The Planner August 2017

AUGUST 2017 PLANNING FOR THIRD AGE LIVING // p.16 • AN INCLUSIVE AGENDA THE 2017 RTPI PLANNING CONVENTION // p.20 • NATIONS & REGIONS FOCUS THE WEST MIDLANDS // p.36 • CRICK THINKING: RTPI AWARDS CASE STUDY // p.30

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

LEADING LIGHTS 2017 RTPI PLANNING CONVENTION: PLANNERS CAN LEAD THE WAY TOWARDS A FAIRER FUTURE

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Planning Law Update Conference 23 November 2017 | London This one-day conference will provide a thorough, thought provoking examination of key legal issues and will help delegates to navigate the labyrinth of the current UK planning system.

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Environmental Impact Assessment Housing Neighbourhood plans

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CONTENTS

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THE

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“FAR FROM BEING ‘ENEMIES OF ENTERPRISE’, FOR THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE WE ARE, AND MUST CONTINUE TO BE, ‘ENEMIES OF UNCERTAINTY AND CHAMPIONS OF DELIVERY’”

NEWS

4 Sharma’s top priorities

6 Grant positions healthy new towns as remedy to NHS funding crisis

7 RTPI Scotland proposes two-year housing delivery plans

OPINION

8 Waking the economy’s ‘sleeping giants’

12 Chris Shepley: Change management – probably not as good as a rest

9 Report calls for ‘city deal’ support for rural Wales

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14 Andrew Carter: How cities are using assets to negotiate financial uncertainty 14 Jane Gratton: Invest in infrastructure to boost business confidence 15 Nick Raynsford: Planning needs fundamental reform – and you can help 15 Emma Walker: Deal of the Week… or is it?

20 After a snap election, delegates at this year’s RTPI Planning Convention discussed the theme ‘Delivering a strong inclusive future’

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36 Nations & Regions: West Midlands

“WE HAVE A SUPER­CENTRALISED STATE, AND IT’S ON STEROIDS” PROFESSOR ROBIN HAMBLETON, PROFESSOR OF CITY LEADERSHIP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND

COV E R I M AG E | PE T E R C ROW T H E R

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33 Tech landscape: Being in thrall to technology can lead to terrible planning decisions

16 Society is ageing, and many predict unsustainable pressures on health and care services. Tony Watts calls for new thinking

30 Case study: The Crick Institute

QUOTE UNQUOTE

INSIGHT

FEATURES

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38 Decisions in focus: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 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: The pull of panda power and Will Self on the communality of good cities

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NEWS

Report {

Allocating adequate resources to planning authorities should head Alok Sharma’s priorities list, says the RTPI

PLANNING

Sharma’s top priorities

By Laura Edgar

As we look to the immediate and long-term future, new housing and planning minister Alok Sharma has a lot on his plate – a housing shortage (market, affordable and social), a lack of supporting infrastructure, and a growing skills shortage that is expected to get worse with Brexit.

What should Sharma’s priorities be? The Planner spoke to a number of planning and housing professionals to find out.

RESOURCES

Not surprisingly, adequate resources for local planning authorities tops the list.

Richard Blyth, the RTPI’s head of policy, pointed to the institute’s research that suggests that many planning authorities are “surviving on the goodwill and professional integrity of their officers but this may not be sustainable in the longer term”.

“We need greater investment in planning services to ensure we are able to deliver the homes, schools, hospitals

and other major infrastructure this country needs.”

Property consultancy Daniel Watney LLP, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), the New Local Government Network (NLGN) and property consultancy Rapleys are all in agreement.

Although the industry needs policy stability, Charlotte Goodrum, associate partner at Daniel Watney, said one area that should see change is funding.

“Local authority planning departments are massively under-resourced, and whether it’s through higher fees or more funding from government, they need additional cash if Britain is to get the homes and infrastructure it needs.”

In order to build housing of all types and tenures, with more affordable and social housing across the country, the NLGN wants to see planning departments “properly resourced”. This would enable councils to deliver not just the number of homes needed, but also high-quality, healthy, attractive communities where people want to live, said Claire Porter, head of external affairs at the NLGN.

The minister should focus on increasing the availability of small sites, says the Federation of Master Builders

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R E N T/ B U I L D T O R E N T

The housing white paper included changing the planning system to support the growth of build to rent, something Matt Willcock, development director at PLATFORM_, a developer and operator of private rented housing, said should be a key focus, alongside delivering housing white paper proposals overall.

He said there are billions of pounds of institutional capital looking to move into the UK rental market that could deliver thousands of new quality homes.

However, “planning and development risk is something few institutions are willing to take on”.

“Amending the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to encourage councils to proactively plan for private rental housing, and to give build to rent its own affordable housing classification, will go some way to making them more comfortable with actually building the homes themselves, as many insurers and pension funds did at the turn of the 20th century.”

Housing associations will satisfy a significant part of the housing need and at the same time provide affordable housing, said Fergus Charlton legal director at law firm TLT. The business model for housing associations relies on their ability to borrow cheaply and readily against their receipts but “recent changes to the rent regime have presented some challenges here”.

“The minister would do well to move quickly to provide clarity over future rent levels so that housing associations can continue to maximise their delivery potential,” he added.

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PLAN UPFRONT

LAND VALUE

mechanism for calculating Objectively Assessed Need (OAN). Charlton noted that councils and developers needed to be able to confidently rely on housing supply policies in the local housing plan.

The standardised mechanism for objectively calculating housing numbers identified in the housing white paper is “central” to housing policies.

“The minister should swiftly begin the consultation on this mechanism, what it is and how it works.”

Baddeley said such an approach would mean local authorities wouldn’t have to work for so long on calculating their OAN and then working out their housing target, only for it to be questioned by inspectors, landowners and applicants.

“Calculating OAN and then working out housing requirement are the elements of local plan-making that slows the progress of the whole thing.”

Margaret Baddeley, planning director at planning consultancy Lichfields, said in the long term it could help the planning system to evolve if the government researched the impact of ideas such as land pooling, as well as looking at how land value capture could have a positive impact on providing infrastructure.

She said it is “widely acknowledged” that Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 have issues providing infrastructure and affordable housing.

For Baddeley, both could be remodelled in the interim, “particularly CIL because of the ongoing unintended consequences of its overly complex methodology – and also because having to pay the levy can impact on affordable housing”.

To understand the SMALL SITES “WE NEED GREATER potential impact of policies like land pooling, INVESTMENT FMB chief executive Brian IN PLANNING land value capture and Berry also nodded to the SERVICES TO zoning, comprehensive housing white paper as ENSURE WE analysis needs to be something Sharma should ARE ABLE TO undertaken to consider focus on, particularly the DELIVER THE costs and benefits. availability of small sites.

HOMES, SCHOOLS, Although interesting, “FMB research shows HOSPITALS AND “the key thing to that limited availability of understand first would be OTHER MAJOR small sites and difficulty in INFRASTRUCTURE” if and how any of them getting planning for these could work with or affect is the most significant the existing planning barrier to growth for SME regime, and then if they house builders. The white would work, how there paper set out a number of could be a smooth transition to their measures designed to address this, most introduction”, she added. radically proposing that 10 per cent of Blyth said new sources of funding sites allocated within local plans be sites for infrastructure need to be looked at for fewer than 10 units.” so that it can be built at the speed and Although a good start, this would scale the country needs. only present a limited number of “Using land value capture is opportunities. For the FMB, the policy the single most useful instrument can and should go further, so 10 per cent to channel value generated by of all allocated plots are on small sites. development towards infrastructure “This would ensure a steady pipeline and housing without incurring more of small sites which have been public debt.” effectively de-risked.”

TOOL FOR CALCULATING OAN

At the time of going to print, the government had not published a consultation on a standardised

n Read about RTPI research: Investing in delivery bit.ly/planner0817-delivery Land value bit.ly/planner0817-gain

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS FOR SHARMA n Building a strong relationship with local government – NLGN

n Lifting the borrowing cap and allowing councils to keep 100 per cent of the receipts from the Right to Buy sales – Local Government Association

n Heritage wasn’t mentioned in the housing white paper and while the “UK grapples with delivering new homes and infrastructure it should not lose sight of the past” – Dean Clifford, co-founder of heritage developer Great Marlborough Estates

n Retaining places for people to work a sustainable distance from where they live “will require some imaginative thinking by developers and local authorities.

The government and Mr Sharma need to be actively encouraging and facilitating this” – Jason Lowes, partner in the planning team at Rapleys

n “Devolving more planning powers to give city-regions more control over the types of homes being built would be a good first step for the new minister” – James Blakey, planning director at rental developer and operator Moda Living

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NEWS

Analysis { SIR FREDERIC OSBORN LECTURE

Grant positions healthy new towns as remedy to NHS funding crisis

By Martin Read Giving this year’s TCPA Sir Frederic J Osborn Memorial Lecture, professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE, chair of NHS England, spoke on the theme of ‘healthy planning’ and his organisation’s ongoing programme of ‘Healthy New Towns’.

Healthy living, he said, is increasingly important to the sustainability of the UK’s healthcare system and vital to the population as a whole.

The UK has an ageing population with demographics showing that homes headed by someone over 65 are projected to account for 59 per cent of household growth between 2011 and 2021. But pressures on the NHS also stem from A&E attendances, which have risen from five million a year in 2010 to six million today. Grant’s overarching theme was that we are not providing the healthy environment necessary to cap and reduce our national healthcare cost.

The focus should be much more on identifying and preventing poor health in the first place rather than maintaining at greater cost what Grant called the current ‘patch and repair’ service.

Incentivising healthier behaviour is key because most global assessments of the impact of healthcare systems on the health of a population show that they only account for 10 per cent of the outcome; by far the most important element is the environment in which a person is born, raised and lives, at 60 per cent. Thus, Grant said, the aim of the healthy new towns initiative was “to create something which we would embed as a new model of care that would get buy-in from providers of care and allow us to do things differently”.

“We put into our five-year forward view

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Malcolm Grant, chair of NHS England

MALCOLM GRANT'S SIR FREDERIC OSBORN LECTURE – KEY QUOTES “Investment in early engagement is, as every planner knows, critical.”

“Reconfiguring the health service is even more difficult than trying to get planning permission in the green belt.”

“We’re with dementia where we were with cancer 40 years ago.”

an undertaking that we were going to design modern services from scratch, integrating not only health and social care but also other public services such as welfare, education, and affordable housing. We wanted to build into these new settlements a different model of delivering healthcare that includes a focus on education, physical activity, etc.”

Some 114 developers answered NHS England’s call to be a demonstrator site, with those showing the greatest potential to ‘alter thinking’ chosen as the final 10 ‘vanguard projects’. Examples include Hogmore Inclosure, a former tank exercising ground previously owned by the Ministry of Defence. Another is Bicester, which councillors wish to be designated a healthy new town.

The initiative addresses such issues as: How does the health service work on contracting and service planning? How does it work with developers on digital technology and estates and technical design? How are exemplar section 106 agreements established so that there are precedents that can be used across the country? How can masterplans be developed with local authorities? How

“We’ve got to get across the fact that healthy new towns matter.”

“This is the first time that the NHS has collectively and corporately made a priority of working with developers to bring about improvements in urban living.”

“Investment in early engagement is, as every planner knows, critical.”

“The NHS is a hotbed of innovation and experimentation. None of it is joined up.”

can intergenerational housing and behavioural change be brought about?

This, said Grant, “is the first time I know of that the NHS has collectively and corporately made this a priority, working in partnership with developers and local authorities to bring about an improvement in urban living. We’ve thought it through with foundation trusts, developers and local authorities.

And if we succeed, what a fitting way to carry on the pioneering work of Ebenezer Howard and Frederic Osborn.”

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PLAN UPFRONT RTPI Scotland believes that two-year housing delivery programmes should be introduced

New blueprint for Belfast’s Lagan East Bank Belfast City Council has begun a public consultation on a new strategy for the development of the East Bank of the River Lagan.

The initiative is designed to regenerate the area and give it greater connectivity to the city centre. Talks have been held with key councillors, landowners, residents and community groups.

