand what sets this particular planning department apart. So let’s go back to that business process re-engineering process. Kick-started prior to its relocation to the newly constructed Riverside House, the programme of change to Rotherham’s planning team began with systematic changes including that much-admired move away from paper applications and documents entirely. This has led to further streamlining of process, but it’s still just one part of the story. Since

"THERE’LL BE REASONS WHY SIX OTHER COUNCILS HAVE RECENTLY VISITED ROTHERHAM’S OFFICES TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SETS THIS PARTICULAR PLANNING DEPARTMENT APART"

the team’s relocation, openplan ‘agile’ working has seen the whole team sharing the same workspace. There is much debate about the efficacy of openplan office environments, but here is evidence of the benefits. With the entire planning operation situated out ‘in the open’, each individual is routinely reminded of their unit’s interdependence and common purpose with the others, from policy to development management. So, three elements: new management structure, new IT, and new working environment. Typically, this latter component would be easy to marginalise, but not here. It sounds simple, but the office environment has helped to develop the sense of common purpose that has done much to energise this entire operation. Open-plan requires open minds from management to open up opportunities across a department – something clearly paying dividends in Rotherham.

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CORRESPONDENCE

Inbox

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

Neil Blackshaw – Your September edition definitely qualifies as a good read with at least three thought-provoking articles and more on the reverberations surrounding the new NPPF. It’s one of the curses of ageing in this profession that you get to see things you felt were settled come around again and again as each new cohort comes to grip with the planning conundrum. Both David Rudlin and Hugh Barton wisely spell out principles and imperatives that we have known forever. That is not to say that we should not revisit theories and techniques, but we need to ask why it is that we find it so difficult – with some exceptions, of course – to apply the fundamentals successfully. Hugh Barton says it’s not rocket science, but my response to that in fact it’s more difficult as we have a paradox: an immense body of knowledge and expertise, yet poor outcomes which, in some key respects (as both contributors point out), are getting worse. We only need to think of the unfolding disaster that is rapid urbanisation in some lower and middle-income countries to realise that this is a global issue. Somehow, both Rudlin and Barton avoided mentioning the elephant in the room: the challenge of climate change and rampant resource depletion. This makes the task both uniquely challenging and almost impossibly urgent. I would summarise the

‘goal’, which would surely be endorsed by all planners, as thriving, liveable places on a sustainable planet. We all know that ‘planning’ is a necessary condition for getting there. We need collectively to revolutionise how we operate. Neil Blackshaw MRTPI, Easton Planning

John Buckley – In response to the Friends of the Earth challenge to Heathrow’s expansion, there’s no need to get hung up on exorbitant legal, construction, social and environmental costs. Why not just make Farnborough Airport a Terminal 5 satellite and simply run a train from Terminal 5 to Farnborough? Or perhaps Farnborough becomes Terminal 6, connected to Heathrow by train? Professor John Buckley BPE, MSc, PhD, CSci, FBASES, FHEA

John Milverton – It appears to be becoming a canard of our times that the planning system is “failing” to capture the betterment value of land identiﬁed for housing. The betterment value already funds aﬀordable housing (often c£100,000 a unit), s106 requirements, CIL, infrastructure, abnormal costs, principal residence conditions, professional fees, ecological improvements, design requirements, SUDS, heating systems and a raft of

schemes (eco-home ratings, considerate constructors) imposed upon developers, to name but a few. In my experience in the South West, landowners are already receiving 25 per cent or less of the betterment value (which is then subject to capital gains tax). The rest goes back to public goods. Both new towns in Devon recently required substantive public funding for development to commence due to the long list of requirements pinned on to them. If landowners are to be relieved of all betterment value by greedy and jealous councils I suspect little in the way of additional public goods will be delivered and landowners will be ﬁghting to have their land excluded from development plans. John Milverton MATP MRTPI

Bob Hards – I find it disconcerting that the recent report ‘Refused for Good Reason’ – an analysis of appeals allowed where schemes were initially recommended for approval by officers but then refused by councillors – emphasises that 65 per cent were allowed. Perhaps more concerning is that 35 per cent were upheld. Not that long ago, when an application was refused by committee having initially been recommended by officers, it was almost a given that the appeal would be upheld. My job as an architect for clients is to

get a recommendation for approval by the officers of the council. As the professionals acting for the council it should, then – unless there are sound planning reasons – be supported by councillors. The reason the planning system is close to collapse at present is the fact that goodquality town planners, who invest their time and effort to making development schemes acceptable, then have them turned down by the planning committee. This must be dispiriting, and a number of good town planners I know have left local authority employment to go into private practice, no doubt for this reason. We all know that local politics play a major part in these decisions and the appeal system is there, I thought, to take the politics out of a particular application and to look at it purely on its planning merits. If the Planning Inspectorate is not going to support the decisions of professional town planners to the extent of 35 per cent of all appeals, then we are going to descend into further chaos and ineffectual planning, which will do nothing to alleviate the housing shortage we hear about every day. The idea that we can redress the housing shortage under the current system, despite the most recent attempts by the government, are at best unrealistic and at worst delusional. Bob Hards BA Arch, Dip Arch RIBA director, Incalmo Architects Ltd

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CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Nursery crimes: How Mr Pickles tore up the magical planning book Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Once upon a time there was a large jolly man who lived in a Cabinet in London. His name was Pickles! People often laughed at his adventures, though they weren’t always meant to. They were sad when he went away, and nobody knows where he is now. But one of the things he was given to play with was town planning. Pickles did not like the people who had lived in the Cabinet before him. So he broke a lot of their toys. A man called John had invented something called regional strategies, which were lots of fun, but Pickles smashed them to pieces (it took him quite a long time). Nowadays, archaeologists in Manchester are trying to rebuild them, but some of the pieces are missing. While he was breaking these strategies, poor Pickles also damaged a lot of other things, unintentionally. To this day, local plans don’t really work because the regional plans had made it easier to write them. One day, Pickles asked what planning was all about. Somebody told him there were 700 pages describing how it worked, which had been carefully put together by previous Cabinet dwellers over the last 20 years. Pickles had a tantrum. That was too many pages for him to read, wasn’t it, boys and girls? And he thought they got in the way of deciding things. Pickles had some servants who were very clever. He told them to cut down those 700

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pages to no more than 50! And they worked very hard, night and day, weaving and sewing, sewing and weaving, until the job was done. But people outside the Cabinet were not happy. One little girl said that she thought the old pages were very good because everybody understood them and they didn’t ever change very much. Now nobody would understand it! What a silly little girl, thought Pickles. A little boy liked the old pages about minerals. That’s things like gravel and coal. He said he’d dealt with 25,000 planning applications and in 24,999 of them the pages on minerals had never got in the way, or even been brought out of the cupboard. But in the other one, they had been oh so helpful! But Pickles ignored all that and the 50 pages were

“ONE LITTLE GIRL SAID THAT SHE THOUGHT THE OLD PAGES WERE VERY GOOD BECAUSE EVERYBODY UNDERSTOOD THEM” christened the National Planning Policy Framework and the 700 pages were banished from the land. And he was lucky. Because although the little girl was right and nobody really understood it, some people called judges helped out and explained what it all meant. Even so, he had to get his servants to write a lot more pages so that everything was clear. Most of this was put on a ‘website’ called the NPPG, which meant nobody could

count how many pages there were, which was very clever. The little boy was pleased because minerals were there as well as a million other things. But Pickles had a lot of fun because he could change what was in the NPPG whenever he wanted to, and everybody was confused! Eventually, boys and girls, Pickles was told to leave the Cabinet and the man who lived there afterwards decided to rewrite the NPPF all over again! He too thought that it should be 50 pages long. But after it was produced, it was said that there were no less than 13 areas where there was going to be even more guidance. Isn’t that a sad story, boys and girls? Now there are a lot more than 700 pages, and they don’t stay still but change all the time, and there are more pages being written by the servants all the time. And all the children who have to use it are confused. I’m sure you are too. But Pickles is living somewhere else, and he probably thinks he was right all along!

Chris Shepley is the principal of Chris Shepley Planning and former Chief Planning Inspector I L L U S T R AT I O N | O I V I N D H O V L A N D

24/09/2018 10:16

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“It is critical that the government doesn’t pull the rug out from under the [construction] sector by introducing g an inﬂ nﬂexible and unrespon unresponsive nsive immigration sy system” ystem”

“Whilst it was suggested ted at the hearing that alpaca paca would not make good pets, the evidence indicates that, due to their temperament ment and attractive features, there t will always allways be a recreational recreatiional demand d for alpaca” ”

BRIAN BERRY,, CHIEF EXECU EXECUTIVE UTIVE AT THE FEDERATION OF MASTER BUILDERS, BUIL LDERS,, ON THE SKILLS SHORTAGE SHORTAG GE

INSPECTOR INSPE ECTOR AJJ MAGEEAN,, CONSIDERIN CONSIDERING G AN APPLICATIO ON FOR TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATION DATION AT APPLICATION AN ALPAC CA FARM REF: APP/A1530/W/18/3194324 ALPACA

“England’’s infrastructure e is a patchwork qu uilt. It takes t k longer l to t g gett from f Liverpool to Hull H by train than from L London to Paris”

“Planners are really “Plann good at talking to other planners planners. We need to talk to peop people who are not planne planners and ﬁnd out what th they think about p planning.” VICTORIA HI HILLS, SPEAKING AT THE RTPI NORTHER NORTHERN IRELAND CONFERENCE

MATTHEW FELL,, CBI CHIEF F UK POLICY DIRECTOR

“What have we done to our cities? Why does nature create a forest that sustains while e we create cities that kill? ll? Forests hold on to all the rain. In cities, we pollute lute it, then pump it out.” JORIS VOETEN, SENIOR ENGINEER, URBAN ROOFSCAPES, SPEAKING AT THE LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

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

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“We are often in a room where the planning oﬃcer has the vision and knows how to achieve it. But they don’t have the leadership.” WENDY MADEN, ADVISER TO THE DESIGN COMMISSION FOR WALES, SPEAKING AT THE RTPI NI CONFERENCE

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

O Opinion

Sheron Carter is chief executive of Habinteg Housing

Don’t overlook accessibility when planning social housing

In Augus August, we housing providers eagerly downloaded our copy of this summer’s social housing green paper to learn how provision of accessible homes would be part of the new deal for housing. While we remain supportive of the stated commitment to the provision of safe, good-quality and aﬀordable homes, accessible housing didn’t register in the green paper. Yet the lack of accessible homes is part of the housing crisis. As experts in the provision of accessible environments, we recognise the need for accessible homes as a core consideration. When sector and government colleagues look at the more than one million people waiting for homes nationally, some are overlooking crucial data: on average, one in ﬁve people is disabled and more people will become disabled as they grow older. With age can come conditions like dementia, but also certain types of cancer and degenerative conditions. When Habinteg examined the hidden housing market, our research indicated that 59 per cent of people aged 65 and over will need accessible housing features by 2021. That’s three years from now. Local plans are being put in place by local authorities to meet housing demand. Social housing providers are updating their stock.

Louise Brooke-Smith MRTPI is partner and UK head of development and strategic planning with Arcadis LLP

Planners must not be back-seat drivers as cities prepare for autonomous vehicles

Private investors and developers are breaking ground on new schemes. As we’re all working hard to tackle the crisis, why not acknowledge the obvious challenge? If new, affordable homes are not planned and designed to be accessible, in less than a decade we will potentially be looking at a different sort of crisis. This is being evidenced by reported strains on the NHS. Older people are remaining in hospital when accessible features at home would allow them to be discharged. As Britain’s ageing population reaches critical mass, people with mobility and healthcare concerns are likely to need to move from their home or be limited to managing accommodation that will no longer be suitable for them. This doesn’t need to be the scenario for the majority of people who will need future homes to be accessible. Collaborative working can yield positive results if we take the opportunity now to plan, design and build truly accessible (and wheelchair accessible) housing. Affordable homes are absolutely the way forward for social housing. But building homes that are structurally inadequate represents a false economy. Planning communities that are 100 per cent accessible makes homes fit for the future.