A full review of land use in the zone has been carried out.

The proposals include the removal of the Station Street flyover adjacent to Queen’s Quay (which already has planning consent), the removal of the Bridge End flyover, the reduction of road space for general traffic, the proposed relocation of the Titanic Quarter railway station, and the creation of a new urban boulevard.

The council has commissioned consultancy Arup to develop a detailed strategy for the East Bank, which falls within the Oxford Street and Eastern Bank Special Action Area.

The consultation can be found on the Belfast City Council website: bit.ly/planner0817-lagan

RTPI Scotland proposes twoyear housing delivery plans RTPI Scotland has published two think pieces that aim to develop and advance Scottish Government proposals to improve the planning system, with one suggesting two-year housing delivery programmes to overcome barriers to delivery.

The publications A New Development Plans Process and Delivering More Homes are two of five such pieces by RTPI Scotland.

A New Development Plans Process states that the restructured local development plan preparation process should be underpinned by project management principles.

“This would ensure that the writing of the plan is led, managed and risk assessed in a manner which gives everyone more confidence in the plan itself, and subsequent development management decisions made in line with it.”

Delivering More Homes notes that RTPI Scotland believes that two-year housing delivery programmes should be introduced to make sure that all sites allocated for local development plans are delivered.

“They would provide additional assistance in scenarios where delivery has fallen markedly below annual requirements.

“The intended outcome is a deliveryfocused system for meeting housing requirements. The two-year housing delivery programmes should take the form of project management plans framed by corporate leadership and collaboration.”

Kate Houghton, policy officer at RTPI Scotland, said: “Our members care passionately about making the planning system work better for everyone […] They have devoted much time to develop these five papers which contain some very implementable changes that we hope the government would consider for the bill and its supporting policy, guidance and regulation.”

Development Plans Process (pdf): bit.ly/planner0817-homes Delivering More Homes (pdf): bit.ly/planner0817-delivering

£2.3bn housing infrastructure fund launched Communities secretary Sajid Javid has launched a £2.3 billion fund aimed at unlocking sites for 100,000 new homes in areas of high demand.

The money is being invested through the Housing Infrastructure Fund, which forms part of the £23 billion National Productivity Investment Fund. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced both funds in the 2016 Autumn Statement.

Javid told the Local Government Association (LGA) conference that the investment would help to fund the building of “vital physical infrastructure projects” such roads, bridges and energy networks, I M AG E S | G E T T Y / A L A M Y

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“the absence of which continues to hold housebuilding back”.

The funding will also fund schools, health care centres and digital infrastructure to accommodated growing communities and alleviate pressure on public services.

Once proposals have been approved, it is expected that local authorities would begin building the necessary infrastructure immediately, with the homes to follow.

Javid said: “To build the homes this country needs, we need to deliver the right infrastructure in the right place at the right time.”

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NEWS

Analysis { DEVOLUTION

Waking the economy’s ‘sleeping giants’

By Huw Morris

Greater Cambridge city region was one of the few areas to secure a deal

Paul Carter thinks the government is missing a trick as it struggles with the twin challenges of rebalancing the economy and absorbing any Brexit aftershocks.

The chairman of the County Councils Network (CCN) describes his 37 member organisations as “sleeping giants”. Devolving public spending and tax-raising powers to them would unleash their economic potential and could spur jobs and growth in rural areas, he says.

If Carter is right, the next phase of devolution could create a million jobs in the next decade. Devolving fiscal powers to counties could also add £26 billion to the economy. “With intelligent devolution deals and empowerment across county areas, so much more could be achieved to support economic growth and prosperity in England,” he says.

Fiscal devolution powers It was supposed to be a “devolution revolution”, but it largely passed England’s county councils by. Under former chancellor George Osborne, cities and metropolitan areas mostly benefited from the drive to shift powers and spending away from Whitehall.

Most county areas submitted bids to the government, but only two, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and Cornwall, succeeded. Bids in Essex, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire were rejected. Others – in Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and the North-East – fell at the final hurdle because of the mayoral requirement.

Now the counties are running again. The CCN commissioned Oxford Economics to look at the figures and the consultancy found they tally with Carter’s assertion

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significantly more than current forecasts of under 2 per cent and falling. This would not only allow England to return to pre-Brexit growth forecasts thereby helping it to adapt to leaving the EU, but also to rebalance the economy. It would also help tackle the perceived remoteness of Westminster from rural communities.

Context is crucial. The government’s Industrial Strategy, its tool for rebalancing the economy, is widely criticised as overly focused on urban areas. Moreover, the government is committed to dropping the requirement for metro mayors for significant devolution – this was hitherto a deal-breaker for many counties.

Looking beyond large cities

that counties are “sleeping giants”.

County areas make up 41 per cent of the English economy, deliver £600 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the economy, and account for 44 per cent of the nation’s jobs – significantly more than the country’s biggest cities. Collectively, they generate a net surplus for the Treasury.

The CCN says this showcases counties’ potential under a radical programme of fiscal devolution to include powers to create infrastructure and retain a proportion of income tax, property tax, and council tax with around half sent back to the Treasury.

This, said Oxford Economics, coupled with subsequent tax-raising abilities, could boost England’s annual growth to 2.7 per cent a year over five years –

“Brexit means that to improve exports and manufacturing performance, the Industrial Strategy must look beyond the largest cities,” says Oxford Economics’ head of global cities research Richard Holt.

“Local economies covered by the CCN account for over half of England’s manufacturing output and almost 40 per cent of exports. That makes the CCN economy an important constituent of the whole – big enough not just to be influenced by, but to heavily influence overall economic activity in the UK. To be effective, the Industrial Strategy and the next phase of devolution should seek to build on that.”

For Carter, the issue is clear. “It’s about ensuring we truly have an economy that works for everyone, and more importantly, an economy that is resilient and able to successfully adjust to life outside the EU.”

ENGLAND’S COUNTIES S O U RC E : OX FO R D E CON OM I C S

41%

£600 billion The amount delivered in gross value added to the economy by counties

The proportion of England’s GVA generated in county areas

44%

The share of England’s jobs

47% The proportion of the population represented by England’s county councils, amounting to around 25 million people

I M AG E | A L A M Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

Report calls for ‘city deal’ support for rural Wales Rural Wales requires the equivalent of the city deals for the Cardiff and Swansea regions.

That’s the view of Welsh Labour peer and Assembly Member Baroness Morgan, who chaired a forum of business leaders, academics and public agency and utility representatives. The group has produced a report calling for a coherent rural development strategy for the country.

Key themes in Rural Wales involve improving the infrastructure of rural Wales, promoting food, farming and forestry, and boosting tourism.

The document calls for support for the shift towards self-employment in and around villages in rural Wales, with consideration for appropriate housing and coworking locations to be given in future local development plans. It makes the case for

reforming planning guidance and culture, as well as adapting local development plans to help promote and nurture businesses.

The report highlights the need for wellresourced planning departments and the rollout of an information delivery course aimed at all rural planning authorities requiring them to offer pre-application advice about sustainable development.

The document calls for incentives to develop electric vehicle recharging infrastructure, faster broadband and long-

Emergency bill published in Ireland to extend permissions Irish planning minister Eoghan Murphy 2016 legislation are caught up in a logjam has published emergency legislation of existing legislative proposals that won’t that provides for second extensions now be passed until the autumn. of planning permissions in certain Murphy said: “Many construction circumstances. projects were put on hold during the The Planning and Development financial crisis. As the economy began (Amendment) Bill 2017, designed to to recover much-needed housing enable developers to complete unfinished developments came up against planning housing schemes, is likely to be passed deadlines for completion. before the summer “The legislation I have parliamentary recess. brought to cabinet will “THIS ACTION HELPS This action was allow for an extension DELIVER MORE HOMES required because of certain planning AND INCREASES measures to put right deadlines. There are MUCH­NEEDED an oversight in earlier approximately 75 HOUSING SUPPLY” I M AG E S | G E T T Y

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term plans for better north-south, east-west road schemes including dualling where appropriate, as well as eco-homes for older residents.

The report stresses: “There will need to be further buy-in from local communities and there will need to be a meeting between a bottom-up community-based economic strategy and a more overarching strategy from above.

“The Welsh Government has a plethora of economic development plans and programmes to enhance economic activity; it is important not to replicate these and to stop doing some projects which are not delivering.

“Currently there is an assumption that economic development will take place in relation to four regions: the Cardiff City Region, Swansea Bay City Region, the North Wales Growth Deal, and the Growing Mid Wales Partnership.

“We contend that there are regions which overlap with rural Wales, but that a specifically rural strategy should be developed which would include the Growing Mid Wales Partnership which is made up of Powys and Ceredigion.”

Rural Wales can be found here (pdf): bit.ly/planner0817-morgan

developments throughout the country awaiting commencement of these planning provisions.

“In the absence of this legislation work would stop on all relevant sites across the country. This action helps deliver more homes and increases much-needed housing supply”.

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LEADER COMMENT

Opinionn The longer the lens, the more powerful planning's argument – A couple of presentations hit home in recent weeks, both for the same reason – because they indicate how planning can and should more frequently take centre stage in the national debate, if only we lived in a more long-term planning culture.

At the 2017 RTPI Planning Convention, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees – speaking on the theme of setting cities free to plan – made a compelling case for local leaders having considerably greater powers and achieving far more as a result.

Rees wants to put in place a 50-year plan, no less, and one that fuses places to the people that populate them.

He wants as part of it to be able to make a guarantee to every primary age school child that Bristol will invest in their mental health.

His argument is that although any investment in that mental health resilience isn’t going to pay back for 20,

Martin Read 30, or 40 years, it needs to be planned for now if there’s to be any benefit.

“We must be able to come up with some kind of logarithm that makes our case for the current spend,” said Rees, in what must surely be the very definition of long-term thinking.

The aim? Put bluntly, a population that is ultimately ‘cheaper to run’ – a resilient, healthy and educated population linked to an inclusive form of economic development, meaning less

money spent in the future on public interventions – criminal justice, education, health service – when things go wrong.

Too much public money, Rees argues vehemently, is spent as a result of things going wrong.

Wide-lens stuff, but who can argue against the logic?

Certainly not Sir Malcolm Grant, chair of NHS England, whose TCPA Sir Frederic J Osborn lecture was themed along similar lines insomuch as it was about ‘healthy planning’ and his organisation’s continuing programme of ‘Healthy New Towns’.

Healthy living, said Grant,

“THEIRS IS A COOL AND RATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE AND HOW LITERALLY LIFE­ CHANGING THAT MAY BE – AND ALL OF IT INVOLVES PLANNING AT ITS CORE”

is increasingly important to the sustainability of the United Kingdom’s healthcare system and vital to the population as a whole.

The pressures on healthcare alone should focus politicians’ minds, and in NHS England’s 10 healthy new town ‘vanguard’ projects can be found plenty of innovative thinking.

Right now, said Grant, we are not providing an environment healthy enough to allow us to cap and reduce our national healthcare cost.

Of course, Rees and Grant are not planners, but they are looking to the future, one that doesn’t merely encompass the next left or rightward political shift.

Theirs is a rational assessment of fundamental change and how literally life-changing that may be – and all of it involves planning at its core. It’s to be hoped that recent longer term policy such as the national infrastructure plan goverment policy suggests more such is in the pipeline.

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CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Change management – probably not as good as a rest When I was at PINS, I used to be sent on a variety of management courses, organised usually in a smartish London hotel by whatever CLG was then called.

The dominant theme was ‘change management’, and the basic conceit seemed to be that it was necessary to change everything, preferably by employing very expensive people to do so.

This applied equally to good or bad organisations, effective or ineffective, big, small, indifferent, public, private, fascist, socialist, or just being.

I recall in particular a talk given some time in the late 1990s. She exuded a heady mix of competence, efficiency, and expensive perfume. It was obvious that she found me very attractive, but I was used to that, and immune to her charms. That I recall so clearly the words she spoke is not because of her glitz but because of her managementconsultancy-self-satirical intensity. “You must stand in the future and beckon your staff to join you.” (Really.)

I replied that in my particular case, the introduction of a basket of appropriately recalibrated systems to enhance holistic governance going forward meant that delivery of the coalface functions had now been robustly downsized to reflect resource prioritisation, and had transformatively systematised the disaggregated paradigm shift by fastidiously pulling crosscutting improvement levers.

I think she may have misinterpreted this. Opinions differ as to the reason she

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“SINCE THE ELECTION ALL THE TALK HAS BEEN OF THE NEED FOR CERTAINTY” chased me from the building.

I think she pursued me with amorous intent. Others think she wanted to offer me a job with the firm; a majority think I was living in a fantasy world.

I made it home unharmed.

But let’s think a bit about ‘change management’. Is it the case that constant change – breaking things and putting them back together, the need for incessant reassessment and reconstruction is an effective management tool?

Here’s a comparison, I’m no expert on education (any more than most education ministers), but what I observe

is that for about 30 years education has been subject to a torrent of change. New fads and foibles, new structures and systems, have tumbled over one another. Tests and targets, scrutiny and penalty have left teachers at the ends of their tethers, and pupils suffering from stress. Has there followed some great upsurge in achievement? Not so far as the evidence suggests, and we languish further down the international league tables than is comfortable. Ministers react by calling for still more change.

Similar trends have failed to create a health service in which we all have confidence, and in the business world our efforts are hardly stellar compared with other nations.

I’ve written before about the constant changes in planning. Up to about 2004 things were pretty consistent,

but (particularly since 2010) we have found a level of confusion prevailing on all sides. Few ministers have displayed any restraint.

Now, let me make it clear that I am not entirely opposed to change. There are some things I change every day, without fail. When I was at PINS there was plenty of change; inspectors at the time will recall that they didn’t always appreciate it, though I’m sure they accept now that I was right. We achieved this without a ‘Change Manager’, despite entreaties from various consultants to employ such a body. He or she would merely have been a focus for disputation.

It is perhaps odd, in this context of constant turbulence that nice Mrs May seems to believe in stability – or so she said ad nauseam during her strong and stable campaign.

Since then all the talk has been of the need for certainty.

This column, with most of the planning and development industry, has been pleading for stability and certainty for a long time – beckoning the government to join us.

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

21/07/2017 15:30

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“We have a superercentralised state, te, and it’s on steroids” ds” PROFESSOR ROBIN HAMBLETON, TON,, P AT THE PROFESSOR OF CITY LEADERSHIP NGLAND UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND

“The NHS is a hotbed of innovation and experimentation.

None of it is joined up”

“The state we are in is one of the unforeseen consequences of the 1947 planning act and its policy of betterment, and the way it has been hijacked by developers”

SIR MALCOLM GRANT, SPEAKING AT THE TCPA’S SIR FREDERIC OSBORN LECTURE, ON ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL FRUSTRATIONS ABOUT WORKING IN THE HEALTH SERVICE

AUTHOR WILL SELF AT THE LAUNCH OF VITAL LITTLE PLANS, A NEW COLLECTION OF WRITINGS BY JANE JACOBS

“There’s no point saying Britain is open to the world if you can’t get to and from the rest of the world because Heathrow is full” LORD ANDREW ADONIS, ON BRITAIN’S INFRASTRUCTURE

“If you don’t help us get to sustainable cities, we might as well drive off a cliff” PROFESSOR PETER HEAD CBE, FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ECOLOGICAL SEQUESTRATION TRUST I M AG E S | S H U T T E RSTO C K / I STO C K / A L A M Y

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“Is it OK for a nurse to live two hours away from work, do a difficult job and then travel two hours home?

They all face an affordable housing issue. It is across the country” ANDREW VAN DOOM, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, HACT AND NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LONDON NORTH WEST HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST

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21/07/2017 15:31

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

O Opinion

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Andrew Carter is chief executive of the think tank Centre for Cities

How cities are using assets to negotiate financial uncertainty

Since th the general election result there h has been much talk of ending austerity, with cabinet ministers diverging from the government line to call for more funding for the NHS and schools.

But amid this speculation there has been no indication that local authorities will benefit from any relaxation of austerity policies.

Indeed, local authority funding is even more uncertain following the Queen’s Speech, which made no mention of the Local Government Finance Bill to pave the way for full local retention of business rates by 2020.

It isn’t entirely clear when, or if, business rates devolution will go ahead.

So the onus is on city leaders across the nation to find ways to raise revenues to pay for the public services they provide.

A report by the Centre for Cities shows that places across the country have been responding to austerity by getting creative with public assets.

How City Partnerships Make the Most of Public Assets looks at how cities are using their assets – from buildings and land, to former coal mines and disused fibre optic ducting networks – to increase their revenues as well as kick-start local economic growth.

In Newcastle, the council has teamed up with Newcastle University on a joint venture to refashion a large site they owned on the edge of the city centre – previously both a brewery and a

colliery – as the city’s new Science Central urban quarter.

The initiative, which leaders hope will attract more innovative business to the city, had originally been championed by One North East, the regional development agency. But following its abolition in 2010, and the collapse in Newcastle’s commercial development market following the financial crash, Science Central became a strategic way to boost business growth in the city centre, particularly where the market was not willing to take the risk.

While austerity may have provided the imperative for local leaders across the country to adopt this entrepreneurial approach to their assets, the benefits that many places are seeing in terms of increased revenues and economic growth means that local leaders will carry on regardless of the funding context.

Enabling cities to retain a greater share of those business rates revenues generated on the back of growth would encourage leaders to consider how they can use disused land and buildings.

This is why it’s vital that the government does not drop its plans for business rates devolution.

Pushing through these reforms will not only be critical in giving cities the certainty they need to plan, it will also give cities more incentives to make better use of valuable assets that might otherwise be overlooked.

“IT ISN’T ENTIRELY CLEAR WHEN, OR IF, BUSINESS RATES DEVOLUTION WILL GO AHEAD”

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Jane Gratton is head of business environment at the British Chambers of Commerce

Invest in infrastructure to boost business confidence

Investm Investment in infrastructure is b vital to boost business confidence and support local growth. Ask firms all over the country and they’ll tell you improving access to markets, suppliers and customers is high on their agenda, as is improving the quality and reliability of the UK’s digital infrastructure.

So while a good Brexit deal is important, a strong domestic environment matters as much – if not more – to our future competitiveness and prosperity.

Infrastructure projects give businesses the confidence to ‘crowd in’ additional investment, generate jobs on sites and across supply chains, and support stronger trade, domestically and internationally.

Even the best possible Brexit deal will be worth little to UK companies if we don’t have the right infrastructure to support growth here at home.

Successive governments have delayed making tough decisions on infrastructure for fear of political repercussions. But at a time of transition, it’s important to ensure that our physical and digital connectivity are fit for purpose and of the highest quality. Businesses are looking to politicians across the spectrum to deliver transformative infrastructure projects, and in return they will deliver investment, jobs and prosperity.

The first step is speedy delivery of projects already agreed – such

as voting on the Heathrow National Planning Strategy and on HS2 Phase 2. Commitments to increase infrastructure spending as a share of GDP would also be a major step in the right direction.

Action on these would send a strong signal to business, and be a source of confidence. There are also easy wins in delivery of local infrastructure investments, too – such as improving the quality of local roads and smaller rail schemes that can unlock access to major cities and create new paths for communities.

The Department for Transport’s investment strategy includes plans to invest in local roads.

Businesses welcome the announcements, but have seen strategies come and go before. The real proof comes when they see diggers in the ground.

An overhaul of the UK’s planning system is also needed.

For the UK to remain attractive to investors post-Brexit, we must be nimbler with the development and execution of major schemes.

Despite efforts in recent years to simplify the system, business communities still report frustration at delays that diminish confidence and add unnecessary time and costs to projects.

For business, Brexit can’t become a distraction for the government when there is so much to be done at home.

Investment and action on infrastructure projects is a prime example of a deliverable that will reap countless benefits.

“WE MUST BE NIMBLER WITH THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXECUTION OF MAJOR SCHEMES”

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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

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Nick Raynsford is president of the TCPA and chair of the Raynsford Review of Planning

Planning needs fundamental reform – and you can help

Planning has been good for Britain over the past century. It has delivered decent housing for millions and contributed towards improving people’s quality of life.

It has protected our countryside and valued landscapes from the piecemeal development and urban sprawl that characterises too many parts of the USA and Europe. Planning has made possible the development of successful new settlements, as well as supporting an urban renaissance in countless older cities and towns.

Today planning in England is in a tough place. The service is underfunded, its staff demoralised, its purpose questioned by powerful lobbies, and its processes criticised as slow, bureaucratic and out of touch with people’s lives.

Changes to planning law have removed the scope for national or regional responses to problems such as meeting housing need. In many parts of the UK there is no effective mechanism to ensure coordination between different areas. More development is being approved in a piecemeal way, by extending permitted development rights, or through appeals, leading to schemes that are poorly served by roads, hospitals or schools.

Homelessness and the lack of affordable homes are blighting more people’s lives. The public is finding it more difficult to engage meaningfully in the planning process. While neighbourhood planning initiatives have helped

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Emma Walker is associate director at Turley

Deal of the Week… or is it?

some communities to articulate their aspirations, in too many cases the public has felt powerless in the face of complex legislation, impenetrable viability tests, and increasing use of appeals to overturn decisions.

Planning has been subject to continuous change for over a decade. Constant tinkering has created confusion rather than clarity, and the failure of the outcomes to deliver the promised improvements has fuelled public cynicism. Too often the impact of recent changes has been to open the door to poorly designed, badly served schemes that don’t meet local needs.

We need a system that is fairer, better resourced, and which also responds to economic, social and environmental challenges.

The review the TCPA has asked me to chair is designed to point the way to such an alternative.

We will go back to first principles to formulate a vision of how the planning system can best meet the country’s needs. We will meet planners, developers, housing associations, charities, lawyers, architects, academics and the public. We want to build consensus about solutions and produce a blueprint for a system that is robust and can command public respect. Your experience is crucial. Please visit the Raynsford Review website to register for an event or submit evidence: bit.ly/planner0817-raynsford

“CONSTANT TINKERING HAS CREATED CONFUSION RATHER THAN CLARITY”

Never has a party from Northern Ireland played p such an important role in the establishment of a UK Government. For the first time, 10 of its 18 MPs became kingmakers, and the DUP used their strong hand to negotiate an additional £1 billion in funding for the region. The deal has, however, appeared to hamper talks to establish an Executive at Stormont. Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland’s second-largest party, has argued that the deal between the DUP and Conservatives brings the impartiality of the UK Government into question. With no prospect of an Assembly in place and no ministers to make decisions, how will NI capitalise on the opportunity? £400 million has been earmarked for infrastructure projects over the two-year period of the deal. The sum is significant, but not transformative. The economy creaks along on an ageing infrastructure – a region of the UK where there is one primary rail line and about 60 miles of motorway.

Four priority projects set by the previous NI Executive will almost certainly benefit, namely A6 dualling, A5 dualling, Belfast Transport Hub and Belfast Rapid Transport. These projects address the physical and social disconnect between Belfast and Derry-Londonderry, improve cross-border connections to the South, and seek to address Belfast’s notorious congestion.

The cost estimated for these four priority projects alone eclipses this new funding.

But there are other key infrastructure ambitions including a high-speed railway from Belfast to Dublin, DerryLondonderry Transport Hub and the York Street Interchange – the current bottleneck in what would otherwise be 300 miles of nonstop dual carriageway. All ambitions that would assist in our resilience to the economic uncertainty that Brexit may bring.

However, this investment represents a tiny slice of the 30-yearplus infrastructure deficit. There is also perhaps a larger challenge. Without an NI Executive in place to deliver these programmes, normal Treasury rules could make it difficult to spend the money in the two-year period of the deal.

Few infrastructure projects are shovel-ready. Many require planning consent or face legal challenges, like the A5 – caught up in judicial review proceedings.

The monies could then benefit improvements across existing secondary roads, for which there is little or no budget.