“IF NEW, AFFORDABLE HOMES ARE NOT PLANNED AND DESIGNED TO BE ACCESSIBLE, IN LESS THAN A DECADE WE WILL POTENTIALLY BE LOOKING AT A DIFFERENT SORT OF CRISIS”

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The world w of connected autonomous vehicles (CAV) is autonom now a reality and planning professionals are embracing the potential it brings and the impact it will have in shaping urban areas. Blink and technology moves on without respite. But unless the boffins invent a magical means of propulsion that runs on thin air, the consensus is that CAV will primarily concern electrically powered vehicles. These can operate without a human driver and communicate with each other and their environment without human intervention. The days of back-seat drivers are out; now there isn’t even a front-seat driver. CAV will transform urban mobility across the globe. If adopted with foresight, it could address congestion, overcrowded public transport and poor air quality. But which urban areas have the vision, finance and governance to make best use of the technology to support greater prosperity and improve the citizen experience? A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to CAV is unlikely to work. Research by Arcadis finds that cities have different visions. Singapore is putting CAV at the heart of the future of mass transit. Paris sees it as an enhanced personal transport solution. Dubai is experimenting with flying taxi drones. National, regional and local governance regimes are critical to creating environments where CAV

can be part of a balanced ecosystem. Stakeholder engagement, regulation, private sector investment and finance are also key. Whatever the system, implementation of CAV will take time. Dubai is looking at 2030 before a system is up and running. Sydney cites 2056. Transition from established systems to CAV will not be quick or cheap. Vehicle-charging infrastructure, 5G communication networks and advanced traffic management systems will need to be developed before it can be a big part of a transport network. The research by Arcadis considers 14 cities worldwide that have started on this journey, looking at aspects such citizen connection, governance platforms and enabling infrastructure. Each city has the potential to become more competitive and sustainable, and each has taken a different approach. But common themes are emerging: • health and safety; • the needs of citizens; • environmental impact and sustainability; • accessibility and equality; • economic growth; and • leveraging digital technology and innovation. It’s clear that everywhere the planning community will need the vision and drive to fully embrace CAV and definitely not take a back seat. Read the research at: www.arcadis.com/cav

“CONNECTED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES WILL TRANSFORM URBAN MOBILITY ACROSS THE GLOBE”

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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

Colin Lavety MRTPI is planning director for Barton Willmore in Scotland

The Planning (Scotland) Bill is breaking with key aims

The Planning Plan (Scotland) Bill was laid befo before the Scottish Parliament in December 2017 and is working its way through the legislative process. The bill contains measures intended to strengthen the planning system’s contribution to inclusive growth and empowering communities, though politicians are now suggesting amendments. Having participated in each stage of the review of the Scottish planning system and engaged widely within the development industry, it’s clear to us that the bill is heading in the wrong direction. At the start of the review in December 2015, we voiced our concerns that it wasn’t the system itself that was the problem, and that the review would be ineffective if it fails to address the lack of resources, skills shortages and culture change. In many ways, the Scottish government failed to grasp the dayto-day problems that exist. We acknowledged that there were much deeper issues that needed to be addressed in our culture and local politics, as well as the importance and value assigned to town planning as a profession. And a survey we carried out in April 2017 also concluded that key changes being proposed are causing concern. The 180 respondents were split equally between public and private sectors, offering a significant body of evidence and a balanced viewpoint across the development industry.

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Dr Gemma Jerome is the Building with Nature manager Building with Nature won the Sir Peter Hall Award for Wider Engagement at this year’s RTPI Awards for Research Excellence

New benchmark for design and maintenance of green infrastructure

There is no doubt that the overall approach set out in the bill would lead to an imbalance in the planning system, with community involvement and environmental protection likely to take precedence over factors such as economic growth, job creation and the delivery of more high-quality homes. At Barton Willmore, we are calling for a holistic approach to ensure that the needs of all aspects of development delivery are considered and balanced. It is frustrating for those of us who spent time and effort in making written submissions at the various stages to see that as we enter the parliamentary debate, elected politicians seem to have totally lost sight of the review’s original aims. What happened to the original review panel’s aims to achieve ‘radical reform’? Improving housing and infrastructure delivery? Stimulating economic growth? Creating a ‘high-performing’ system? These objectives have been lost, and it seems like we are moving towards a system that will be far from what we all hoped for. The politicians are shying away from difficult questions in favour of picking off the less important ‘lowhanging fruit’. Why aren’t we focusing more on simplifying consents, setting national housing targets, infrastructure, mandatory planning training for elected members and monitoring the performance of local authorities? It seems like a real missed opportunity.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL REVIEW PANEL’S AIMS OF ACHIEVING ‘RADICAL REFORM’?”

People va value living in places that are close clos to nature. As well as allowing wildlife to thrive, green allow infrastructure provides spaces for people to enjoy, and cost-effective ways to manage water naturally and prevent flooding. There is ample evidence that green infrastructure delivers multiple benefits, but its implementation and the provision for long-term maintenance can often be challenging. That’s where Building with Nature – a new benchmark for green infrastructure – comes in. It introduces a framework of principles – Building with Nature Standards – giving end-users the vital information that makes the difference when delivering highquality places to live. A consensus has emerged across the sectors of planning, public health, nature conservation, and sustainable water management that protecting, creating, enhancing and retrofitting natural and semi-natural features in urban environments is a costeffective and win-win approach. This has led to the rise of green infrastructure in planning policy. The list is long, and significantly includes two new entries this year: Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan asking for ‘new, strong standards for green infrastructure’; and the new National Planning Policy Guidance keeping green infrastructure front and centre in

its approach to delivering net gains for the environment. But we continue to see poorquality development, where ‘the environment’ (sensitive habitats and species-rich areas, street trees, SuDS, private gardens,) is regarded as a problematic constraint on delivering a viable scheme. This should change as new voices in central and local government argue for “quality over quantity”, as house-buyers favour naturefriendly housing, and communities want development that improves their local environment. But even where a developer and local authority agree on the desirability of green infrastructure, ambitious and awa rd -w i n n i ng designs articulated at the masterplanning stage can become vastly diminished in their ambition during implementation. Building with Nature has been developed, in partnership with industry, to overcome the perceived and actual complexity of delivering high-grade green infrastructure. By drawing together existing guidance, it is demystifying the secrets of designing, delivering and maintaining a good scheme. By providing an accreditation at both the plan/design and postconstruction stages, Building with Nature is raising conﬁdence in the built environment sector: we have achieved a collective understanding of why green infrastructure matters and how to deliver it consistently.

“WE CONTINUE TO SEE POORQUALITY DEVELOPMENT WHERE ‘THE ENVIRONMENT’ IS REGARDED AS A CONSTRAINT ON A VIABLE SCHEME”

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LAND USE PLANNING

SHARE’S

FAIR

IN THE PLANNER LAST MONTH, HUGH BARTON MRTPI ASKED WHETHER SPATIAL PLANNING IS BAD FOR OUR HEALTH. TO FOLLOW UP, HE ARGUES THAT IF WE ARE TO BUILD HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE SETTLEMENTS WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE TO LAND AND ITS DEVELOPMENT Land is the fundamental asset on which humans (and other creatures) depend. The way it is distributed, planned, developed and managed – its governance – determines the nature of human settlements and affects the well-being of the population. Deeply embedded cultural attitudes to land shape the actions of decision-makers. These attitudes, translated into political ideology, vary between countries. In the UK the free-market ideology of neo-liberalism has come to dominate many policy and media discourses: if there is a problem in society, then the best answer is to cut back regulation and free up the market so as to drive up quality and drive down costs. However, even the high priests of capitalism are beginning to ask questions about this. The Bank of England, for example, recently invited the left-wing songwriter Billy Bragg to lecture City financiers on how to build a better society. The problems of air pollution, car-dependent (‘obesogenic’) environments, reduced accessibility, very high housing costs and increasing inequality are symptomatic of the neo-liberal reliance on market-led decisions. In his last book, Good Cities, Better Lives, Peter Hall argued that the prevailing political philosophy in the UK (and the USA) prevents implementation of the kind of healthy spatial strategies that are being realised in cities in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. It is vital to challenge two neo-liberal assumptions in particular head-on: the belief that spatial planning is a luxury we can ill afford,

and the belief that private ownership of land is sacrosanct. Alongside this challenge, we need to consider how UK law and practice should change.

Is planning really necessary? The assumption of liberal economists and politicians is that bureaucratic constraints on capital are damaging, and liable to distort eﬀective market response to problems and opportunities. In Thatcherite Britain a 1980s planning guidance note talked about “lifting the burden” of planning oﬀ the market. The current government’s new NPPF includes many admirable statements about health and well-being, but undermines them with its freemarket development bias. Nevertheless, there is recognition that some degree of land planning is necessary – planning is needed to supply essential communal goods such as roads, sewers and parks, for example. Ironically, right-wing politicians who ostensibly take a neo-liberal stance often support very restrictive policies in relation to green belts and conservation areas. Consistency goes just as far as political instinct allows! But there is a broader angle to this question: is planning something that happens anyway? Who is doing the planning? The local planning authority is far from being all-powerful. It has to negotiate with other public and private sector bodies which share in the planning of cities, including transport and utility agencies, health and education

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LAND USE PLANNING

authorities, major employers, retailers, commercial and housebuilders. All these plan development on a scale that means they help to determine the evolution (and healthiness) of settlements. Central government (in a rather disaggregated way) determines major infrastructure investments, housing allocations, and delegates economic strategy to non-democratic LEPs. Lesser players in the game – households, community groups and small businesses – have to ﬁnd wriggle room within the framework set by the bigger powers. In a pluralist society, where decisions are incremental and disaggregated, all the major players need to accept social responsibility for the outcome of their decisions. Just as they recognise employment laws, they should recognise the health and environmental implications of their spatial decisions. The LPA may try to act as referee, but unless the diverse agencies have general well-being as a goal, and work in harmony, the human habitat will suﬀer. In summary, then, in modern towns and cities spatial planning happens, whether we like it or not. Planning is a ubiquitous activity. The question is not whether to plan, but who is planning, what [itals] they are planning, how they are planning, and in whose interests?

“SPATIAL PLANNING HAPPENS, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT. PLANNING IS A UBIQUITOUS ACTIVITY”

Whose land is it, anyway? Land use planning is tied up with the issue of land ownership. Property rights in Western democracies – the right to own property, to do what you want with it within certain limits – are taken for granted. Property is a commodity, like grain or natural gas, and therefore subject to the laws of supply and demand. Conventional economic theories treat any divergence from a competitive market in property as something of an exception, an intervention. But property can also be an expression of individual and/or group identity. It can be the individual versus the group. Is the land sacred to the owner, or to the wider community? The conflicting values come to a head in countries where European settlers have overlaid traditional tribal cultures. In New Zealand, for example, the legal, individualised approach of the settlers and the communal beliefs of the Maori – the ‘people of the land’ – are alien to each other. In Britain we have the residue of shared ownership in ‘common land’ and rights of way – often privately owned but with inalienable communal rights. There are also less explicit cultural assumptions. The English landscape is remarkable for the sharp visual divide between town and country, reflecting a passionate (and romantic) belief in the value of open countryside, sustained by powerful lobbies and governments of both left and right. A sense of the shared value of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’ takes precedence over private rights, affecting land values profoundly. This equates to a non-legal, non-financial sense of community ownership. At the same time there are pressures on communal rights, and on the associated rights of users/renters (as opposed to landlords) – witness the private ownership of streets in large campus developments, and the lack of security in rented accommodation. But the point is that – unlike countries where pioneer expectations prevail – Britain has mixed traditions, and therefore something to build on. The neo-liberal zeitgeist has not conquered all.