This money will only go part of the way to delivering basic infrastructure. It is a two-year booster shot during which Northern Ireland will need to prepare for the challenges and opportunities of Brexit may bring the only area of the UK that will have a land border with the EU.

“THE SUM IS SIGNIFICANT, BUT NOT TRANSFORMATIVE”

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P L A N N I N G F O R A N A G E I N G P O P U L AT I O N

PLANS OF TIME SOCIETY IS AGEING, AND MANY PREDICT UNSUSTAINABLE PRESSURES ON HEALTH AND CARE SERVICES. WHAT CAN PLANNERS DO? TONY WATTS OBE CALLS FOR A RADICAL SHIFT IN THINKING Lord Filkin’s 2012 report Ready for Ageing? concluded that society was “woefully unprepared for ageing”.

That has led to shifts in governmental thinking around how long we should be working, whether the state pension triple lock is sustainable and how we fund future care. But so far it has not led to new policies on where, arguably, the biggest changes are required: our built environment.

By anticipating the needs of a society that will continue to enjoy extended longevity, planners, developers, architects, local authorities and institutional investors could be in the vanguard of dealing with the massive demographic shifts ahead.

First, the statistics. By 2025, 8.2 million households will be headed by someone aged 65 and over – 23 per cent up from 2015 1.

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By 2037, there will be 1.42 million more households than today headed by someone aged 85 or over 2 – an increase of 161 per cent over 25 years.

Although the vast majority will want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, a significant proportion will have health and care needs that will make this impossible if their home is not suitably designed or adapted.

At present, we’re not building anywhere near enough flexibly designed new homes to meet the demand for people wanting or needing to move, while funding issues stymie adaptations that can help people live safely and well at home.

It’s unsustainable. As the population continues to age, the cost to public services – already under huge pressure – will continue to spiral. There will be more delays to hospital discharges (currently £820 million annually), more falls leading to hospitalisation (currently £2 billion annually), and more people being admitted to care and whose bills will be paid for by local authorities.

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The house builder Housing+

“We build around 70 per cent of all owner-occupied wner-occupied retirement homes in the UK and could ld build many more to meet demand – if it wasn’t for or a difficult planning environment. We’ve been telling elling the government what is needed to make the planning process clearer and more focused, and hope that this will be reflected in new guidelines coming out later this year.

“Agreed, we need more affordable and starter homes, but creating more retirement accommodation will boost the rest of the housing market and generate massive public gains in terms of reducing health and care costs.” n Paul Teverson is communications director of McCarthy & Stone

Release, increase So how do we make housing part of the solution? Critically, how do we do this at a time when we’re not building anywhere near enough homes anyway, and where other priorities such as starter and affordable homes appear more urgent? Speak to developers and they recount planning meetings where local councillors or officers say: “We don’t want more older people moving here because of the social care costs they will incur.”

Peter Girling, who heads up Girlings Retirement Rentals Limited, the UK’s biggest provider of private rented accommodation for older people, counters: “Far from exacerbating the social care problem, these developments allow doctors and carers to focus their efforts.

“We let 2,500 properties and are only scratching the surface because of a lack of stock. Many older people are waiting to move and release capital that will help fund things like care.

He adds: “An estimated eight million homes in this country are under-occupied: allow younger generations to occupy more of these and you help to stabilise our housing market.

“Achieving that means releasing more brownfield sites owned by local authorities on peppercorn rents to meet local demand at affordable prices.”

Consult with older people’s groups and the message comes back loud and clear: “Yes, we like where we live, but at some point welldesigned retirement housing might be something we’d consider.”

But there needs to be much more of it, so that people can move locally and retain their social and support networks, together with a wider range of options to suit people’s different circumstances.

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“AS THE POPULATION CONTINUES TO AGE, THE COST TO PUBLIC SERVICES – ALREADY UNDER HUGE PRESSURE – WILL CONTINUE TO SPIRAL”

One obvious long-term solution is to ensure itself “ready for that every new home built is its ageing”.

According Centre Ageing Better, A di to t the th C t ffor A only 7 per cent of homes currently meet the standards for accessibility – and there is no central impetus to improve this situation.

The opportunity to make lifetime standards mandatory for all new-build housing was missed by the DCLG in favour of making it optional in its 2015 housing standards. London has adopted a much higher standard. So, too, could other local authorities – if they put longterm thinking ahead of what developers say they’re prepared to do.

According to Centre for Ageing Better’s senior evidence manager Dr Rachael Docking: “Living in suitable housing, in a neighbourhood designed to be age-friendly, can improve health and well-being, help people to develop and maintain social connections and feel in control.

“We need to develop and build homes that are more suitable, adaptable and accessible across the life course.”

Sue Adams, who heads Care & Repair England, concurs. “There is plenty of evidence out there to demonstrate the benefits. But when I have spoken to planners, few are even factoring ageing into local plans.

“And this really is about much more than just housing. We’ve looked at a whole range of ways in which neighbourhoods themselves can be made more suitable for people of all ages and impact positively upon their well-being – including better lighting, more seating, more toilets and so on.3 “It’s really not rocket science and it needn’t cost that much to achieve significant improvements.”

According to the DCLG4 around 40 per cent of those in the UK aged 60 to 74 report having a lifetime limiting illness, rising to almost 60 per

The planner “The government thinks that market demand will determine what is built, but because there is a shortage of housing, people will buy homes even if they are not well designed for growing old in.

“However, most of us want to age in place – but it can be very expensive to retrofit a house to meet changing needs. All homes should be built with the assumption that older people are going to live there at some point. Start from there and building for life becomes increasingly important.” n Julia Thrift is projects and operations director of the Town and Country Planning Association

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24/07/2017 14:58

P L A N N I N G F O R A N A G E I N G P O P U L AT I O N

The retirement community operators “A major planning barrier is the frequent confusion at local authority level between apartments targeted at older people, and retirement communities which incorporate a range of services supporting people to age in place.

“You go to a planning meeting to be told, ‘We already have sheltered housing schemes with vacancies. We don’t need any more’, when we’re talking about a completely different category of housing for which there is massive demand.” n Michael Voges is executive director of the Associated Retirement Community Operators

With good community engagement now enshrined into the Localism Act 2011, developers and planners are obliged to respond to local views. But how hard are they listening?

I would argue that if developers fully engaged with a community beforehand they’d discover what it really wanted. As well as assisting the consent process, they would also sell or rent their apartments or houses far more readily.

Moreover, I’d go one further. If society really wants to deal with the challenges of an ever-ageing population, when a block of land comes up for development, rather than banging up a homogenous block of homes aimed at one demographic why not engage with local people to co-design new self-sustaining communities?

These would be intergenerational communities living in a range of houses and with a mix of tenures – with neighbours supporting each other.

And if that sounds a tad utopian, it’s hardly unproven thinking. For centuries, most of us lived in just such places. We called them villages - and they worked pretty well.

cent at 75 and over. Yet 530,000 long-term sick and disabled over 65 years live in a ‘nondecent’ home 5.

Bearing in mind that the local authorities who aren’t looking at ageing as part of their housing plans will be the same local authorities struggling to provide social care, it really does seem as though these departments are working in silos.

The TCPA’s Julia Thrift emphasises that the pressures on planning departments have made it far more difficult for planners to know which housing and neighbourhood designs will reduce health and care needs.

“Staff numbers have been reduced and training budgets cut,” she says, “so planners are less exposed to new ideas and research.”

Consultation the key But within the planning process there is another readily available source of expertise and knowledge on what will work best – older people themselves.

Critically, that information can provide the granularity required to tailor local solutions.

The main point is this: people do not age ‘equally’ – in terms of both health and wealth.

The needs of a town in Somerset will be very different from those of a city in Lancashire.

If planners and councillors are going to have a local plan that really accounts for ageing they need to consult with older people and ask them about their need, and their aspirations.

Indeed, aspiration should be a big part of how we approach this issue: you won’t persuade older people to move into retirement housing if, as can be the case with some developments, the rooms are too small, pets are banned, there’s no ready access to a garden, or it is on a busy road or well away from local facilities.

High entry and exit costs, as well as management fees and ground rents, can also be a stumbling block for some – arguably highlighting the need for a different sort of tenure regulated by local authorities.

Even the word ‘downsizing’ carries negative implications that could be addressed by reframing the concept as ‘rightsizing’.

“ONLY 7 PER CENT OF HOMES CURRENTLY MEET THE STANDARDS FOR ACCESSIBILITY – AND THERE IS NO CENTRAL IMPETUS TO IMPROVE THIS SITUATION”

n Tony Watts OBE is the housing spokesperson for EngAgeNet, a body recently established to act as a consultative voice for the nation’s older population n 1 Source: Centre for Ageing Better, based on DCLG (2016), 2014-based Household Projections: England 2014-2039. n 2 Source: DCLG (2012) 2012-based household projections. n 3 Care & Repair England: bit.ly/planner0817-care n 4 Housing for an Ageing Population – Planning Ahead: bit.ly/planner0817-ageing n 5 Special analysis of English Housing Survey 11-12 Data undertaken by BRE for Care & Repair England in 2016.

DEMENTIA AND TOWN PLANNING Published by the RTPI in January 2017, Dementia and town planning is a practice note for planners on how to create better environments for people living with dementia.

Download the pdf at: bit.ly/planner0817-dementia

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21/07/2017 15:33

RTPI PLANNING CONVENTION 2017

PLANNING LEADERSHIP THE KEY IN UNCERTAIN TIMES The RTPI Planning Convention in late June brought together experts from the worlds of planning and beyond to explore the theme of delivering a strong, inclusive future. The Planner caught it all How can planning deliver the strong, inclusive future that creates resilient societies?

If the speakers at the Planning Convention are an indicator of the way to go, the answer is leadership; local leadership, in particular, but also leadership within planning and throughout the wider political sphere in which planning operates.

This, in post-referendum Britain, is fraught with uncertainty. Or, as keynote speaker Lord Taylor of Goss Moor put it: “The only certainty is uncertainty.”

The importance of leadership was at the core of RTPI president Stephen Wilkinson’s opening address. Arguing that planners needed to show leadership within the profession and the communities they serve, he said they must demonstrate how they can be “enemies of uncertainty and champions of delivery”.

Certainly, the convention was not short of “enemies of uncertainty”. Bristol mayor Marvin Rees articulated a 50-year vision for the city and shared his belief that regional planning decisions should be in the hands of city leaders rather than national politicians.

In so doing he exemplified Robin Hambleton’s distinction between

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“place-based” and “placeless” leaders, the latter the more typical and thus less effective type. Malmö mayor Christer Larsson provided a perfect example of the former, and he explained how his ability to spend 70 per cent of the city’s tax revenues gave him the power to shape his city in ways that the UK’s metro mayors currently lack.

The theme of political leadership was also picked up by the chief planners of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, who concluded that planning is unavoidably political. It functions best when political leaders understand the value and potential of planning; but for this to happen, the onus is at least partly on planners themselves to demonstrate leadership within their profession and the wider political world.

How does this tie to the theme of inclusivity? If planning is about achieving the greatest benefit for the largest number of people, then it is inherently inclusive. But many planning decisions are not reached or taken in an inclusive way.

In session after session, planners and other built environment experts talked about the policy, legal, technological and practical tools at the disposal of planners

to help them reach decisions with greater transparency and more input from affected communities.

Technology , in particular, could be “game changing”, insisted IBM’s Dr Mary Keeling. But planning was slow to exploit the potential – to its detriment; if planners would not adapt planning to technology, someone else would, taking ownership and means away from professional planners.

Such are the stakes in a period of extraordinary change and uncertainty.

How planners respond to these changes will determine the future shape of society; the profession holds at least some of the tools required to direct the forces of change towards a more equitable future.

It also has the principles. We are buried beneath “an avalanche of opinion”, said Lord Taylor. But planners have a clear directive to which they can cleave.

Though speaking of new towns, Lord Taylor could have been speaking about the topics of the convention in general: “There is an opportunity here for everybody, the house builders, the private sector, the landowners, and most of all, the community and local government to take this challenge. It is what most of you came into this to do. To build fantastic places, that’s why you’re members of the RTPI.”

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Register your interest for Convention 2018 To register your interest for the 2018 Planning Convention and to receive notiďŹ cation when bookings open please email marketing@rtpi.org.uk

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24/07/2017 12:37

S P E A K E R

S T E P H E N

W I L K I N S O N

RTPI president places planners as the ‘catalysts for a better world’ The debate has changed and the planning system is no longer being blamed as a barrier to growth – it’s time to seize the day

Speaker: Stephen Wilkinson, president, RTPI Session title: Presidential address

Stephen Wilkinson’s address in May to the American Planning Association’s conference took the theme ‘Planning in times of uncertainty’.

Following June 8’s UK general election, Wilkinson’s address to the RTPI convention took this theme further.

“If we thought that times were uncertain then,” said Wilkinson, “they are possibly even more so today.”

Times of uncertainty, however, breed an environment in which planning is “now very much more vital than ever”, said Wilkinson.

One way of interpreting the recent election results, he said, is that people across the country are still feeling the effects of an unequal economic recovery.

“You could argue that this inequality and division is because there has been a lack of true planning, by which I mean sufficient investment in places,

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homes and infrastructure to create thriving, sustainable local economies.

“However, despite the seismic changes in the UK and beyond, there are positive developments which we should all work to capitalise on to bring more direction and clarity, and to build a better, stronger and inclusive future.”

During the year since the vote on Brexit, Wilkinson has sensed a change in the debate. “It is no longer WHAT THEY SAID

about blaming the planning system as a barrier to growth. It is around how we can secure more housing, infrastructure, industrial strategies, localism, social equity, investment, air quality, supporting the vulnerable, inclusiveness and quality of life. The debate has come back into our territory and we are ready for it. ”This fundamental role of planning and planners is reflected in our policy and

research work,” said Wilkinson, “for example, on the value of planning; our work on place, poverty and inequality; and the creation of dementia-friendly communities, to name just some recent documents.”

So what next for planners and the RTPI? Given the scale of the challenges we face, Wilkinson is convinced that the answer lies in all planners showing leadership both in planning and delivering better places.

“Far from being ‘enemies of enterprise’, for the communities we serve we are, and must continue to be, ‘enemies of uncertainty and champions of delivery.”

AT A GLANCE

(1) We have seen a change in the debate – it is no longer about blaming the planning system as a barrier to growth.

(2) The housing white paper was titled ‘Fixing the Broken Housing Market’ – not, you will note, “fixing the planning system”.

(3) We are the catalysts for a better society, a better world – so let’s get on with delivering it!

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24/07/2017 11:40

S P E A K E R

T H E

LO R D

TA Y LO R

O F

G O S S

M O O R ,

H O N

R T P I

Speaker: The Lord Taylor of Goss Moor, Hon RTPI Session title: Keynote address

Over the hill, but not far away “Our response to that was to not go back to what we had done before, it was to build in the great places the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act tried to protect” “We have completely lost the plot on the green belt,” Lord Taylor of Goss Moor said.

It was never intended to be about “huge swathes of land that couldn’t be developed in places that need homes”.

Taylor said it was about protecting the edges of historic settlements, towns and villages from being expanded in ways that KEY QUOTES “If there was a political equivalent to measles, we’ve got it” “Politics used to be like tectonic plates, now it is like an avalanche – an avalanche of opinion” “Uncertainty is the only certainty”

“destroy” their setting, form and historical functioning.

In protecting predicted population falls in the 1970s and 1980s, the new towns programme was stopped and the green belt was extended, a “politically popular” move.

But the population grew, and it still is growing; it is also ageing, and the demographic has changed – such as the break-up of families – and there is net inward migration not net outward migration.

“Our response to that was to not go back to what we had done before, it was to build in the great places the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act tried to protect.”

The edges of towns and cities were built on and green wedges filled in, while “over the hill”, which

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cannot be seen and was never meant to part of the green belt and is covered in pesticides with hedgerows removed, is considered “more valuable that then one at the bottom of somebody’s garden”, an exasperated Taylor told the audience.

In addition, the development ends up being dense because as many homes as possible are built.

After, Taylor said, arguing with the Department for Communities and Local Government about not waiting for a planning bill, the powers are in the Neighbourhood Planning

Act “to make it easier to introduce the new towns act”, to create great places.

This means putting the roads, shops, pubs and schools in up front. It is not a question of when the first 500 houses generate enough demand.

“There is an opportunity here for everybody, the housebuilders, the private sector, the landowners, and most of all, the community and local government to take this challenge. It is what most of you came into this to do.

To build fantastic places – that’s why you’re members of the RTPI.”

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S P E A K E R S

MARY KEELING / PETER HEAD / BARBARA NORMAN / CORINNE SWAIN

No choice about change e “It’s only going to be smart if we manage to do it in a sustainable way”

Speakers: Dr Mary Keeling, global program director, economic analysis strategy and market development, IBM; Professor Peter Head CBE, founder and chief executive officer, Ecological Sequestration Trust; Professor Barbara Norman, director of Canberra Urban and Regional Futures, University of Canberra; chair: Corinne Swain OBE Session title: Smart versus sustainable – is it a choice?

Chair: Smart versus sustainable – is it a choice?

Planning has been slow to integrate into practice.

What’s the potential cost of this? And is technology really an enabler of sustainable cities? Change, AT A GLANCE

(1) If planners don’t employ fresh technology to improve planning, someone else will step into the void.

(2) Creating smart, sustainable cities means assembling open data in ways that improve planning, policymaking and investment.

(3) Planners need to be talking to scientists and technologists as a matter of course.

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for planning is “not a choice” insisted Dr Mary Keeling. The tech is there to transform the way we plan.

But “if you don’t do it, somebody outside your industry will”.

Planning, she said, has been slow to tap into the greater mass of data that is “unstructured”, in databases, audio files, photos and so on. Using cognitive computing and natural language processing to access and analyse this data could be a “game changer”.

“It’s possible to have both smart and sustainable,” said Keeling. “It’s only going to be smart if we manage to do it in a sustainable way.”

Professor Peter Head said smart and sustainable required two things – enactment of the Sustainable Development Goals; and open data for city builders.

“The goals are there and we have to start using

them,” he said, stressing that they could “unleash more of our humanity”.

Doing so means harnessing IT to assemble social data in ways that support evidencebased policymaking and financial investment.

A new open-source platform is designed to achieve just this. Resilience. io is aimed at policymakers and investors and had the potential to change billions of lives. Collaboration and IT was needed to achieve this – “That’s smart.”

Professor Barbara Norman noted that 60 per cent of the globe would live in cities by 2050. Cities were turning ever more to marginal land to house growing populations. But

this strategy invites a different set of problems relating to climate change.

How do planners house people while maintaining sustainable developments?

Tech can help – green precincts, micro-grids, natural ventilation, and localised energy systems. But more dialogue between science and planning was essential. ‘Smart’ means using technology and collaboration to “connect the dots”, she said.

“Our first priority must be reducing our emissions.

Significant change has already been locked in. We need to be planning for change. To deliver this we need to work in partnership.”

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S P E A K E R S

J A N I C E M O R P H ET / N O R LI Z A H A S H I M / T E R R I E A L A FAT

The affordable housing enigma

AT A GLANCE

(1) Alafat said people in the private rented sector see about 35 per cent of income going on rent, rising to 43 per cent in the South-East and 68 per cent in London.

“A lot of places talk about numbers as if they are just numbers”

(2) Morphet said that for Speakers: Professor Janice Morphet FRTPI, visiting professor, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London Norliza Hashim, secretary general, Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Human Settlements (EROPH), Malaysia Terrie Alafat CBE, chief executive, Chartered Institute of Housing Session title: Place, homes and inequality Chair: Cynthia Bowen, president, American Planning Association

numbers. The issue is how they affect individuals and can they afford to live and have the type of housing they want?”

The measures affecting affordability are also driven by the welfare reform agenda, while over a million people receiving housing benefit are in work but on a low wage. “We don’t talk enough about that.”

A long-term effort is needed, as is a strategy looking at welfare, regeneration, placemaking, jobs, communities, and skills and capacity.

What are councils doing?

Terrie Alafat laid bare the housing and affordable housing crisis – a problem that has been in place for “decades”. She told the audience that in the past year only about 30,000 affordable homes have been built, “the lowest number since 1991”.

“A lot of places talk about numbers as if they are just

Janice Morphet discussed what she has learnt so far while researching how local authorities are taking on the country’s housing issues.

She said they are using powers provided by the 2001 Localism Act, which allow them to become developers and to set up banks. Warrington Borough Council is the first to do so.

“We know that from 2015, 50 per cent of local authority leaders in England are committed to having a housing company”, with 125 housing firms established by December 2016.

Councils are considering how to design better homes and thinking more broadly about delivering homes.

Morphet said councils are developing houses for income. She referred to the 2020 financial changes facing councils, stating that they are looking for longterm income. “They are acquiring portfolios and assets again mostly in their own authority areas, some are building as a means to fund other services.”

Housing density With a population of 31 million and a 77 per cent urbanised landscape, urbanisation is taking its toll on Malaysia, Norliza Hashim, secretary general at EROPHS, told delegates.

Besides pollution issues, the country has a serious issue with housing gaps as a result. In the 1980s Malaysia introduced a low-cost housing policy obliging private developers to provide 30-40 per cent

councils it is about civic pride. “Councils think providing housing is what they should be doing. They want to return to it after seven years of austerity.”

(3) There is the belief in Malaysia that “housing is at the core of overcoming social issues and ending poverty, building homes for everyone and ensuring they have the same standard of living”.

affordable housing.

This takes care of the bottom 40 per cent of earners. The top 20 per cent take care of themselves. The gap, the middle 40 per cent – professionals and young people – is the concern, and a focus going forward.

Another focus is how to address housing density, which Hashim said could no longer be avoided. “We are especially looking at our open space and public paths; we are particularly losing them in urban areas.” * Morphet’s research is part funded by the RTPI and the National Planning Forum

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S P E A K E R S

R O B I N H A M B LET O N / M A R V I N R E E S / J U LE S P I P E / C H R I S T E R L A R S S O N

How can we set cities free to plan?

Effective, place-based planning can lead to much more social, environmental and economic progress Speakers: Professor Robin Hambleton MRTPI, professor of city leadership, University of the West of England (UWE); Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol; Jules Pipe, deputy mayor, planning, regeneration and skills, Greater London Authority; Christer Larsson, planning director, City of Malmö Session title: Setting cities free to plan Chair: Janet Askew MRTPI, Town Planner Robin Hambleton noted the presence of three experienced city leaders on the panel, defining leadership as “shaping emotions and behaviour to achieve common goals”.

Hambleton then discussed the distinction between ‘place-based’ and ‘placeless’ power.

“Planners are very aware of the importance of place and it’s built into planning education. But many of the most important decisionmakers in the world are placeless leaders; they make decisions without caring about the consequences of those decisions for particular places and communities. So I’m making a plea for valuing place in leadership.”

Hambleton agreed with RTPI president Stephen Wilkinson’s assertion that 26

“if there’s one skill deficit we need to address, it’s about leadership”. ”We in academia in planning have neglected leadership. There’s little written in any planning theory books about the importance of leadership in planning, which is startling when you look at the examples we see of really successful planning.

Hambleton also took aim at the uniquely centralised state in Britain. “It’s centralisation on steroids. It takes more and more power away from place, weakening the effectiveness of public policy across the country.”

The six recently elected city region metro mayors “have no tax raising powers, no constitutional protection from an overbearing central state and a trivial amount of funding to do anything. If that’s devolution, it’s a misuse of the English language.

Jules Pipe “The planning system is asked to do too much heavy lifting” Jules Pipe noted London’s growth, with more than 70,000 people a year moving into the capital and a projected population of 10.5 million people by 2041.

“Our economy in London is really dynamic and global, but while the fundamentals – our language, our culture our legal system and much

more – remain, the EU referendum has created a huge amount of uncertainty.

It’s important for the city to remain open to the world, and to be both carbon and climate resilient.”