What is the way forward? So the challenge is to evolve land and development processes that could successfully contribute to healthy and equitable environments. One key to the success in some European countries is the extent of local authority powers. Local authorities have the power both to buy well-located land without legal or ﬁnancial penalties, and to set a clear spatial context for private and community investment. All the best new or renewed localities on the continent rely on municipal co-ordination, eﬀective spatial frameworks and development codes. In the past in Britain this was achieved by 20

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SEVEN IS THE MAGIC NUMBER

Seven pre-conditions for healthy urban planning: • Greater powers for local authorities, with independent sources of ﬁnance – for example, through provincial not-for-proﬁt banks. • Regional/sub-regional inter-agency collaborative strategies for housing, employment and transport. • Local authority ability to buy up development land at prices that factor in the cost of physical and social infrastructure. • Long-term political and public consensus in support health-promoting strategies. • Professional expertise in devising and implementing healthy, sustainable spatial frameworks and design codes for diverse builders and users. • Some level of control over rents, hence over property values, and greater protection for tenants • Legal obligation for big private developers and public bodies, including transport and economic agencies, to take responsibility for the social and environmental consequences of their decisions, including their impact on health and well-being.

appointed, non-democratic ‘development corporations’ for new towns and urban regeneration areas. But European experience shows that it is possible through elected local authorities. The essential condition is that different political parties agree a shared and consistent vision, so that when power changes hands, the strategy remains intact. Land use and transport decisions are too long lasting and too important to be political footballs. Finance is a related issue. At present urban land (existing, proposed or hoped for) is subject to speculation, and buildings are often purchased as investments. Households, local authorities, social housing providers, charitable institutions, low-profit businesses, have to compete in an inflated market. Cutting in on that speculative process through legislative or financial change is critical. This could be through measures such as rent controls, as in Germany, or enhanced community powers. The trailblazing example of Letchworth demonstrates how land value increase can be retained by the community to support physical and social infrastructure, to the benefit of all. The British New Towns returned over time a profit to the Treasury because land was purchased at agricultural values. The current fashionable concept is ‘land value capture’. I prefer ‘land value sharing’. To facilitate land assembly and avoid the legal complexity and delay of compulsory purchase, there needs to be incentive for private owners to

“LAND USE AND TRANSPORT DECISIONS ARE TOO LONG LASTING AND TOO IMPORTANT TO BE POLITICAL FOOTBALLS”

n Hugh Barton MRTPI is emeritus professor of planning, health and sustainability at the WHO Collaborating Centre for healthy urban environments, University of the West of England, Bristol. This article draws on his recent book: City of Wellbeing – a Radical Guide to Planning.

sell to municipalities or developers without holding them to ransom. Government could legislate to deter speculation by ensuring that land values are based on ‘existing use plus’ or ‘residual land value’ (RLV) methods. RLV takes full account of infrastructure and social housing costs. More radically, if compulsory purchase proves necessary to unlock land, then only existing use value should be paid. Or the owner could be obliged to put land up for auction, as proposed in Scotland. Such powers would put the skates under land/ property owners, providing incentives to avoid hoarding, dereliction and long-term vacancy. Municipal finance and land ownership are necessary but not sufficient. What is different in Freiburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Utrecht and many other cities, is long-term strategic thinking. Given the diverse decision-makers, a city’s civic, professional and commercial leaders have a shared responsibility for setting an integrated, long-term course towards a healthy and sustainable environment. Cooperation with supra-city authorities is critical. Long-term consistency also relies on the legal and institutional framework being predictable. As part of this, government should give much greater autonomy to local authorities (including much greater financial independence from the Treasury), enabling them to plan ahead. All this is a tall order. Motivation could come from the recognition that at present we are literally building unhealthy, inequitable conditions into our environment, and thus escalating costs of health and social care. One day the penny will drop. O CTO B ER 2 0 18 / THE PLA NNER

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I M A G E S | S I M O N R I D G WAY / U N P

A PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO LOCAL POLITICS AND SERVICE DELIVERY ARE VITAL TO MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING AND PLANNING A COUNTY THE SIZE OF POWYS, AS COUNCIL LEADER ROSEMARIE HARRIS TELLS SIMON WICKS

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INTERVIEW: ROSEMARIE HARRIS

“Oh, harebells!” Rosemarie Harris hadn’t expected to see them up here, beside a triangulation point above Llandrindod Wells. Beneath us, the spa town nestles in rolling landscape between the Cambrian mountains to the west and the ridge of Radnor Forest to the east. Beyond that, England. There’s not much here. Or rather, not much built development. But there is plenty of land, parcelled into fields and small patches of woodland as far as the eye can see in every direction. It’s mainly sheep farming here; the soil and seasons don’t lend themselves to food crops. We’re next to a golf course, too, and part of what we can see is a nature reserve where pied flycatchers breed in summer alongside the local kingfishers. There are wind turbines too. The leader of Powys County Council, posing obligingly for photographs in a windy spot, wonders why the one closest to us isn’t turning. “There it goes,” she says, as it starts slowly grinding out the watts. This is an old landscape. Change happens slowly if at all. Harris’s own family are Brecon farmers who can trace their ancestry to Norman invaders. She is married to a sheep farmer and steeped in the soil and the people that make their living from it. It’s not exactly remote here, but it’s not easy to reach. The line from Crewe to Llandrindod Wells, home of Powys County Council, runs on a single carriage service just four times a day; a solitary track cuts through close tunnels of ash and alder and maple, skirting thistle-strewn pasture and resting periodically at tiny communities that consist, it seems, of just a few homes and a pub. Things change slowly here, but change is a necessity if Llandrindod Wells – and the county of Powys – are to survive and thrive, as Harris

explained when she presented at the RTPI annual convention in July. A rural challenge At 2,000 square miles, Powys occupies a quarter of Wales. Its population, however, is just 132,000 and its largest settlement (Newtown) has just 11,000 residents. Communities are small and dispersed. The economy is almost entirely land-based. There is no higher education and young people who leave for university rarely return – there aren’t the jobs. Wages are below the UK average and the population is ageing. Poverty, widespread, is largely hidden behind the doors of detached farmhouses that have seen better days, and whose owners are too proud to ask for help. “Powys is characterised by family farms, some not very big, where largely they produce livestock for meat production,” Harris explains. “They don’t have much flexibility because the winters are long, the summers reasonably brief; it wouldn’t be easy to grow things like strawberries, wheat or hops.” The dispersed population creates a particular challenge for the council. “Delivering home care up a remote farm track four or five times a day is a major challenge,” Harris continues. “Maintaining our highways is a challenge,” she adds. Although road coverage is fairly good, the county’s necessary reliance on cars creates pressure on upkeep. Then there’s school transport, school meals… It all adds up, and revenue is limited. “Our total income – including specific grants for ring-fenced projects – would be just under half a billion. The Revenue Support Grant would come from Welsh

IN A BIG

COUNTY

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Government, originally from Westminster government of course. Then about 30 per cent of our income would come from council tax. I think we’ve got 66,000 properties throughout the county. “Our major challenge is providing services to such a sparse population over a very big area. Topography can be quite difficult.” It would seem a bleak picture, matching the rugged landscape. Yet Llandrindod Wells was found by Rightmove a year ago to be the happiest place to live in Wales, and there’s a rooted sense of community in Powys that binds the people together. The county has a “tremendous social structure,” Harris observes. “We know each other and that has provided that very strong rural network.” It’s also beautiful and spacious, perfect for outdoor activities. Harris reminds me that Powys has a 135mile border with England and is surprisingly close to Liverpool, Birmingham and Cardiff. With the right transport networks it would be well placed to trade with England. Better digital connectivity and more business units would help Powys’s business ecosystem give its young a reason to stay - and outsiders a reason to settle. A plan for growth To achieve all this, change is necessary. A regional growth deal, perhaps? “There was a deal planned for Cardiff, a Swansea city deal, and a North Wales growth deal,” Harris explains. “That only left two counties, but a massive area of Wales, a very big rural area. “So Ceredigion and Powys pushed very hard at the door of Welsh Government and the Westminster government and said ‘You can’t leave us out’.” The first the county heard of government approval was in the 2017 Autumn Budget statement. Both Wales and Westminster have since appointed leads, in the form of Ken Skates, Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, and Lord Bourne, the UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Wales. “We’ve met them several times and jointly,” Harris confirms. “We’ve formed a growing MidWales partnership with Ceredigion and we’ve invited the private sector and other sectors in because they’ll be very important to put money and ideas in. We’ve also invited bodies representing farming, the unions and tourism.” Funding for ‘transformational’ projects will come from the separate governments and councils, as well as the private sector. “There have been loose suggestions of about £200 million, but we haven’t had that figure pinned down yet.” There’s no shortage of ambition. Harris and her fellow councillors have a plan built on the four pillars of economy, health and social care, learning and skills, and residents and communities. But they are more than aware of the infrastructure improvements needed to create the platform on

which they can build – particularly digital. “We need to upgrade our transport and road networks. We need to essentially open up the county… We need to upgrade our skills. We need to have a more skilled workforce so people can set up businesses. On the back of that we need to provide more business units.” The county already has a reputation as a location for events. It hosts the Royal Welsh Show, The Hay Festival of literature and the Green Man music and arts festival, among others. This year’s cycling Tour of Britain passed through Llandrindod. “We call ourselves an events county,” Harris remarks. “If we’re to develop our events economy we will need more accommodation and more housing.”

“BETTER DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY AND MORE BUSINESS UNITS WOULD HELP POWYS’S BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM GIVE ITS YOUNG A REASON TO STAY”

Funding farmers It helps that the council is asset-rich, with a good portfolio of land and buildings. But they’ll need new powers and relevant expertise, including planning. There’s also the shadow of Brexit and a potential financial shortfall caused by the loss of European funding. Given the finely balanced finances of Powys, this could be a delicate issue. I ask Harris what impact the withdrawal of EU structural funds will have on the county’s budgets. “We never claimed any,” she rebuts, firmly. She is, though, concerned about the loss of another form of funding on which the agricultural community relies – the subsidies administered through the Common Agricultural Policy that have enabled many small farms to survive. In the first instance, she mentions the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (the proposed replacement for European structural funding), which Powys will be able to bid for. The second issue – the loss of CAP payments – is closer to home. A Welsh Government consultation (‘Brexit and our land: Securing the future of Welsh farming’) closes on 30 October. “I’m in the middle of a round of meetings with the farming unions because I want to know what their thoughts are. It’s controversial because the current system is a basic support system and supports the general income for many farming families.” Even with CAP, life is a struggle for the smaller farmer. “In Radnorshire and parts of Montgomeryshire (the old counties that merged with Brecon to form Powys) many farmers have started diversifying into large poultry units… to underpin the viability of their farm. Smaller farms also support shoots in the north of the county by rearing birds and providing food and accommodation.” Harris urges farms to diversify. This is not a partypolitical position but a community-minded one. There is, she insists, no room for tribal politics. Harris herself is an Independent – the first female Independent leader of a unitary authority in the UK,

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she understands. She has been a councillor for 20 years, and for 10 years before that a Brecon Beacons National Park authority member. Powys presently has 30 Independent councillors (down from 48 before the last election) who lead a coalition with 20 Conservatives. “Long may independence reign, because I feel there’s no room for party politics at this level,” she says. “It’s difficult because, unlike national government and Welsh government who are more like policy-makers, we’re at the frontline delivering service. We cannot get into political debate here.” She continues: “I would find it quite difficult, especially when we talk about providing services, to be bound by a party line.” There is a “tug” at a national level between Labour Wales and Conservative UK that she would not like to see play out locally. It’s a cost of devolution, in addition to having an “extra layer” of government to pay for. On the other hand, Welsh devolution has “brought the government closer to us”. She explains: “Leaders of all local authorities know ministers personally, and I’m not sure that’s the case in England. The ministers make themselves available, open to discussion.” This, of course, facilitates the process of seeking and shaping a growth deal.

A place for planning Devolution also provides an example of what might be achieved with more powers and more control of funding. Would Harris appreciate more planning powers or greater involvement of planning as part of the coming growth deal? “Yes.” She smiles. “Over the years I have called planning everything probably. [But] planning is a force for good and we must use it in the right way. The more I talked the more I realised they [planners] need to be part of our Growing midTHE VALUE OF CAP PAYMENTS

“It’s important, especially for some of the smaller uplands farms where they don’t have flexibility in terms of land use.” says Harris. “I would worry if there is no regular basic support payment that can be relied on. It has to be remembered that the support system came into place to provide cheaper food for everybody – not just the farming community… That’s been lost in the mists of time and farmers have been accused of receiving brown envelopes. I fear for some of the farmers who are already finding living quite hard.” As we speak, she is unclear what will replace CAP payments, but environment secretary Michael Gove has since published a plan to pay farmers not for the amount of land they possess but for the quantity of “public good” they provide with it. This Harris had described as vague. “Public good is wildflower meadows. It could be anything to encourage biodiversity. It could be access to private land.”

Wales partnership. When we talk about, say, increasing industrial spaces they need to be there to advise us… I think they’re going to be vital going forward in every way.” “We all have a care for our environment and I think we should be easily able to work with planners. I think in some areas there could be more flexibility. I have every faith in the planners we have here; I think they would be willing to listen. They have a care and understanding of economy.” I ask whether an influx of people from out of Powys would destabilise the close community that Harris has described. I recall a Yorkshire Dales farmer once talking of ‘newcomers’ whose families had arrived more than a hundred years previously. Time plays out differently in places like this where the relationship between the land and the people who work and live on it is so profound. Harris’s response is typically thoughtful, and tempered with realism. “I think the people of Powys will come along with us in any development that we want to do and we’ll respect any incomers. But it’ll have to be a problem that we might have to face in years to come because it is not going to happen that easily! I would love to think our young people come back to start with. “It’s the families that haven’t moved that give the strength to an area. I was involved in my local show over the weekend. We all know each other well and it’s a really strong network. It’s something that hasn’t been prized as much as it should be. When it’s gone you realise.”