To this end, Mayor Sadiq Khan has to pull all of the levers he has at his disposal including Transport for London (TfL), direct investment in housing, region funding, coordinating stakeholders, as well as – harking back to Hambleton’s point – using the mayor’s profile as a leader to champion the city and the city’s needs.

Central to all this is the London Plan, said Pipe.

“It sets out an integrated economic and environmental transport and social framework for the development of London over the next 20 years and a framework for the development and use of land across London.

But Pipe believed there was a danger that the planning system is asked to do too much heavy lifting.

“Funding reductions put increased pressure on the planning system to deliver.

The London Plan has to balance competing needs, unlocking land for housing whilst ensuring other uses are planned for.

“We also really need to work out a way to calculate land value capture, and that’s a whole topic in itself.

AT A GLANCE

(1) Too many of the people making crucial decisions today are placeless rather than place-based leaders..

(2) There is a huge need for greater devolution and more appreciation of local government's potential to effect change

(3) There is a need to calculate land value capture in a way that frees up decision making and puts key decisions in context

It’s also essential that we as leaders in London’s built environment say more about good design. Without that focus we could be building the disasters of the future.”

Marvin Rees “We need the power to speak beyond our boundaries” Bristol mayor Marvin Rees

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it makes, then you can’t really refrain from using it as a tool. If as a politician you are not, then you are not doing your job.”

pointed to what he saw as the ultimate aim of planning – “a population that’s cheaper to run”.

“A resilient, healthy and educated population, and an inclusive form of economic development, will mean a population that you need to spend less money on in the future through public interventions.

“What people receive from a place is the product of the interaction of non-decisions and decisions made by all the players in a place – health service, criminal justice, local government, the voluntary sector.”

Rees and his team are approaching businesses to suggest that rather than spending their corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget in a thousand different places, they should commit 25 to 50 per cent of their CSR spend to a single city pot. “We’ll then spend it at scale on strategic interventions that can make a real difference rather than just tinkering with projects on the margins.”

Rees is also bullish on the

need for greater devolution.

“I just signed off on a housing development with only 20 per cent affordable housing, but that’s because we don’t have the power to leverage any more. But it’s not just what goes on in our boundaries that impacts us.

We need the power to speak beyond our boundaries too.”

Christer Larsson “Planning must be looked upon for what it makes for society” City of Malmö planning director Christer Larsson was warmly welcomed, with session chair Janet Askew extolling Malmö as an exemplar of sustainability in Europe. Larsson identified himself as a strong believer in planning as “an important instrument to balance interests, implement solutions and build trust with inhabitants”.

Larsson explained how Malmö had to adapt when its shipyard, mechanical and textile industries all went bankrupt over a period of just five years, leading to the

loss of almost 30,000 jobs.

City planning was a key tool in solving the problem.

“Our intention was to focus on sustainability. We wanted to have the first sustainable district in the world, and today we also have a commission for a socially sustainable Malmö. The city is now interpreting the work it has done against the 17 new UN sustainability goals.

“The vision that we are producing now is not as project-oriented as the old one. It’s more value-based, and I think this is something crucial for planning – that it is looked upon for what it makes for society, and for what it can do for social cohesion and social connectivity. If we then look at planning in terms of what

Closing panel A closing Q&A session saw agreement on the need to devolve more power locally from what is an “incredibly centralised state” promoting a “uniformity of solutions”.

Larsson explained how the municipalities controlled 70 per cent of all Swedish tax, while Rees said he was “challenged” by the idea “that we should seek an audience with the minister, when it is the minister who should be seeking an audience with us!”.

There are 10 cities outside of London, which between them represent 19 million inhabitants and a quarter of the national economy. “I’m shocked,” said Rees, “that government hasn’t asked us together to discuss what we need from the Brexit talks.”

All agreed that it was vital that planning is seen as adding long-term value.

Rees spoke of wanting a 50-year plan for Bristol, and of making a guarantee to every primary age school child of an investment in their mental health.

“We should plan for that now, realising there’s going to be a benefit. And we must be able to come up with some kind of logarithm that makes our case.”

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S P E A K E R S

NIALL CUSSEN / NEIL HEMINGTON / JOHN MCNAIRNEY / SUE BRIDGE

Into the limelight “The prospect of decisions being taken with no political accountability around that terrifies the life out of me” AT A GLANCE

Speakers: Niall Cussen, principal adviser, planning, Department for Housing, Community and Local Government, Ireland; Neil Hemington MRTPI, head of planning division, Welsh Government; Fiona McCandless MRTPI, chief planner, Northern Ireland; John McNairney MRTPI, chief planner, Scottish Government; Chair: Sue Bridge MRTPI, Sue Bridge Consultancy

(1) The UK’s chief planners share concerns around equality and engagement.

(2) Planning has a part to play in addressing these, through statutory and non-statutory means.

(3) Planning is political, and planners must use their skills to negotiate the politics of planning..

Session title: Ask the chief planners How do the UK’s planning systems deliver inclusivity? asked the chair. The responses revealed consensus among the UK’s chief planners (minus England’s Steve Quartermain, on government business), though each had different tools at their disposal.

Ireland’s Niall Cussen said Ireland’s planning system was instrumental in tackling a housing crisis, and that the emerging National Planning Framework would fuel a national conversation about the kind of place the people want their country to be.

Ireland’s Local Government Reform Act 2014 had “bridged the gap between local development functions and local government functions”; community participation was key.

John McNairney noted that Scotland's Place Standard gave a framework to communities to engage 28

in planning. A review of Scotland’s planning system was partly aimed at “reducing inequality and promoting inclusive growth”, with some decisions being delegated to communities. “One of the things that struck me was that it [the review] said that planning was too focused on micromanagement of the built environment. It’s an opportunity to move planning away from a regulatory silo.”

Northern Ireland’s system was adjusting to devolution of powers against significant change. “Northern Ireland has changed in an unimaginable way,” said Fiona McCandless. Planning had played a “key role” in this and Northern Ireland’s statutory link between community planning and development planning protected the interests of communities. But “creating

communities where people feel connected” would be a “long journey” that would involve “breaking down physical barriers and psychological barriers”.

In Wales, non-statutory ‘place plans’ created engaged communities. Even so, Neil Hemington acknowledged that giving communities greater powers could make professionals nervous.

“Where does the power lie?” he asked, touching on the overarching theme of the the politics of planning.

McCandless, noting that planning is unavoidably political, observed that post-Brexit the field at the bottom of her garden would be in the EU, but her home would not. How do

planners deal with this?

Hemington insisted they could help shape Brexit since they are involved in the process of change. But this can only happen if political leaders recognise the value of planning.

Asked whether complex decisions should bypass elected members, the chief planners were adamant: “The prospect of decisions being taken with no political accountability terrifies the life out of me,” said Cussen, adding that planners needed to be do more to promote their skills. “We are a profession that’s far too often afraid of the limelight.”

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S P E A K E R S

SIMON GILBERT / LEENAMARI AANTAA­COLLIER / PHIL GIBBY / PAUL SHUKER / PHIL WILLIAMS

Night moves “We protect retail. We protect employment. We should also be looking to protect the night-time economy” Speakers: Simon Gilbert, operational manager (strategic development and placemaking), Cardiff City Council; Leenamari Aantaa-Collier, legal director, Shakespeare Martineau; Phil Gibby, South West area director, Arts Council England; Paul Shuker MRTPI, director of planning, WYG Session title: Planning after dark Chair: Phil Williams MRTPI, director of planning and place, Belfast City Council Pubs, clubs, music and cultural venues have been closing at an unprecedented rate. Can planning help to stem the tide?

Paul Shuker laid it out: the night-time economy is worth £66 billion to the UK annually and “vibrant venues give cities energy and creativity”.

Manchester clubs The Hacienda and Sankeys Soap had become global brands, yet closed in their home city. London had lost 103 nightclubs since 2007 and 25 per cent of its pubs since 2001.

Yet the night-time economy employs one in eight people.

Urban vibrancy is behind a revival in city living, made possible in part by permitted development.

But this, along with rising business rates, closes businesses. The manner in which we revive cities is “killing the goose that lays the golden egg”.

WYG research had found a shocking absence of positive support for night-time economies in local plans.

“We protect retail. We protect employment. We should also be looking to protect the night-time

AT A GLANCE

(1) Vibrant night-time economies underpin healthy of towns and cities but are under pressure.

(2) Local authorities should develop positive strategies for supporting night-time culture in development plans.

(3) Legislative change – such as merging planning and licensing, and introducing the agent of change principle – can help planners reverse the tide.

economy,” said Shuker.

Leenamari AantaaCollier argued for planning and licensing functions to merge, as recommended by a House of Lords select committee. This would co-ordinate the two functions, iron out inconsistencies and enable the planning inspectorate, rather than magistrates to offer a more thorough approach to licensing appeals.

Simon Gilbert and Phil Gibby illustrated the benefits that support for evening culture can bring.

Cardiff’s ‘Chip Alley’, though downmarket, was the city’s only place consistently recommended by travel guides. The city

had learned to overcome any embarrassment and embrace this; improvements were sensitive and involved traders, most of whom remained.

Gibby explained how farsighted and openminded planners had supported cultural vibrancy in South West locations.

Plymouth’s Royal William Yard now rivalled Europe’s best evening locations.

Two principles would help planners support arts, culture and the night-time

economy, he said: the ‘agent of change’ principle needed “to be fitted as standard”; he also stressed that “we haven’t fulfilled the potential” of assets of community value.

“It’s a multifaceted conversation. Let’s talk”.

Register your interest for Convention 2018 To register your interest for the 2018 Planning Convention and to receive notification when bookings open please email marketing@rtpi.org.uk

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RTPI AWARDS: PLANNING EXCELLENCE

2017

A Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) between Camden and the Crick led to a successful outcome

CASE ST UDY

CRICK THINKING AWARDS: RTPI SILVER JUBILEE CUP, RTPI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PLANNING TO CREATE ECONOMICALLY SUCCESSFUL PLACES PROJECT NAME: THE FRANCIS CRICK INSTITUTE KEY PLAYERS: MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, CANCER RESEARCH UK, THE WELCOME TRUST, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, KING’S COLLEGE LONDON, CBRE PLANNING, ARUP PROJECT MANAGEMENT, PLP ARCHITECTURE, ARUP BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES ENGINEERING, TUNRER & TOWNSEND, AECOM, AKT UK, LAING O’ROURKE, LONDON BOROUGH OF CAMDEN, GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY

BY H U W MOR R I S

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London’s Francis Crick Institute did not get off to the best of starts. Just as the plan to build the world’s leading medical research institute was proposed, a biological leak at a private laboratory in Pirbright heightened local community concerns about security.

This was amplified by the proposed building’s location near to the St Pancras/King’s Cross and Euston transport hub. Every councillor opposed the scheme. Tenants and residents associations were up in arms.

More than a decade later the Crick, as it is now known, has won this year’s RTPI’s Silver Jubilee Cup, the top honour in the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious planning awards. It also won the RTPI’s accolade for economically successful place.

Named after one of the UK’s greatest scientists, Nobel Prize-winner and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, the Crick is a cutting-edge biomedical centre under the auspices of the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, University College London, Imperial College London and King’s College London.

At 170m long, with 930 million square metres of floor space over 12 storeys, the institute is one of the capital’s most complex buildings. A third of it is below the ground while a third of its total floor space contains a huge variety of plant to meet energy and air-handling specifications.

The Crick is in a challenging planning environment. Residential buildings of two to three storeys surround its location with grade II listed flats to its west. To the east, lies the grade I listed Barlow Shed of St Pancras Station, to the south the grade I listed British Library.

The site is also in England’s 11th most deprived ward. This was designated for

housing within the statutory development plan and accompanying planning brief with at least 50 per cent of them affordable homes.

THE PROCESS Despite its heavyweight scientific credentials, the development had to overcome huge public rancour before eventually gaining planning permission. This took 18 months of intensive community engagement and close working with the London Borough of Camden.

A Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) between Camden and the Crick held the key. Although common now, in 2007 a PPA was an unknown tool for managing development. This one set standards for architectural design, open spaces and the crucial section 106 contribution to tackling the area’s social and economic deprivation. Planning and urban design officers from Camden and the Greater London Authority worked alongside the Crick’s team to achieve architectural quality and sustainability targets, including a 17 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.

The PPA was the backbone of the Crick’s consultation with the community at every stage of the development. The building had to embrace the community through its design, with active frontages all part of embodying its mission to promote pioneering medical and health benefits to residents.

This ultimately set the foundations for the project to exceed its community obligations under the section 106 agreement – and turn back the tide of community fears. One example is the Living Centre, a community facility for local organisations

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W H A T T H E J U D G E S S AY Nick Raynsford, chair of the judging panel, said: “This project is an outstanding example of the value planners bring to a complex project. Their unique set of skills meant they were able to engage with the community and incorporate their feedback to improve the project. Planners’ involvement resulted in clear improvements to the project and benefits for the local community including a community centre, community garden, apprenticeships for young people and a positive economic impact, not just for the local community, but also for London and the UK.”

to offer a range of affordable services to improve health and well-being.

But the economics stand out as well.

The Crick secured the RTPI’s economically successful place accolade for creating 700 jobs, increasing GDP in the area by £16 million, with an £8 million boost to spending from the 1,500 extra staff on the site. It also offers two-year apprenticeships to local young people.

And the scheme is starting to attract new inward investment and raising the overall quality of the environment. Achilles Therapeutics and Gamma Delta Therapeutics, which are developers of new cancer therapies, are spin-off projects from its work.

INSIDE THE BUILDING So what’s it like to work at the Crick? Two aspects stand out.

The first is its location within the heart of London’s medical knowledge quarter.

Within a stone’s throw are the Wellcome Trust, Royal College of Physicians, University College Hospital, as well as the London school of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases, and the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Ophthalmologists. “It gives the impression that this is the capital of science,” says Darren Warren, head of engineering projects within building services at the Crick.

A second important factor is the working environment. The building is a shared space for several institutions and designed to foster close connections and cooperation between scientists in varying fields and research.

“It’s about getting them to work together,” says Warren. “With the way that the labs are set up we have four quarters within the building, with each set up in the I M A G E S | A L A M Y / A K I N FA L O P E

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“IT GIVES THE IMPRESSION THAT THIS IS THE CAPITAL OF SCIENCE”

same way. Each of the extremities has the traditional ‘white-up’ area and office area.

Come in one layer and there’s the primary laboratory space. Moving into the centre part of the quarter this is where we put our shared equipment and facilities.

“We’re trying to maximise the shared capability of these spaces. That’s where the conversations take place that can generate that enthusiasm. By working in open labs, you can see what people are doing. There were a number of questions before people moved into the building about how it would work. It was a bit of an unknown.

“But once they’ve moved in they are impressed by the building and how much is under one roof. Within two or three weeks of moving in they were working and talking to their peers. They have genuinely grabbed the opportunity.”

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DY5

DUDLEY’S BUSINESS AND I N N O V AT I O N E N T E R P R I S E Z O N E

DUDLEY HAS GREAT NEWS TO SHARE WITH BUSINESSES AS IT LAUNCHES DY5, THE BOROUGH’S BUSINESS AND INNOVATION ENTERPRISE ZONE. DY5, which officially launched in early April, offers businesses looking to invest and expand with an exciting opportunity to relocate to an exclusive waterfront location, in the heart of the West Midlands and indeed the UK. Part of the Black Country Enterprise Zone led by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership on behalf of West Midlands Combined Authority, DY5 joins a portfolio of sites including Darlaston and Wolverhampton North (inc i54), spread over 120 hectares. To date the zone has created 4,000 new jobs in advanced manufacturing including aerospace, automotive and engineering.

A wide range of office accommodation is available from large scale, recently refurbished units to smaller offices. DY5 can fulfil a range of needs and requirements and can do so quickly.

As well as offering high quality, low cost office accommodation at The Waterfront, DY5 is also able to offer a range of space at nearby industrial estates, with construction of brand new large scale industrial units already underway.

DY5 is unique in that it is able to offer immediate office accommodation, which means that the benefits of relocating to the enterprise zone can be reaped straight away.

class manufacturing and engineering and continue to provide the perfect economic conditions for advanced manufacturing.

Dudley in particular has a significantly higher proportion of the workforce employed in manufacturing - delivering an unrivalled advantage over anywhere else in the UK. “DY5 will deliver new industrial space for technology and service sectors as well as broaden our digital and professional base.

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E

P33 TECH P36 REGIONAL P38 DECISIONS P42 LEGAL P50 PLAN B P51 ACTIVITY

THE END OF TECHTOPIA HEADSHOT

BEING IN THRALL TO TECHNOLOGY CAN LEAD TO TERRIBLE PLANNING DECISIONS, SAYS SIMON PAYNE. TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE MODERN CITIES WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT TECH IS A TOOL, NOT AN END IN ITSELF Ebenezer Howard, the English visionary who promoted the garden city movement, wrote in 1902 that it is possible to employ “the resources of modern science that Art may supplement Nature, and life may become an abiding joy and delight”.

What has happened to that utopian vision? In our times of rapid technological advances, do we strive for that balance between science, art and nature?

In post-war British cities, like Birmingham, the imperative was to build as quickly as possible to rehouse everyone in decent homes and rebuild the economy.

I M AG E | i STO C K

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Private cars and high-rise housing were part of the new technologies of the time. Multilane highways, like the Aston Expressway, carved vast swathes through existing communities. Tram systems were torn up and the motor car was placed, literally and metaphorically, on top.

We now know that these new technologies solved one set of problems but also created a whole set of new ones.

Communities were broken up, pedestrian subways became dangerous and unpleasant places, air pollution from transport became a killer and urban design quality was

subjugated in favour of mere functionality.

The reputation of planners suffered and changes took place in the law so that the citizen could have a real voice in decisionmaking.

There is, I think, another lesson from that era. New technology is simply a tool. Not an end in itself. The question then is: what is the end that we are seeking to achieve now?

The answer must surely be a good quality of life for all the communities that we plan for, and that the communities themselves need to shape placemaking.

I believe there is a central dilemma facing us in placemaking. It is that the pace of technological change is fast and short term.

Most specific technological advancements happen within six or seven years. But we are planning for places that will last for generations. How can we understand what the individual elements of technology will be like in a generation or two, let alone understand the cumulative impact of the technology on our society?

What is the answer? Do we adopt the mindset of the 1950s city planners?

AU G U S T 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E E BL

Y CIT HE FT NT NME SO RO ES VI EN

RACTER AND D CHA IST HE IN T CT TS IV C E EN SU L T U S O F T S AI R S NA E CC - OPEN - CO LED NS E U G D

RES PEC TS AN ECONO D MIC P AL LY SU KNO W LE

The circle of life: The community’s quality of life must form the kernel

HIGH QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL COMMUNITIES

IVE AT LT

RSITY + SU P DIVE P O ING THE NEEDS OF A RTIN LL LU G VA

Do we describe the city of the future as a list of autonomous vehicles, drones, robots, 3D printers and a myriad of extraordinary connected gizmos?

No. The smart city of the future is one that puts the quality of life first, with sustainability and public engagement at the heart of the approach. It is where local character is celebrated and cared for.

In my view there needs to be stronger advocacy for the quality of place. The new technology is being designed and delivered globally – but our places are local.

These places reflect different histories, communities, geographies, climates, cultures and aspirations.

Future cities that look and work the same will not be successful. The planner and the citizen have a pivotal role in understanding and expressing local distinctiveness and in ensuring that the technology respects local needs.

Let me give an example. In a city with only autonomous vehicles there are new opportunities to banish all road signs, remove most traffic lights, eliminate car parking in central areas, and to radically redesign conventional carriageway geometry and visibility splays. We will have a choice between a highway-dominated layout or spaces of local character defined by people, buildings, and trees and landscaping.

Fundamentally, how will the autonomous vehicles function? Will they have a primary

purpose as a ‘private digital bubble’ rather than a means to simply get from A to B? Will we end up with swarms of these bubbles endlessly circulating through our urban spaces? How will we manage these demands?

Technologists predict that we will move to a world of plenty where the technology

solves the problem of scare resources, whether it will be food, water, energy – whatever.

But we know that plenty in a consumerled society brings its own environmental impacts – the swirling mass of the ‘Great Pacific garbage patch’ being only one sorry example. Besides, plenty for whom? Plenty for everyone with access to a 3D printer to churn out the latest product?

I recently completed an assignment for the Mayor of Heidelberg. Heidelberg is an exemplar for smart technology (it made the shortlist of cities vying to be named Germany’s ‘Digital Capital’) and I prepared a simple model to guide the process of change in the city: I suggest that we should be honest planners and admit that we do not know the future but, like Howard 115 years ago, we are committed to delivering a better world that puts the quality of life for all our communities first. This is the objective by which we shape and apply the technology of the future.

n Simon Payne is director of Lambsquay Consulting of Cambridge

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

The Conservative-DUP collaboration – what’s in it for property?

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Uncertainty doesn’t help the pound, however, a weaker pound has encouraged foreign investors to pour money into UK property and construction. London continues to attract investment as the supply of office space fails to match growing demand. UK regions outside of London are seeing an influx of money, too, with better rental yields being offered and less competition from UK-based institutional investors. Workers in the capital are being pushed farther out, prompting the regeneration of towns in the commuter belt. Look North and you will see Middle Eastern investors acquiring retail centres in Liverpool and Dutch Pension Funds backing regeneration in Edinburgh.

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The Conservatives’ partnership with the DUP was thought to have thrown a spanner in the works, as before the election the Conservative Party had indicated support for large infrastructure projects such as High Speed 2 (HS2).

However, its start was confirmed in the Queen’s Speech in June. HS2 prompts the government to invest in STEM schemes to help deliver the projects over the next two decades. With projects like HS2 and the expansion of Heathrow Airport, more development will follow. Again, this is backed heavily by investors looking to get into the regional markets before the projects begin.

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Nations & Regions focus { THE NORTH­WEST

The desire for balanced growth You may think of the West Midlands as Birmingham, the Black Country and surrounding semi-urban areas. Although this West Midlands conurbation may be the focus of major growth activity, there is much more to the region as a whole.

In addition to West Midlands county, there are five very distinctive counties: Shropshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. There are urban industrial landscapes in Stokeon-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.

High-profile initiatives abound, many are addressed in the government’s broad Midlands Engine Strategy, which places the Midlands into a UK growth context.

A growth strategy linked to phase one of HS2 (London-West Midlands) is complemented by UK Central, which sources and channels infrastructure in and around Solihull. The growth potential of HS2 phase 2 is being taken into account in north Staffordshire and across the regional boundary into Cheshire via the Northern Gateway.

Redevelopment of Birmingham’s city centre and Eastside is benefiting from Enterprise Zone status that draws investment and jobs. Studies are

MAJOR PROJECTS Langley Sustainable Urban Extension -

Langley, near Sutton Coldield, will provide up to 6,000 homes for Birmingham residents over the next 20 years, along with schools, sports facilities, a retail centre and a park. It will be served by the new Sprint rapid transit system.

Paradise Birmingham -

Paradise, Birmingham, is a massive two million square feet mixed-use redevelopment of Birmingham’s former Central Library site and surrounding area. It will include commercial, retail, leisure hotels, improved pedestrian access enhanced public realm in a historic setting. Phase 1 is due to complete in 2019. www.paradisebirmingham.co.uk/

UK Central -

This ‘strategic economic growth area’ in Solihull includes Birmingham Airport, the NEC, Jaguar Land Rover, Birmingham Business Park and Arden Cross, which will be the location of the HS2 Interchange Station. A masterplan for the area, which supports 100,000 jobs, is mapping out development up to 2040; the UK Central Urban Growth Company (UGC) is attracting investment to the area. www.investinukcentral.com

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assessing the scale of strategic housing and employment requirements around Birmingham and the Black Country.

Midland Connect is analysing the rail and road networks to understand how they will support growth by connecting markets within the West Midlands and beyond.