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AS A NEW LICENSING REQUIREMENT FOR HOUSES IN MULTIPLE OCCUPATION COMES INTO EFFECT, GEORGE TURNER REFLECTS ON THE PRACTICE OF CHEAPLY CONVERTING HOMES INTO PROPERTIES THAT DELIBERATELY BLUR THE LINE BETWEEN HMOS AND ONEÂBEDROOMED FLATS TO MAXIMISE RENTAL TAKE FROM TENANTS ON HOUSING BENEFITS

LOCKDO 26

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Ewa and baby in a cramped ﬂat in Wandsworth. Ewa has since moved out.

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Lockdown: the conversion of a two-storey family home into up to six micro flats of between 10-15 square metres. Each flat has a short worktop, sink, shower, and just enough space for a bed. Each is let out to a housing benefit claimant for up to £1,000 a month. Per square metre, a lockdown apartment is more expensive to rent than most luxury housing. The term was allegedly coined by a planning officer from Lewisham who compared the conditions to those of prison inmates. Planning enforcement officers view ‘lockdown’ as an abuse of planning and housing benefits rules, and an exploitation of the vulnerable by unscrupulous landlords making vast profits. Politicians are becoming concerned, too. In its April 2018 Private Rented Sector report, Parliament’s Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee described lockdown as “the private rented sector at its very worst”. Indeed, concern about such unethical practices is behind a new licensing regime for houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) launched on 1 October 2018 intended to give local authorities more power to prosecute ‘rogue’ landlords. Lockdown works like this: for planning purposes, a landlord claims a property is an HMO. For rental purposes, the landlord say the same house is a set of standalone flats, doubling the rent they can charge. Lockdown landlords always pick on two-storey homes because HMO regulation, as it has existed to date, allows a two-storey family house to be

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HMOS – NEW LICENSING REGIME

From 1 October 2018 any landlord who lets a property to ﬁve or more people – from two or more separate households – must be licensed by the local housing authority, regardless of the number of storeys at the property. New rules will also set minimum size requirements for bedrooms to prevent overcrowding. Government expects the new rules, intended to enable councils to crack down on landlords renting out substandard and overcrowded homes, to aﬀect 160,000 properties. Many local authorities already apply their own licensing schemes for smaller HMOs, and problem properties persist. It’s also worth bearing in mind that registered social landlords are exempt from HMO regulations under the 2004 Housing Act. Some lockdown landlords are reputedly re-registering as social landlords.

converted to an HMO without planning consent under the General Permitted Development Order and run it without the scrutiny of a licensing regime. Three storeys housing more than ﬁve unrelated people would hitherto have been classed as a ‘large HMO’ and be subject to a mandatory licensing regime. This height requirement is being jettisoned on 1 October, however. The house is gutted and converted into, typically, six tiny individual units. HMO rules require a shared facility, so lockdown landlords will add a communal kitchen that can be so small as to serve no practical purpose other than to allow landlords to argue that the property is an HMO. In one property I visited the kitchen had no windows and the ceiling was so low that I could not stand up in it. When it comes to letting the rooms are marketed as one-bedroom ﬂats. This allows landlords to double the amount of rent they can charge tenants. In London, this averages around £1,000 a month. The maths are staggering. In outer London, landlords have been buying up homes for between £350,000 and £450,000. Letting six rooms as single dwellings, the property can generate 28

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annual rental of up to £72,000, all funded though housing beneﬁt payments. This might give an annual return of more than 20 per cent on the original outlay (more, if the owner took out a mortgage). Some lockdown landlords own more than 100 properties.

Big business Landlords argue that they provide a public service by renting exclusively to housing benefit claimants. Claimants face difficulties finding rented accommodation, so there is a ready supply of tenants for these properties. Landlords will sometimes work with homelessness charities to secure tenants. But the practice becomes harder to defend when you get into the details. The basic deceit of claiming a property is simultaneously an HMO and a development of one-bedroomed flats is damning enough. But my research has also found that, to make sure the landlords receive the higher rate of housing benefit, lettings agents working on their behalf ‘help’ claimants with their housing benefit, directing them to claim for the single dwelling rate. Critically, I’ve also been told by tenants that agents will ask them to sign a letter asking the council to pay the landlord directly. Under Department for Work and Pensions rules, direct payments to landlords should only be authorised in rare cases, such as when claimants are mentally ill and unable to look after themselves. But councils don’t necessarily have the resources to investigate every request. The vast profits on offer have turned lockdown into a big business, with landlords converting homes on an industrial scale. A Freedom of Information request from February 2018 revealed that the London borough of Bexley believed it had between 130-140 properties containing micro flats. In Brent, planners believe there were around 100 before they started enforcement action. Jon Knowles, a campaigner who has spent several years following the issue, explains: “I don’t think government appreciates just how big this problem is. If you look at the Land Registry and Valuation Office Agency, at its height, lockdown accounted for up to 10 per cent of housing transactions in some boroughs. The high prices that lockdown landlords can afford mean that first-time

“IN ONE LOCKDOWN FLAT I VISITED THE KITCHEN HAD NO WINDOWS AND THE CEILING WAS SO LOW THAT I COULD NOT STAND UP”

buyers with young families are crowded out of the market.”

Enforcement challenges The scale on which some lockdown landlords operate creates difficulties for planning authorities who wish to take on this practice, with landlords hiring top QCs to defend any enforcement action. One company told a planning inquiry that it managed 150 properties containing 750 rooms. Another inquiry heard that a single individual owned 60 properties. Enforcement action is difficult, not least because landlords are often careful to follow the letter of the law. But it is possible. The London Borough of Brent has taken a firm approach, arguing that lockdown constitutes a change of use from a single dwelling to multiple selfcontained flats. As a result, the development does not fall under the GPDO and requires planning permission. In order to succeed, the council needs to demonstrate why the rooms in a lockdown building should be classed as a single flat. In this, they are not helped by planning law. Tim Rolt, a planning enforcement manager from Brent Borough Council, says: “When the government introduced the C4 use class, there was no definition of an HMO in

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CASE STUDY: 9 STONEBRIDGE PARK

Arnal Crescent, in Wandsworth, one location of lockdown properties in London

planning law, so they borrowed the definition from housing law, which defines an HMO as having access to shared facilities. “This means that, often, enforcement will come down to how tenants are using their rooms and any shared facilities. This is hard to police for the landlords and the evidence can be difficult to collect for the council.” Brent council has taken a number of cases to appeal, winning every time. In one case the council pursued a criminal conviction and a proceeds of crime order against the landlord for failure to comply with an enforcement notice. This tough approach has been worth it, Rolt said,

because the council’s success has seen lockdown landlords moving out. But the difficulties in pursuing lockdown means that to “eradicate” the practice, as the HCLG committee would like, changes to legislation might be necessary beyond a revision of the definition of a large HMO. The committee itself called for a new housing benefit rate for studio accommodation to “reduce the perverse incentive for landlords to break up larger properties into much smaller ones to enable them to benefit from the higher rates payable”. But even clear definitions can help enforcement officers. Rolt explains: “The problem with using housing legislation in

This was a development of six micro flats in Brent. In July 2014 the property was bought by Wise Estates UK as a single C4 dwelling house and converted into six micro flats. In February 2015 the council issued an enforcement notice, claiming the property was an unlawful development of six single flats. The owner did not appeal against the notice within the time available to them, but applied for a Certificate of Lawful Use a week before the compliance period expired. This was denied by the council and Wise Estates UK appealed, instructing Saira Sheikh QC. The council presented housing benefit claim forms from tenants as evidence, which stated the units were self-contained flats and therefore eligible for a higher rate of payments, £260.64 a week, as opposed to £97.83 a week for a room in an HMO. Planning inspector Suki Tamplin gave great weight to this evidence as the tenants filling out the forms did not receive the rent directly and so had no personal interest in seeking higher rent payments, which would all go to the landlord and their property management firm. In addition, the presence of microwaves in the flats suggested tenants were cooking in their rooms, not using the shared kitchen. Wise Estates UK lost the appeal, and, as the enforcement notice had not been complied with, Brent secured a criminal conviction. Brent is now pursuing a proceeds of crime order against Wise Estates at the crown court.

planning is that housing law is often about minimum standards for health and safety. It is not, as planning should be, about driving good-quality homes. Goodquality HMOs, managed by responsible landlords are needed, but we need a better deﬁnition of HMOs with requirements for genuine shared facilities to be written into the use class order if we are to drive out bad practice.” n See page 42 for our report of a recent lockdown enforcement in Brent

THE TROUBLE WITH LOCKDOWN

Under the General Permitted Development Order, landlords do not need planning permission to convert a C3 dwelling house to a C4 HMO. Conversions are often cheaply done with little regard for health and safety. The intense use of ‘shared’ facilities in lockdown properties can cause

severe strain on infrastructure originally built to service a single home. Electrical circuits can overload, while the waste water system in a typical family home cannot cope with six ﬂats. In one property, the sewer overﬂowed and raw sewage poured out of a toilet and into one man’s room.

Landlords will go to great efforts to make sure their homes stick to the letter of the law. But at its heart, lockdown is a fraud that enables landlords to siphon off public money by exploiting a lack of clarity in definitions and a lack of communication between different arms of local government.

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E

Visualisation of the internal courtyard at Clapham Park in Lambeth

THE BEAUTY OF BIM BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING IS WIDELY USED BY ARCHITECTS AND CONTRACTORS. BUT WHY NOT PLANNERS? MARK SMULIAN ASKS THE QUESTION It’s supposed to be the future for creating major developments, it’s mandated on large central government projects, and planners dream of virtual models of entire city centres. But if building information modelling (BIM) is so great why do so few planners use it? What is keeping it in the hands of architects and contractors rather than planners? BIM should enable developers to come to planners with a digital 3D model of their proposed building and demonstrate how it would ﬁt with its surroundings. Planners might also use it for masterplanning – perhaps having a BIM model of a space into which project options could be ‘dropped’ for evaluation.

But it’s slow to become established in planning. “BIM is probably not as recognised in planning as it should or could be,” says Harry Burchill, RTPI policy oﬃcer. “I’ve heard members say it should be useful in CIL calculations and an advantage to show all stakeholders in a project what it will come out like. But it’s fair to say we are still ﬁnding our feet with it in planning.”

A more detailed picture There is an additional constraint, beyond habit and awareness – money. Andrew Murdoch, Oxford City Council’s team leader for major projects, used BIM when it was provided by Building Design

Partnership (BDP), lead architect on the city’s Westgate shopping centre development. “I would love to be able to use BIM and it would be great if we could have a BIM model of the city centre – that would be its ideal use,” he says. “The problems are ﬁnancial constraints in local authorities and staﬀ having to be trained to use the IT.” BDP held weekly meetings with planners using BIM to show them “what we would see when it was built”, Murdoch recalls. “It showed clearly how the elements relate to each other and to the city centre. “We are used to visualising from 2D drawings – it’s what planners do. But being able to see in 3D really helps you to get an idea. We’ve not had experience with BIM since, as we’ve not had a development on that scale.” Another factor that may hamper takeup of BIM in local authorities is that the government’s mandate to use it in all central government schemes does not apply locally.

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LANDSCAPE P30 TECH P32 AWARDS P34 REGIONAL P38 DECISIONS P42 LEGAL P50 PLAN B

“WE’RE USED TO VISUALISING FROM 2D DRAWINGS – IT’S WHAT PLANNERS DO. BUT BEING ABLE TO SEE IN 3D REALLY HELPS”

The National Building Speciﬁcation’s annual report on BIM noted views from architects such as: “The government should have required the use of BIM for all public projects (at regional, county, and local authority levels)”, and “There are reports that some local authorities are avoiding BIM and so it seems government, in large part, does not have a united front on the adoption of principles of BIM.”

Building momentum From the other side of the fence, Scott Sanderson, a partner at PRP Architects, says: “We use BIM to engage local authorities, though I don’t know of any that use it themselves. I think the drive for BIM comes from the supply chain rather than from planners.” He says BIM’s strength for planning is the ability it gives to experiment with options. PRP used it with the London Borough of Lambeth at the 2,500-home Clapham Park regeneration scheme. “We’ve been able to show both the local authority and residents 3D models of what is there now, and the new buildings and what they will look like and how they will ﬁt together, so they can see the context,” says Sanderson.

BIM IN BRIEF BIM is deﬁned by the Chartered Institute of Building as: “The process of creating a digital model of a building or infrastructure facility.” It elaborates: “The fundamental idea behind BIM is to create and share the right information at the right time throughout the design, construction and operation of a building or facility, in order to improve eﬃciency and decisionmaking.”

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“I think the use of BIM is building momentum for sure, and certainly it is common among clients and [major] contractors.” There’s been a similar experience for Melanie Dawson, head of digital construction at contractor GRAHAM, which has used BIM on projects with several councils. She says: “I think there is some nervousness on the councils’ side in that they think you already need expertise in BIM to use it, but in fact there are architects and contractors to help them through, and once they get to the end of the first use they have the knowledge and are a lot more confident.” David Light, technical consultancy manager at software firm Autodesk, thinks it’s a false economy for councils not to invest in BIM for planning. He says: “I know local authorities are cash-strapped, but they tend to look at BIM just as a cost and not at its capabilities. It gives you a return on investment and I don’t think they are figuring that out.” He gives the example of a local authority planning a building that will remain an asset for decades.

“Construction is only 18 months and the cost is probably less than that of maintaining it over 50 years, and BIM lets you see the whole life cycle,” he says. “Traditionally when, say, a boiler needed to be replaced it was not clearly recorded where it was or what it was, when you really want to just move something and replace it. A BIM model would show that without having to rummage through masses of 2D drawings.” Light says that, used correctly, BIM can consolidate information “from the planning process right through to operations, it means there is consistent information”. PRP’s Sanderson says wider adoption of BIM would allow for better building efficiency and earlier cost specifications. “It helps to take risk out, creating more certainty for developers and local authorities.” But will many planners get to use BIM? Like most IT, its costs will probably eventually fall and its use will become simpler – so the financial constraints may lessen. The RTPI’s Burchill can see the possibilities. He concludes: “It is not just 3D computer modelling. We know we can do that, but it can do more. “Perhaps local authorities could have a BIM model of an entire area showing buildings, planning history, utilities and so forth.” n Mark Smulian is a freelance journalist specialising in the built environment

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RTPI AWARDS CASE STUDY

LIFE ON MARSH AWARDS: RTPI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PLANNING FOR THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT PROJECT NAME: CAEAU MYNYDD MAWR SPG AND MARSH FRITILLARY PROJECT KEY PLAYERS: CARMARTHENSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL PLANNING TEAM AND RURAL CONSERVATION OFFICER; NATURAL RESOURCES WALES; BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION; WILDLIFE TRUST FOR SOUTH AND WEST WALES. BY M A R K S M U L I A N

Carmarthenshire County Council needed to promote economic development in Cross Hands, an agricultural area just west of the end of the M4 motorway with scattered settlements and former mine workings, writes Mark Smulian. It had identified the sites required, only to find the presence of the marsh fritillary butterfly, a threatened species, might frustrate the project. This butterfly inhabits a special area of conservation in the midst of where development was planned, and it inconveniently declines to stick to one site. Instead, its feeding habits require it to move between feeding areas. Land at Cross Hands is relatively wet and has not seen agricultural intensification. Its fritillary-friendly habitats have thus been preserved, and the marsh fritillary had persisted undisturbed. Until the council’s economic development plans were devised, this situation worried no one. In such instances, the EU’s Habitats Directive requires mitigation. As the butterflies could not be moved, this meant that individual developers would have to conduct this, adding cost and complication to a scheme for which the council was seeking to attract investment. Planners quickly realised that separate

mitigation schemes for each individual development within the wider plan presented a considerable barrier to the delivery of the Cross Hands economic growth area’s objectives. As the area’s local development plan progressed, questions about the deliverability of the proposed sites raised concerns regarding its overall soundness. A solution was required.

LANDSCAPE PROTECTION In December 2014, Carmarthenshire County Council adopted supplementary planning guidance through which it can raise section 106 contributions from individual developments within the economic growth area. These will be used to manage

at least 100 hectares of marshy grassland – ideal for the marsh fritillaries. Contributions are set at £1,043 a house, or £31,290 per hectare for commercial sites. The sums are based on the cost of managing the land, or in some cases buying the site. “Without this, the economic development could not have gone ahead,” explains Owain Enoch, Carmarthenshire’s forward planning officer. “We needed to find a balance between that and conservation.” The butterfly’s behaviour presented particular challenges to planners and conser-

THE MARSH FRITILLARY

The marsh fritillary is a medium-sized butterﬂy with brightly coloured wings. Once widespread, it is now restricted to the western side of the British Isles. Its preferred habitats are damp grasslands dominated by tussock-forming grasses and chalk grasslands, and shorter coastal grasslands. Extensive habitat

networks are required for its long-term survival. The butterﬂy is protected under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act and the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. It’s also a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Source: Butterﬂy Conservation

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The marsh fritillary butterﬂy is a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan

GROWTH AT CROSS HANDS

The Cross Hands growth area has five main sites on which are planned around 500 homes, £50 million of private sector investment and 1,500 jobs. The area will incorporate: n Cross Hands Food Park, which employs 1,000 people. n Cross Hands West, a 21-hectare mixeduse zone with retail superstore, medical centre and 280 homes. n Emlyn Brickworks, a mixed-use redevelopment for 250 homes n Cross Hands Business Park, a 38-hectare site for major retail and commercial developments. n Cross Hands East Strategic Employment Site, where the first phase will offer 17,000 square metres of floor space across 8.5 hectares of land.

have their own grazing animals, or we will mow it for them or ﬁnd a grazier.” So far 24 such agreements have been reached.

THE SPG IN ACTION vationists. Rosie Carmichael, the county’s rural conservation officer, elaborates. “The marsh fritillary’s presence was known and it was not just on one site as it is dispersed through the landscape and moves about. “It’s a weak flyer so if a tall building or a road is put in its way it will not go there and a thriving population needs a wide area.” So planners had to know the regular flight paths adopted by the butterfly to move around the larger site. They then had to make sure that the development contribution pooling area was robustly defined and the contributor sites robustly evidenced. Enoch says: “We are now not encouraged to simply reproduce national policy but to have a development plan reflecting local need with local solutions.” The fund accumulated from the contribution is administered by planners “which is quite a job as everything must be transparent and accounted for”, he says. “We have template agreements to keep it straightforward and we have had to explain to residents and elected members

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W H A T T H E J U D G E S S AY “This is a down-to-earth, practical project that had substantial planning input and used innovative tools to deliver positive outcomes. “Not only does it manage and create areas of suitable habitat for the protected marsh fritillary butterﬂy, but also enables economic development to a ﬂourishing strategic economic growth area, providing opportunities for the wider community.”

that the [habitats] directive is so strong this is the only way to get the economic development needed.” Carmichael says the council has “bought land known to be used or useable by marsh fritillaries when it comes on the market, which is not often, and have reached agreements with landowners on other sites so we pay them a grant. “They can manage the land if, say, they

That’s good news for the marsh fritillaries, but what about the area’s economy? Between 2015 and 2017 there were 19 planning applications approved within the special planning guidance area, a level of planning activity that showed development in the Cross Hands growth area was being delivered. These included seven commercial units, 7,455 square metres of retail space, a care home and applications for 96 new homes. None had to be refused solely on grounds of unacceptable impact to the marsh fritillary habitat. During the same period, Carmarthenshire received £339,002 from the s106 agreements. There is still a good deal more development to come in the Cross Hands area (see above), but so far the scheme has been a winner for the council, for developers, and for the marsh fritillary butterﬂy.

n Mark Smulian is a freelance journalist specialising in the built environment

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Nations & Regions focus { Wealth of opportunities You may think of the West Midlands as Birmingham, the Black Country and their surrounding semi-urban areas. But while this West Midlands conurbation may be the focus of major growth activity, there is much more to the region. In addition to West Midlands County, there are five very distinctive counties: Shropshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. There are urban industrial landscapes in Stoke-on-Trent and north Staffordshire, rural environments throughout Shropshire and Herefordshire, and rural-urban transitions in south Staffordshire and north Worcestershire. Development is critical if the region is to address productivity gaps and create the foundation for economic prosperity as well as meeting its housing need. Highprofile initiatives abound, and many are addressed in the government’s broad Midlands Engine Strategy, which places the Midlands in a UK growth context. PLANWATCH

Unlike many others, the West Midlands devolution deal does not include strategic planning. Also, the Greater Birmingham and Black Country Housing Market Area issues impact assessments on the local plans of all constituent LPAs. A review has begun of the South Worcestershire Development Plan – the ﬁrst joint strategic, allocations and DM policies plan, which was introduced in February 2016. Meanwhile, the Birmingham Development Plan, although now adopted, is seen by some as only meeting some of the housing need, with the rest needing to be picked up through duty to cooperate.

FACTFILE 2018 2018 2018

Total population: 5,860,700 Major population centres: - Birmingham: 1,101,360 - Coventry: 345,385 - Stoke on Trent: 261,302 - Wolverhampton: 249,370 - Solihull: 206,700 - Stafford: 122,000 Parliamentary constituencies: 59 (35 borough constituencies, 24 county constituencies): Conservative 35, Labour 24 Planning authorities: Single-Tier: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall, Solihull, Herefordshire, Telford, Wrekin, Shropshire, Warwickshire Two-tier (Warwickshire County Council): Warwick, Rugby, Coventry City, North Warwickshire, Stratford Two-tier{ (Staffordshire County Council): Lichfield, Stafford, Cannock Chase, Newcastle under Lyme, South Staffordshire, Staffordshire, Moorlands, Stoke on Trent City, Tamworth Two-tier: (Worcestershire County Council): Bromsgrove, Redditch, Wyre Forest, Wychavon, Malvern Hills, Worcester City Principal economic activities Wholesale and retail trade; repair of vehicles (employs about 468,000) Human health and social work activities (411,000) Manufacturing (305,000) Administrative and support service activities (273,000) Education (256,000)

IN THE PIPELINE

1. Long Marston 3,500 homes at Long Marston Airfield are to be built as part of a new settlement for the Stratfordupon-Avon district, which will also benefit from a significant highways upgrade and infrastructure package. bit.ly/planner1018-marston

2. Black Country Garden Village The Black Country LEP, along with the four Black Country local authorities and the Homes & Communities Agency, is working

to create a new 21st century garden city connecting into existing communities and infrastructure. bit.ly/planner1018-black

3. HS2 Curzon Street Station This key part of HS2 infrastructure has been described as “a catalyst for economic growth, a landmark destination that the local community can be proud to host, and an icon at the heart of a great city and the national railway network”. bit.ly/planner1018-curzon

A RC H I T E C T S A N D MASTERPLANNERS JTP

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The West Midlands SIGNIFICANT INFRASTRUCTURE

1. Birmingham Airport The airport, south-east of Birmingham city, is the seventh busiest in the country with 12.9 million passengers in 2017. Birmingham interchange station, part of phase 1 of the HS2, will serve the airport while a £100 million investment was planned for the airport in 2016. bit.ly/planner1018-interchange

2. Midlands Motorway Hub Midlands Connect launched its strategy in 2017, making recommendations for the improvement of the rail and road network for the next 20 years to create 300,000 jobs across the Midlands. The vision for the orbital motorway would ease congestion in the city and include park-and-ride schemes. This initiative would help in the development of 45,000 homes in the Black Country. bit.ly/planner1018-hub

3. West Midlands Metro and Birmingham New Street The extension of the Midlands Metro to Birmingham New

Street (operational since 2016) increased use from ﬁve million to six million in its ﬁrst year (2016/17) alone. bit.ly/planner1018-metro

4. Midland Metropolitan Hospital (under construction) The UK Government has agreed to bail out the construction of this hospital, serving patients in the Black Country and Birmingham, following the collapse of construction giant Carillion earlier this year. The hospital is set to open in 2022. bit.ly/planner1018-hospital

5. i54 industrial estate Home to manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover and component maker Moog, this estate is likely to see a new phase of development with expansion plans submitted to South Staﬀordshire District Council for a ‘western extension’ next to junction 2 of the M54. About 2,500 people are already employed in businesses on the site, an another 2,100 jobs expected as a result of the extension,

T H E U G C'S V I S I O N F O R T H E H U B

which will draw on existing infrastructure and motorway access, and be developed in two phases. Over £1bn has already been invested in the site. bit.ly/planner1018-i54

6. HS2 (planned) Among its many eﬀects, the much-debated rail route is set to make Birmingham the best-connected city in the Midlands. bit.ly/planner1018-hs2

4. Darlaston and Willenhall stations These are part of a £3.4 billion investment in transport schemes to be delivered by the West Midlands Combined Authority over the coming decade. bit.ly/planner1018-darlaston

5. UK Central Hub Growth Area, Solihull Developed for Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council's Urban Growth Company (UGC), this landmark plan outlines the vision for development and investment to position the region as a major driver of economic growth. 3

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bit.ly/planner1018-solihull

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The West Midlands COMING UP

Birmingham city centre

1. RTPI West Midlands Ball and Awards Dinner 12 October, Macdonald Burlington Hotel, Birmingham The regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual awards ceremony, held in the heart of Englandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second city. bit.ly/planner1018-ball

2. Building new homes: meeting the challenges of housing supply and delivery 1 November, Pinsent Masons, Birmingham This seminar will debate the latest housing supply issues and initiatives from a range of regional and sectoral perspectives. bit.ly/planner1018-homes

3. RTPI West Midlands Annual Planning Summit 4 December, Macdonald Burlington Hotel, Birmingham A look at the impact that hosting major sporting and cultural events can have, drawing on past events across the country and the opportunities presented to the West Midlands Region by Coventry being named 2021 UK City of Culture and Birmingham hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games. bit.ly/planner1018-legacy

SIGNPOSTS Land for housing is a critical issue in the region

n Regional chair: Maria Dunn MRTP n Regional web address: www.rtpi.org.uk/westmidlands n Young planners' page: www.rtpi.org.uk/wmyoungplanners and on Twitter @YPWestMidlands n Email address: westmidlands@rtpi.org.uk n Social media: @RTPIWestMids

How the Commonwealth Games athletics venue may look, according to bid documents

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Working in...

ADVERTISER CONTENT

The West Midlands

5 REASONS TO LIVE AND WORK IN THE WEST MIDLANDS

The West Midlands is home to a number of great cities, all within proximity to attractive countryside. If you’re keen on locating to somewhere where the future is bright, events such as the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the impact of HS2 as it develops ensure ongoing involvement for planners in a ‘happening’ region.

The West Midlands has always beneﬁted from strong regional and urban transport links, making most of the area very accessible. Wellestablished arterial links via road, rail and air make the rest of the country, north, south and east, perhaps easier to get to and from than anywhere else in the UK.

With its industrial heritage to the fore, the West Midlands has a range of highprofile employers (both public and private sector) that offer unique opportunities to work on a range of projects within the region and farther afield.

It’s not hard to ﬁnd a reason for describing the West Midlands as the UK’s ‘Major Project Central’, with everything from the Birmingham City Centre redevelopment, High Speed 2 (both from an infrastructure and surrounding development perspective) and international events aﬀecting how the rest of the country views the region.

Among the region’s signiﬁcant towns is Telford in Shropshire, one of the last new towns created under the 1946 New Towns Act. Recent years have seen its evolution perhaps best represented by the complete transformation of its shopping centre to a real town centre. The region has a population of just over 140,000.

Planner Jobs has an average of jobs posted every month!

280 The PERFECT PLACE to find the latest town planning vacancies Planner Jobs is the official jobs board for the Royal Town Planning Institute

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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

Time Out ‘ﬁne dining market’ would harm conservation area EXPERT ANALYSIS

A proposal by Time Out magazine to convert a former stables in East London into a multifloor food court has been blocked because the proposed roof alterations would ‘erode the identity’ of the surrounding conservation area. The appeal concerned a disused and “landlocked” building in Spitalfields, East London, comprised of an L-shaped, slate-roofed former stabling block, and an atrium area covered by corrugated metal sheeting. In 2014, Time Out media group converted a historic building in Lisbon into a food market curated by its editorial team. It has since expanded this format to five cities across North America. The appeal scheme sought to bring the format to London by converting the appeal building into a “class A3 fine dining food market”, with 17 eateries on multiple floors. The council voiced various public safety concerns, noting that traffic collisions on the road outside the building are higher than average. Inspector Callum Parker pointed out that many of these incidents resulted from “people not being aware of their surroundings”, noting that “you cannot legislate against stupidity”. At the inquiry, residents submitted evidence of antisocial behaviour in the area including “urination, defecation and sexual acts”. Parker found it “difficult to see how proposals for a ‘fine

Rupert Wheeler, chairman of the Spitalfields Society ( “We were delighted that the inspector agreed that the Time Out market proposal would cause harm to Spitalfields and the conservation area, and that the proposal did not offer sufficient public benefit to justify such harm. ( “We now hope the building can be brought back into beneficial use by implementation of the earlier retail or office consents obtained by the owner. ( “The Time Out market concept is a good one, and one hopes that the operator might seek a more suitable site similar to the venue in Lisbon, where the regenerative benefits they claim it can bring are genuinely needed, rather than adding to the high level of antisocial behaviour in Spitalfields and Shoreditch.”

LOCATION: Spitalfields, London AUTHORITY: Tower Hamlets Borough Council

INSPECTOR: Cullum J A Parker PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ E5900/W/17/3188112

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dining’ experience would speciﬁcally exacerbate these concerns”. The Spitalﬁelds Society,

which was granted Rule 6 status at the inquiry, raised concerns about noise disruption caused by customers leaving the appeal site at closing time. Again, Parker was not persuaded, noting that these concerns were based on the assumption that all 400 patrons would leave at the same time and engage in antisocial behaviour. The site lies within the Brick Lane conservation area (CA). Given the landlocked nature of the building, Parker considered its roof-scape as integral to its contribution to the CA. The scheme would involve replacing the existing roof with a “bituminous rooﬁng cap sheet”, for

soundproofing purposes. Parker agreed with the council that although the slate roof is not original and was replaced in 2012, it still represents the building’s “harmony and narrative connection with the past”. The loss of the slate roof would “erode the identity” of the CA, he ruled. Parker also took issue with the scheme’s layout, noting that the only disabled toilet would be on the second floor and therefore reliant on lifts being operational at all times. Concluding that scheme’s public benefits could not outweigh the less than substantial harm to the CA he had identified, Parker dismissed the appeal.

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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

Scottish ministers overrule council to allow 12 wind turbines Plans for 12 large wind turbines in the Scottish borders area can go ahead despite the local council’s unanimous vote against the scheme, after the Scottish ministers overturned its decision.

Extra museum exhibition space amounts to ‘very special circumstances’ A museum in the Manchester green belt can extend its exhibition hall, an inspector has ruled, after deciding that the museum’s ability to offer an ‘enhanced visitor experience’ outweighed the harm to the green belt. The appeal concerned Anson Engine Museum, a specialist museum that displays rare mechanical engines. Since it opened in 1989, the museum has been run by volunteers. It attracts 5,000 visitors a year and has a partnership with the Science Museum. The museum occupies the site of a former colliery near Poynton, a town in the Manchester green belt south of Stockport. It comprises two main buildings: the main hall, which houses the entrance, reception and café areas, and the main exhibition space. The appellant sought permission to extend both buildings to provide additional exhibition space, which would allow large exhibits currently stored outside to be brought in under cover. Inspector Mike Worden noted that the extension to the main hall would replace an existing wraparound extension, resulting in a small overall reduction in footprint. The extension to the exhibition hall, however, would be a “wholly new and significantly large addition”, doubling the size of the building, which would amount to inappropriate development. It would also harm the openness of the green belt to introduce built development where there currently is none, LOCATION: Poynton although openness would be improved if large exhibits AUTHORITY: Cheshire East Council could be kept indoors. Worden ruled that INSPECTOR: Mike Worden the scheme would “significantly improve the PROCEDURE: Hearing museum’s attractiveness and its ability to provide a DECISION: Allowed learning experience to the public”, according with the REFERENCE: APP/ council’s policy aim. R0660/W/17/3190537 This, he said, amounted to the very special circumstances necessary to outweigh green belt harm, allowing the appeal.

Leeds-based energy company Energiekontor sought permission to erect the turbines on open countryside land south of Hawick, a town in the Roxburghshire area of the Scottish borders. Seven of the turbines would be about 150 metres high, and another five would stand at 130m high. Together, the turbines would achieve a total generating capacity of 36 megawatts – saving 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Their construction would give the economy a £5 million boost. The council unanimously voted to refuse the scheme, against the advice of its officers, citing unacceptable harm to the area’s landscape character and harm to the setting of a nearby scheduled ancient monument. Reporter Malcolm Mahony noted that though the site has no landscape designation, it is in a landscape characterised by “large-scale rolling heather moorland and grasslandcovered hills”. This, he felt, is “a better fit for commercial wind farms than areas with smallscale features”.

LOCATION: Hawick AUTHORITY: Scottish Borders Council

INSPECTOR: Malcolm Mahony PROCEDURE: Recovered appeal DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: PPA1402069

Mahony also considered the impact on a nearby falconbreeding business that exports birds to the Middle East. Its owner said young falcons would be attracted to the turbine towers and could be killed by the blades. Mahony considered this a small risk. The reporter ruled that the scheme adhered to the council’s development plan and national carbon emission targets. He recommended the plans for approval, and the ministers allowed the appeal.

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C&D { C ‘Peaceful co-existence possible’ at 19-pitch traveller site

LOCATION: Arncott AUTHORITY: Aylesbury Vale District Council

INSPECTOR: Mark Daykene PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ J0405/W/18/3193773

The appeal concerned a parcel of formerly open countryside near Arncott, between the town of Bicester and the M40 motorway. The site has been in unauthorised use as a 19-pitch caravan site since 2012. Since a previous appeal decision relating to the site in 2009, inspector Mark Daykene noted, “the area’s rural tranquility had been disrupted” by MoD development nearby, and the government had published the Planning Policy for Traveller Sites document,

Mod cons and Wi-Fi don’t justify a poor living environment Plans to replace a former pub in Bath with a block of seven flats have been blocked, after an inspector disapproved of the scheme’s contemporary design. The appeal concerned The Rising Sun, a former pub in Twerton, a residential area of Bath. The building is now in use as a five-bedroom HMO. The appellant sought permission to demolish the pub and replace it with a block of seven flats.

In contrast with the existing building, inspector Porter noted, the proposal would have a contemporary design, using large projecting metal window bays in an bid to reﬂect the design of three homes recently approved for an adjacent site.

clarifying that they can be in rural areas. During the period the site has been occupied, Daykene noted, incidents of antisocial behaviour including dumping and burning of waste, water contamination and property damage have been reported. But there have also been “signs of community integration”, evidenced by registration with local schools and facilities. Daykene said: “I see no reason why peaceful and integrated coexistence

between those on the site and the local community cannot be achieved over time.” The current development plan did not contain policies directly relevant to traveller sites, he noted. This represented a “failure of policy” that had been identiﬁed in the council’s emerging plan, which proposes several allocations, including the appeal site. The 19-pitch appeal plan exceeded the 13-pitch camp allocated, but it would be a settled base for 19 families. The appeal was allowed.

While the design of those houses succeeds in complementing the locale, Porter found, the appeal scheme would look “incongruous”. Although the idea of large windows is not harmful in itself, he said, their position on the scheme “seems to be driven by internal spaces rather than local context”, resulting in a “bland façade”. Overall, Porter considered that the building would look like a student hall of residence, “more suited to a university campus”, and would not accord with the NPPF’s aim to promote high-quality design. To prevent overlooking, the building’s upper ﬂoor windows would be obscured except for a small clear “strip” that would look onto a blank wall, resulting in a poor outlook. Porter dismissed the appellant’s suggestion that this “substandard living environment” was justiﬁed

because the occupants would be provided with “modern furnishings and Wi-Fi”, and were likely to be students. And despite the obscured windows, the plan’s extensive glazing would still “signiﬁcantly increase the perception of being overlooked” by nearby properties, he said. Finding other national and local policy conﬂicts, he rejected the appeal.

I M AG E S | A L A M Y / I STO C K

An inspector has permitted a gypsy camp near Bicester that has been unauthorised for six years despite reports of antisocial behaviour in that period, encouraging ‘respect and good neighbourliness’ between its residents and the local community.

LOCATION: Twerton, Bath AUTHORITY: Bath & NorthEast Somerset Council INSPECTOR: H Porter PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ F0114/W/18/3194518

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE to our appeals digest:

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

‘Poor outlook’ from bedsit in Cheam wig shop stockroom Plans to convert a stockroom to the rear of a hair salon and wig shop in Cheam into a bedsit have been blocked, following an inspector’s ruling that the single-aspect ﬂat would provide poor living conditions. bit.ly/planner1018-wig

‘No artificial division’ in residential conversion project

30 homes allowed despite 9year housing land supply

An inspector has dismissed Bromley Borough Council’s argument that plans to convert and extend a former office for residential use were “artificially divided” into two schemes to circumvent the ccouncil’s affordable housing policy. bit.ly/planner1018-convert

An inspector has approved plans for 30 houses beyond the settlement boundary of Crondall, a village in Hampshire, despite the council’s housing land supply of nine years. bit.ly/planner1018-crondall

Inspector overrules structural engineer’s advice on derelict barn

Plans to convert a derelict barn in P the Forest of Dean into a home would be “tantamount to a new dwelling”, an inspector has ruled, d despite a sstructural engineer’s opinion that no “major demoli demolition and subsequent rebuilding” would be required. bit.ly/planner1018-dean

An inspector has approved plans for a ﬁve-storey hostel in Brent despite a technical conﬂict with the local plan, citing the citywide shortage of hostel accommodation that has seen councils forced to place homeless people in expensivew hotels. bit.ly/planner1018-hostel

Approval for climbing school in Hammersmith railway arches

Edinburgh parttime holiday let is ‘material change of use’

Plans to convert four railway arches in West London into an indoor and outdoor climbing centre and school can go ahead, after an inspector dismissed concerns over noise and parking. bit.ly/planner1018-climb

A reporter has upheld an enforcement notice against an Edinburgh ﬂat that was let as holiday accommodation for only 44 days in 2017 and 30 days in 2018, ruling that a material change of use had occurred. bit.ly/planner1018-edinburgh

Council must pay costs for refusing lapdancing club

Temporary accommodation allowed at stricken alpaca farm

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An inspector has granted temporary permission for a mobile home at an alpaca farm to enable closer supervision in light of the herd’s recent ill health, and has awarded costs against the council for disregarding evidence. bit.ly/planner1018-alpaca b l l l

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Wirral Borough Council has been ordered to pay costs after it cited failure to “promote a positive image of the area” by refusing permission for a lapdancing club, contrary to the advice of its oﬃcers. bit.ly/planner1018-lapdance

oonn

Shortage of temporary housing in London justifies hostel

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INSIGHT

LLegal landscape ‘SCEPTICAL’ INSPECTOR UPHOLDS ENFORCEMENT AGAINST LOW QUALITY MICRO FLATS By Matt Moody

As we were preparing our Lockdown feature on page 26, an enforcement appeal arrived relating to the practice of converting family homes into micro-flats. It involved the London Borough of Brent, the authority quoted in the article, and illustrated perfectly the enforcement challenges the practice presents An inspector has upheld an enforcement notice issued by Brent Borough Council against a ‘modest’ home that was converted into five self-contained flats as small as 11m2, following a two-day inquiry The appeal concerned what a “modest, two storey terraced house” built as a single family dwelling, in Brent Park, northwest London. The council issued an enforcement notice in May 2017, alleging an unauthorised change of use of the property to five self-contained flats, as well as an unauthorised rear extension. At inquiry, the appellant explained that the property was bought from a property development company – Manlow Developments Ltd (MD) – in 2014. The company offers “a full development

In 'lockdown' properties, ordinary two-storey family homes are converted into multiple micro-ﬂats.

service, including commissioning any works needed, furnishing, marketing, signing up tenants, and subsequent management.”. The appellant indicated that he had agreed for MD to carry out building works at the appeal property, but due to a “misunderstanding”, MD understood that they were to provide their “complete package”. As a result, the house was furnished and tenants found to move in. Noting the wide experience in property of both the appellant and his agent, who manages 60 properties, Inspector Stephen Brown considered it “surprising” that without their knowledge, MD was instructed to carry out works including the installation of kitchen sinks and hotplates in each room. While he acknowledged that “there may be a Jewish cultural tradition that contracts are entered into and executed on a word-of-mouth basis”,

“THE FIVE UNITS IN THE DEVELOPMENT RANGED FROM 1116M2, WITH INADEQUATE SPACE FOR A TABLE OR CHAIR”

Brown found it “difficult to believe” that this would not include agreements about the extent and cost of services to be provided, with “no paperwork at all” for accounting and taxation purposes. The appellant’s agent indicated that he had instructed for the cookers and sinks to be removed, and informed all tenants that cooking was allowed only in the communal kitchen. However, his evidence relating to when this was undertaken contradicted the appellant’s consultant’s explanation. Brown also noted a “statutory declaration” from a woman attesting that she was an occupant of one flat, stating that she “never cooks in her room”, and that cooking equipment was temporarily stored there during a council inspection while the communal kitchen was renovated. However, the declaration was not signed or properly dated, and it became clear from email evidence that the appellant’s consultant was “influential in drafting the statement and making edits before it was submitted”. It also emerged that the woman who wrote the statement was a sub-tenant of the flat.

Noting that no tenants had appeared at the inquiry, Brown was not convinced that any evidence was “suﬃciently precise to show that the units have ceased to be self-contained”. He remained “sceptical about the original commissioning of the development and the appellant’s claimed ignorance of the changes made”. The appellant also appealed on ground (a), arguing that planning permission should be granted for what had been alleged in the enforcement notice. Brown was not persuaded, noting that the ﬁve units in the property ranged from between 11 and 16m2 – below the London Plan standard – with inadequate space for a table or chair and poor daylight, as well as evidence of “serious" damp.. Concluding, Brown refused retrospective permission for the development and upheld the enforcement notice, after varying it to change some “over-prescriptive” wording and extend the compliance period to six months. Both parties sought costs against each other. The council called the appellant’s evidence “remarkably thin”, noting that despite being professionally represented and “not short of resources”, he had “failed to produce a single tenant to provide oral evidence” at inquiry.. “Although it may well have been helpful to hear the direct evidence of tenants,” Brown found, “it cannot be held to be necessary.” The appellant called the council’s evidence to support its claims “non-existent”. Again Brown disagreed, describing the council’s evidence as “reasonably substantial”. Both costs claims were dismissed. The inspector’s report can be read here: bit.ly/planner1018-brent

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LATEST POSTS FROM THEPLANNER.CO.UK/BLOGS

B LO G S Dame Judith Hackitt's review into building safety post-Grenfell is welcome, but will her proposals be workable?

LEG I S L AT I O N S H O R T S

We must all work together post-Grenfell After the Grenfell tragedy there are two streams of work the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) is engaged in with Government. The first concerns what to do about current buildings with Grenfell-type cladding; the second looks at how to deliver the sort of building reforms that the Dame Judith Hackitt review put forward. Almost immediately after Grenfell, ARMA realised there would be an extra dimension to the leasehold sector not seen in the social or build-torent sectors. In the latter two cases funding for cladding remediation would come either from a central pot or from a company's balance sheet. However, in leasehold, the financial burden would most likely fall on the leaseholders themselves – a view supported by the (few) cases ruled upon to date. ARMA highlighted to the Government that, due to the large sums involved, there would be inevitable delays in remediation, while the various parties involved pursued their legal options. These delays could stretch for years, over which time thousands of people would be living in potentially unsafe buildings, unable to sell or move, whilst facing calls for large sums of money. It seemed obvious that ‘something’ had to be done to get buildings safe first and foremost and worry about who pays at a later date, and that this ‘something’ could realistically only be done by Government. ARMA publicly asked for Government loans to be made available and for remediation to be taken into a national programme rather than on block-by-block basis. ARMA founded a Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings Group allowing best practice to be swapped between managing agents and providing data to the Government on the scale of the problem and an estimate of the cost. Earlier this year the Secretary of State called together an industry group and we have all been working hard to find a way forward. The second stream involves a number of working groups that are looking at how to deliver Dame Judith's vision. As always, the devil is in the detail. To give just one example, Dame Judith recommends that High Risk Residential Buildings (HRRB) should have a Building Safety Manager (BSM), an individual whose contact details are available to everyone in the development and who is responsible for ensuring that the building as a whole is safe. All agree that this seems a very sensible recommendation. However, questions inevitably arise. Is the role purely fire related or is it much broader and including Health & Safety as well? How likely are you to find a single individual who spans both disciplines at a requisite level of expertise? Such people are likely to be rare and highly qualified. So, what happens if there aren't enough to go around? Will a new HRRB be allowed to be occupied without a BSM? Will this affect the buildings insurance? If everyone in a development should have access to the BSM, it means that you will likely need one per development. Being rare, sought after and highly qualified will almost certainly mean expensive. Will leaseholders be happy to receive a large increase in their service charges to pay for the BSM? On a practical note, if the BSM is responsible for the safety of the building as a whole, how will they gain access to flats to make sure any internal work that a resident has done hasn’t compromised the safety of the building? What powers will the BSM need in order to do so? If the BSM is responsible for safety does that mean they are criminally liable should anything go wrong? This may all sound negative, but it shouldn’t be seen that way. In order to make something work you have to try to foresee any difficulties that can arise and work out ways to accommodate them in advance. These are the intensive discussions that are being held so that safer homes can be delivered. Dr Nigel Lewis is chief executive of ARMA

Breach of HMO rules results in £30k fine An agent who let a tiny room behind a property’s kitchen in Brent has been ordered to pay more than £30,000 in fines after appearing at Willesden Magistrates Court. Viviane Almieda, of Falcondale Court, Lakeside Drive in Park Royal, ignored warnings from enforcement officers at Brent Council that a room behind the kitchen was unsafe to let as it was a fire hazard. The room in a three-bed conversion in Redfern Road, Harlesden, measured less than 6.5 square metres, the minimum legal requirement for a single bedroom. She pleaded guilty to breaching HMO licensing conditions, including failing to comply with the council's amenity and space standards as well as obstructing the council’s investigation. Almieda, whose agency My London Services Ltd is in Furness Road, Willesden, was fined £30,000 fine and charged £2,090 in court costs and ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge in September). Eleanor Southwood, cabinet member for housing and welfare reform, said: “Landlords, agencies or subletters who exploit tenants will pay heavily in court.”

Council queries planning inspector’s rulings South Gloucestershire Council is seeking its second judicial review within four months of Planning Inspectorate decisions to allow housing development. In June, South Gloucestershire launched judicial review proceedings against a planning inspector’s decision to allow up 350 homes and a care facility for the elderly to be developed by Welbeck Strategic Land at Thornbury. The latest proceedings focus on the development of 121 homes at Charfield by Barratt Homes. Inspector Christina Downes had ruled that the council failed to decide the application within prescribed timescales while noting a shortfall in its five-year supply of housing. The council said granting planning permission for the Charfield scheme would undermine the West of England Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) process and its impact upon the residents and communities of South Gloucestershire. “We are clear that enough is enough and we mean it. This unprecedented second legal challenge is evidence of our strong approach and considering each case on its… merits.” The West of England JSP, which covers South Gloucestershire alongside local authorities at Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and North Somerset, was submitted for examination in April.

Legal challenge to Hinkley mud dump Opponents to a controversial scheme to dump mud from a nuclear plant off the coast of Cardiff have launched a lastminute legal challenge. About 300,000 tonnes will be dredged from the seabed near the Hinkley Point C building site in Somerset. The Campaign Against Hinkley Mud Dumping submitted an application to the High Court in Cardiff last month seeking an interim injunction. However, developer EDF began moving mud and sediment to Cardiff Grounds, a licensed disposal site a mile out to sea off Cardiff Bay. Campaigners claim that Natural Resources Wales failed to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment. They said core samples were insufficient under international rules and did not cover all significant radioactive substances from the Hinkley plant. The Welsh Government said Natural Resources Wales made its decision based on “expert advice”, the BBC reports.

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NEWS

RTPI {

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

The RTPI leads on delivery of Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Will planners seize the opportunity to lead on delivering global sustainability? Every year countries meet at the United Nations’ ‘High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development’ (HLPF) in New York to keep track of progress towards delivering better sustainability. This year the RTPI attended the forum and promoted planning as one of the main tools to achieve sustainability. Immediate action is needed and the main avenue is the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). National governments have agreed to support the objectives of the goals at a global scale. The international community specifically looks at cities to address these issues and according to the UN’s New Urban Agenda, “we will be radically rethinking the way we talk about and make our cities” if we are to achieve the SDGs. It is over 30 years since Norwegian sustainability champion Gro H Brundtland defined sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Her definition is still referenced in the National Planning Policy Framework for England. Since then, a consensus has emerged on how to combat the challenges facing us, and we now have 17 clear objectives with measurable indicators to be achieved by 2030. Although the main aim of the goals is to eradicate poverty, they are all closely interlinked. As the global urban population grows exponentially, SDG 11 (‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’) increasingly cuts across all of the others. This offers a chance for the RTPI to lead, in the UK as well as internationally, and to prove that planning is at the heart of the solutions to these enormous challenges. The UK Government has not yet taken part in any of these annual

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Oslo, capital of Norway, is currently the most sustainable city in Europe

UN discussions. In 2017, it published its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, but mention of them is absent in recent planning policy, as acknowledged by the House of Commons 2017 Environmental Audit Committee. Both private and public sector planners can step in to set an example. Councils can measure their progress towards achieving SDG 11 using the indicators provided by the UN and benchmarking sustainable development against those. Planners in the private sector can do the same and promote sustainability ensuring that long-term returns on their clients’ investments are secure.

Global cooperation and coordinations True sustainability is a wide challenge that goes across the borders between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England and beyond the boundaries between the private and public sectors. When the UK Government will participate in the 2019 HLPF, as it has committed to do, RTPI members should be able to share professional knowledge, local experience, successful policies and ideas – to guarantee delivery of the SDGs

at home and inspire innovative practice internationally. UN Habitat says the success of the SDGs depends upon “actions taken by national governments and the pact they make with local governments through their urban policies”. Planners and other built environment professionals have a huge role to play in this. Global cooperation, coordination and exchange are essential. The RTPI has waved the ﬂag of British built environment professions and of the UK this year. Janet Askew, as chair of the RTPI International Committee and the UK Built Environment Advisory Group, has brought the planning perspective to the UN debates about built environment professional capacity, particularly in those countries where climate change and natural disasters are increasingly a threat. More involvement in this agenda by planners, architects and engineers all over the country is needed. Download the UN-Habitat SDG 11 Synthesis Report and get involved. Find the UN-Habitat SDG 11 Synthesis Report here: bit.ly/planner1018-sdg

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no. 262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

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

Katherine Lakeman MRTPI

Optimise the role of planning as a catalyst for low and zerocarbon innovation

Strengthen the alignment of knowledge, expertise and resources across the public and private sector to deliver successful places within planetary limits

PRINCIPAL POLICY OFFICER PLANNING , SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY The scale of environmental challenges facing humanity is enormous with a real urgency to act. If everyone lived as we do in the Scotland we would need three planets to sustain ourselves. The businesses, societies and nations that will thrive in the 21st century are those that have developed sustainably. Our planning system has a crucial role to play in steering us on to this path. Planning is ideally positioned to initiate a step change in low/zero-carbon innovation. This will require more than planning policies to reduce emissions – planning is well placed to act as a conduit for new collaborations with a range of partners including communities and business. Partnership working can also support the alignment of knowledge, expertise and resources to deliver more eﬃciently and eﬀectively against shared goals. There is a huge untapped opportunity in planning to embrace digital solutions that will enhance our understanding of the implications of planning decisions, improve transparency and help us track progress to a healthy and prosperous future.

3 Deliver a step change in digital solutions to improve the quality and accessibility of evidence to underpin spatial strategies and local planning decisions

J O I N T B U I LT E N V I R O N M E N T I N S T I T U T E ’ S G R O U P O N B R E X I T At this year’s Labour and Conservative Party Conferences, The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are jointly hosting high-proﬁle events focusing on the need for a diverse pipeline of skilled people to enter the built environment professions, as part of our ongoing work through the Joint Built Environment’s Group on Brexit. Together, RTPI, RICS, RIBA and CIOB represent 175,000 skilled professionals practising in the UK and beyond; and our organisations have similar remits and aims. • Through our own means, we develop, maintain and export professional services and standards. • We regulate our professionals to ensure ethical and best practice. • We accredit university and training courses across the globe.

• Through our respective Royal Charters, we promote our professions for the advantage of the public. Soon after the referendum result in June 2016, RTPI, RICS, RIBA and CIOB agreed on some shared priorities and since then we have worked together to liaise with the government and high-level decisionmakers to ensure that these joint concerns have been heard. These priorities covered a range of issues that, collectively, our professionals felt were most pressing for the Brexit negotiations team. • Securing free trade agreements with priority markets such as US and China to replace the existing accords we currently have through our status as an EU member. • Taking action to ensure that in priority markets there is a reduction in trade barriers, such as the mutual recognition of professional qualiﬁcations. • Joined-up sources of trade and export funding from the UK Government;

• Expansion of support for small businesses, embracing their inclusion on trade missions. • Ensuring that our future relationship with the EU permits exporting of services such as built environment services. At the same time, we placed an emphasis on domestic policy. It is easy to view the Brexit debate looking out, but we saw it as imperative that the UK’s reputation for high standards was not jeopardised by compromising on environmental and professional standards at home. These priorities are not exhaustive, but illustrate the similar mindsets of professionals across the built environment and our representative professional bodies. The work of the Joint Built Environment Institute’s Brexit group will continue to promote our shared agendas as the country and the government deal with the issues that fall out of Brexit. n For details see: bit.ly/planner1018-brexit/ n bit.ly/planner1018-parties

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RTPI { ICIEMNLLE AC TIO RT PI RES E AR C HRNTP EEXW NB CEERNAS: WPALRADNSN 2IN0 G1 8 E M R E FOR M AN D LEG IS L AT IO N

Planning research awardwinners emphasise design and quality of development ZOE ABEL, RTPI RESEARCH ASSISTANT This year, some of the best research projects in the RTPI Research Excellence Awards focus their attention on the design and quality of places and their relationship with well-being and health outcomes. This pool of new evidence is welcome particularly in the light of the revised National Planning Policy Framework, which renews its focus on the importance of design amid ambitious government housing targets. It specifies that clarity and testing of design quality are essential to achieving sustainable development, as well as promoting effective design through community involvement and the use of local styles. So, what do these studies tell us? Deregulating planning leads to lower-quality homes One study conducted by Ben Clifford, Jessica Ferm, Nicola Livingstone, and Patricia Canelas at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, explores the quality and design of residential dwellings converted from offices without the need for planning permission, following expansion of Permitted Development

Rights in England in 2013. Although developers and agents generally thought this deregulation delivered much more housing and hastened implementation, evidence shows a reduction in quality. The study finds that of a sample of 568 buildings just 30 per cent of ‘studio flats’ converted from office space under this system meet national space standards. It also finds evidence that the middle of industrial estates and ex-office buildings which have undergone barely any changes to make them fit for habitation. The authors conclude that this policy has been a fiscal giveaway from the state to the private real estate sector, leaving behind a splurge of low-quality housing that is not seen in areas that require planning permission like Glasgow or Rotterdam. A benchmark for green infrastructure is necessary A project team comprising members from Gloucester Wildlife Trust, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments and University of the West of England worked closely with stakeholders from across the South West to understand how green infrastructure fits into the

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Sheﬃeld’s Big Local project highlights community action

wider development process. They conclude that uncertainty remains about what constitutes highquality green infrastructure. In turn, this means delivery is inconsistent, resulting in a reduction of opportunities to deliver multiple functions and benefits at the neighbourhood and settlement scale. In response, they set up the UK’s ﬁrst green infrastructure benchmark, ‘Building with Nature’. The benchmark deﬁnes and sets the standard for high-quality green infrastructure design and aims to address the gap between policy aspirations and practicable deliverability. The project, which won the Sir Peter Hall Award for Wider Engagement, highlights the need for consistency and minimum

standards of green spaces in driving forward the government’s commitment to quality for new and sustainable development. Healthy communities need a bottom-up approach Design of the built environment has a big impact on health outcomes such as social isolation and engagement, physical activity and healthy eating. Helen Pineo from UCL’s Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering was funded by the Building Research Establishment to explore these issues to help planners in Southwark achieve healthier outcomes. The research found that building trust with local communities is crucial to learning about perceptions of health issues, and highlight different cases in which changes in built environment design can improve residents’ health. Bristol City Council, for example, altered its street layout and design by introducing a 20mph speed limit. This led to an increase in walking by 40 per cent and to a 94 per cent increase in cycling between 2001 and 2011. Grass roots participation in planning to improve local communities is also highlighted by the winner of the Student Award. Jason Slade at the University of Sheffield examines the Big Local project in Westfield, Sheffield, which throws light on the role of storytelling in the context of people trying to create positive change in their community and how nonprofessionals can engage in planning activity.

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN

Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR PROJECTS A SUCCESS? For good planning outcomes, planners increasingly need good project management skills. Come to our Project Management for Planners masterclass in Manchester on 1 November and gain tools and techniques to develop a ‘real-life’ successful project plan. Learn how to identify and manage risk, receive practical tips on time management, engage stakeholders, allocate resources and manage teams eﬀectively. Book now: bit.ly/planner-1018-project

SAVE THE DATE: NATHANIEL LICHFIELD LECTURE 2018 This year’s Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture will take place at the London School of Economics on 8 November. The lecture, given annually in memory of renowned British town planner Nathaniel Lichfield, draws an audience of 200 professionals from the built environment. Tickets will go on sale soon. The programme is available here: bit.ly/planner1018-lichfield

THE RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE 2019 ARE OPEN FOR ENTRIES The Awards for Planning Excellence are the most established and respected in our sector and continue to recognise best practice both in the UK and Internationally. For many years, these high-proﬁle awards have rewarded the brightest talent in the profession, helping to transform economies, environments and communities. These awards are free to enter and RTPI will be recognising outstanding projects, teams and people in the following categories: People Young Planner of the Year Teams Small Planning Consultancy of the Year Planning Consultancy of the Year Local Authority Planning Team of the Year In-house Planning Team of the Year

RTPI NEWS

CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINE PANEL DECISION The RTPI Conduct and Discipline Panel has found a member to be in breach of the RTPI Code of Professional Conduct for undertaking planning work and incurring fees additional to those agreed with the client without obtaining the necessary prior instruction. The panel also found the member to have breached the code in acting without due care and attention for failing to check the extent of the client’s land ownership and for acting in an unprofessional manner in terms of their communication with the client. The panel warned the member about their future conduct. The panel recently issued a future conduct warning to a another member who breached the code by failing to provide a client with clear written terms of engagement, including a clear indication as to the likely costs of the planning services to be undertaken. . n The appeal committee recently upheld the panel’s decision in ﬁnding a private consultant member to be in breach of clauses 14 and 15 of the code. The committee agreed that the member had failed to exercise due care and diligence in omitting to inform another professional engaged by the member of the precise details of the client’s proposals. It also agreed that the member had failed to provide written terms of engagement to the client before providing planning advice in respect of the need to engage a heritage consultant and prior to advising and meeting with the client to discuss design solutions and the likelihood of carrying out the desired proposals. The member was reprimanded only in respect of the breach of clause 15. n Members with queries about the code should contact Sandra Whitehead, the institute’s complaints investigator, by email: sandra.whitehead@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI AGM 2018 This year’s annual general meeting of the institute is due to take place at ETC Venues, 8 Eastcheap, London EC3M 1AE, at 1.30pm on Wednesday 24 October.

AGENDA

Projects Excellence in Plan Making Practice Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing Excellence in Planning to Deliver Homes - large schemes (20 or more homes) Excellence in Planning to Deliver Homes - small schemes (up to 20 homes) Excellence in Planning for a Successful Economy Excellence in tech within planning practice *New for 2019* International Award for Planning Excellence The ﬁnalists will be announced next February and the winners will be announced at a ceremony on 24 April 2019, at Milton Court Concert Hall in central London.

1. To receive and approve the minutes of the 2017 AGM. 2. To receive the annual report and accounts for the year ending 31 December 2017 and the auditor’s report. 3. To appoint the auditors. It is proposed that haysmcintyre should be reappointed as auditor. 4. Members’ subscriptions: The subscription rates payable by the various classes of membership are available at: bit.ly/planner1018-subscriptions 5. Question Time: At the conclusion of AGM business, time will be allowed at the discretion of the president for members to raise any points and for informal discussions to take place on matters relevant to the objects of the institute. Explanatory notes of the AGM and the institute’s annual report are available at: bit.ly/planner1018-accounts The annual report is available at: bit.ly/1018-reports

For details on how to enter and showcase your work, please visit www.rtpi.org.uk/excellence

n If you wish to attend, please RSVP to governance@ rtpi.org.uk by 10 October

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