There are big planning questions: should the West Midlands Combined Authority take develop a spatial framework as Greater Manchester has done?

Beyond the Greater Birmingham subregion planning for sustainable growth to meet local needs continues. Getting the balance right between growth and protecting natural and heritage assets is a challenge, but one in which planning professionals from all sectors are engaged.

RECENT SUCCESSES The RTPI West Midlands 2017 Awards for Planning Excellence, on 10 July, rewarded standout projects and individuals in the region.

Regional Award for Planning Excellence: The Birmingham Resilience Project Water company Severn Trent’s delivery of a 16-mile water pipeline from the River Severn at Lickhill to Birmingham’s Frankley water treatment works will supplement the Edwardian Elan Valley Aqueduct that is in great need of maintenance. This complex project, vital for protecting the regional water supply, has been commended for its crossboundary working and public consultation.

Regional Award for Planning Excellence Commendation: The Jaguar Land Rover development at i54 promotes many aspects of sustainable development and is significant both within the region and nationally. It provides opportunities for best practice in building design to be replicated nationally.

Chairman’s Award: Walsall Housing Group (WHG) and Keepmoat for Waters Keep, Goscote, Walsall Waters Keep has 177 homes for affordable rent from WHG and 235 properties for open market sale from Keepmoat.

A second site, the old Goscote Estate, will have a mix of properties and a well-being scheme for the over-55s. The scheme also involves improvements to the neighbouring Blakenall Estate. “It is not just about building homes,” said Craig Jordan. “It is about investing in people and improving lives to achieve sustainable long-term change.”

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West Midlands Valuable skills The wide range of public and private sector opportunities makes the West Midlands a good place to pursue a planning career – increasingly, perhaps, with businesses involved in the provision of key infrastructure.

The once-in-a-generation growth opportunity afforded by HS2 means that there is significant investment in the region; planners with commercial awareness and an understanding of investment decisions are essential to ensure that the West Midlands can capitalise on this interest.

Given the scale of development and regeneration, strong placemaking and design skills are also required in the West Midlands.

Planners with the ability to deliver housing, employment and even minerals planners to oversee planning for waste and recycling of materials are sought after, too.

Interview: Engage for change Sue Manns is regional director of Pegasus Planning and former National Planner of profession for Planning Aid England. She is the author of the RTPI/Planning Aid Good Practice Guide to Public Engagement in Development Projects.

The West Midlands has a long history of public engagement in planning; for example, Planning Aid was founded there in 1973.

We have great examples of how engagement can inspire communities and excite them. The Balsall Heath Neighbourhood Plan (a deprived inner-city area in Birmingham) attracted almost 2,230 votes and over 89 per cent support.

By contrast, a more ‘traditional’ consultation for the Birmingham pre-submission plan attracted 1,524 responses from a population of one million people, with many objections relating to development in the green belt. Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell was instrumental in getting the government to put the plan on hold – but did this action really reflect the views of most of his constituents, or

those of Birmingham as a whole?

Humans are programmed to resist change; in recent years we have been allowing those most likely to resist change to dominate the discussion. Most of those engaging in planning are over 55; under-35s are often absent. Response rates to pre-application consultations are typically around 3 per cent of those consulted directly. They are even lower for local plan consultations.

Yet, vital decisions on the future of our region’s villages, towns and cities are based upon this respondent profile. Would any other organisation do this?

The economy is ‘hotting up’.

There is a need for people of all ages and from all parts of the region to join the wider conversation about the shape and feel of the West Midlands as a place to live and work. We need to excite people in planning and the decisions that need to be taken if the region is to get ‘ahead of the curve’, and the appointment of a mayor who can open up this conversation is a great starting point.

Signposts RTPI West Midlands is governed by a seven-person regional management board (RMB) chaired by Craig Jordan, head of economic growth at Lichfield District Council. The RMB is supported by a 26-strong regional activities committee (RAC).

The region has four specialist groups: Young Planners, Urban Design, Planning Aid and International, as well as steering groups managing projects supported by the region. Mark Walton represents the West Midlands on the RTPI General Assembly.

The region has a successful programme of CPD events, round table discussions, a regional newsletter Tripwire, annual regional awards and other events. n RTPI West Midlands web pages, with news, newsletters, events, annual reports: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-west-midlands/ Annual review and business plans: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-west-midlands/ annual-report-business-plan/ n CPD programme, with topics ranging urban design to preparing for public inquiries: www.rtpi.org.uk/thertpi-near-you/rtpi-west-midlands/events/ n Young planners in the West Midlands: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-west-midlands/ young-planners-in-the-west-midlands/ Courses: there are two RTPI-accredited planning schools in the region at Birmingham City University and the University of Birmingham n Email: westmidlands@rtpi.org.uk n Twitter: @RTPIWestMids n Find your RTPI region: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you

Next month:

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DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

Decisions in Focus is where we put the spotlight on some of the more significant planning appeals and court cases of the last month – alongside your comments. If you’d like to contribute your insights and analyses to future issues of The Planner, email DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk HOUSING

Loss of social housing halts tower plan ( SUMMARY An inspector has blocked plans to replace a ‘shabby and tired’ 1960s building at Notting Hill Gate with a 17-storey mixed-use tower and associated buildings. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal covers a cluster of linked buildings near Notting Hill Gate Tube station in West London. They include Newcombe House, a large ‘slab’ tower described

by Kensington & Chelsea Council as an “eyesore”, and Royston Court, a five-storey building of 20 social housing units. Both parties agreed that the 1960s development is “shabby and tired” and in need of redevelopment.

The proposal, finalised The ‘tired and shabby’ 1960s Newcombe House in Notting Hill Gate

after four years of consultations, would see the development replaced with six buildings including a 17-storey tower, a ‘cubeshaped block’ and other low-rise buildings. These would house up to 46 flats, a GP surgery, and a public square flanked by luxury shops. The council rejected it over its design, harm to four conservation areas, and loss of social housing.

Inspector David Nicholson described the scheme as a “convincing ensemble” that would improve on the “very unattractive” existing buildings. He said the designs complemented existing buildings and each other. He said although the new building would be 50 per cent taller than Newcombe House, its “slender, slipped form” would provide “a degree of elegance” and dismissed concerns that allowing the appeal would set a

precedent for tall buildings.

The appeal site sits in a gap between four conservation areas. Nicholson found limited harm in some areas, balanced by enhancement in others, concluding that the design would be broadly in line with local policy, and would “fall well below the hurdle for substantial harm”.

He was less forgiving about the loss of social housing and not persuaded by the appellant’s argument that the scheme would only be viable in its current form.

He said there was no reason that an affordable element could not be provided. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Nicholson noted the benefits of the scheme, including step-free access to the Tube station, the reinstatement of Notting Hill farmers’ market in the proposed public square, and a new primary healthcare centre. But he said such effects could be delivered without losing social housing. Dismissing the appeal, he said “should not necessarily prevent the development going ahead” if the social homes provision was reassessed.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/K5600/W/16/3149585

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HOUSING

Care homes plan offers ‘illusion’ of independence ( SUMMARY A proposed assisted living scheme in Cranbrook, Kent, would offer only “the illusion of independent living”, ruled an inspector, and so should fall under Class C2 (residential institution), for which no affordable housing contribution is required. ( CASE DETAILS Tunbridge Wells Borough Council had argued that it should fall under Class C3 (residential), which would require the appellant to make an affordable housing contribution.

But inspector Richard Aston was not persuaded, noting that only those requiring at least 90 minutes of care a week would be accepted as residents, and that staff would be on call 24 hours a day.

Aston found that despite the “illusion of independent living”, the reality of the scheme would be “a tightly knit community unified by access to a dedicated enterprise of specialist care and security”. He said that the scheme should properly

I M AG E S | A L A M Y

21/07/2017 15:36

An inspector has approved plans for homes near Willaston after a landmark Supreme Court ruling

fall under Class C2.

In spite of siding with the appellant over its use class, Aston found other problems with the plan. He considered the site’s present openness important to the “visual and spatial relief” of the surrounding Goudhurst Conservation Area (CA). The proposed apartment block would appear conspicuous, particularly during winter when planting would not be in leaf, causing “less than substantial” harm to the CA. He also noted some harm to the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), considering that the artificial “squaring off” of the village boundary would detract from its organic quality. In light of this, he said the appellant had “somewhat underestimated” the scheme’s impact. ( CONCLUSION REACHED The council could only prove a housing supply of 2.5 years, however, because of the harm Aston had identified to the CA, he said the scheme’s adverse effects must be weighed against its public benefit. Although the benefit of accommodation for elderly people is significant in an area with an undersupply, it could not outweigh this harm. He dismissed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/M2270/W/16/3161379

HOUSING

Homes plan in Supreme Court case approved ( SUMMARY An inspector has approved plans for 146 homes near

Willaston, Cheshire, nearly four years after the scheme was proposed, after the local council’s legal challenge culminated in a seminal Supreme Court ruling on paragraphs 14 and 49 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). ( CASE DETAILS Two cases were ruled on

by Supreme Court justices, Richborough Estates v Cheshire East Borough Council and Hopkins Homes v Suffolk Coastal District Council. Both turned on paragraphs 14 and 49 of the NPPF, which refer to the presumption in favour of sustainable development and its relationship with out-of-date policies for the supply of housing.

In this case, Richborough Homes had submitted a proposal for 170 homes in August 2013. The application went to appeal a year later after East Cheshire Borough Council failed to determine it in time. The appeal, amended to 146 homes, was allowed, but the council challenged the inspector’s decision in the courts. This culminated in the Supreme Court ruling in May 2017 in favour of the inspector’s decision, ruling that the NPPF had been “accurately and correctly applied”.

The proposal was then resubmitted in light of the Supreme Court decision, now turning solely on paragraph 14 of the NPPF. This states that if local policy is not up to date, permission will be granted if the plan’s benefits outweigh its adverse effects.

As the council failed to prove a five-year housing supply, any of its housing policies in conflict with the proposal could be ruled out of date.

Assessing the scheme’s benefits, inspector J A Vyse

noted the considerable economic positives it would bring, including 70 building jobs and 15 more in the public sector, along with an estimated £1.1 million boost to the local economy and £1.37 million ‘new homes bonus’ for the council.

She also noted the benefit of 146 homes in an area suffering from a shortfall. On affordable housing provision, she found the scheme’s 30 per cent designation, although mandatory, should also be considered a benefit because it would meet “an acute need” and “leave the area better off”. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Allowing the appeal, Vyse called the scheme’s benefits “substantial”, finding that they would “resonate with the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development” and accord with the “principle thrusts of the framework”. She acknowledged that allowing the appeal would disappoint local people, but said “their views, important as they are, must be balanced against other considerations”.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/R0660/W/15/3135683

HOUSING

Old ‘nick’ to see a change of use ( SUMMARY An inspector has granted permission to change a former police station in St John’s Wood, London, into flats, ruling that despite a ‘deficient’ initial marketing exercise, the lack of demand to keep it for community/ social use has been proved. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a former police station in St John’s Wood. It was put on the private market in 2013 as part of a £500 million cost-cutting drive by the Mayor of London. According to the Westminster City Plan (WCP), social and community floor space will be protected, except when the existing provision is being “reconfigured to improve overall services”, and there is no demand for an alternative social use.

Although no new stations were opened, the money raised by the sales was “reinvested to provide more modern facilities and an enhanced service”.

The proposal seeks permission to change the building to C3 residential

AUGUST 2017 / THE PLANNER

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DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

use on the basis that enough marketing has been carried out to prove a lack of demand for an alternative social use. Westminster Council disagreed, saying the initial marketing exercise was unsatisfactory. A previous decision blocking the proposal was quashed by the High Court, leaving inspector Tim Wood to redetermine the case.

After an initial marketing campaign that ran for four months in 2013, the building was bought for £8.5 million, more than twice the guide price of £4m. Following this, marketing efforts continued for two years, and the campaign was relaunched in November 2015. This resulted in 120 enquiries and 30 building inspections, but no offers. The council was not satisfied with this process, saying the campaign had been unclear about the suitability of a social use.

Wood shared the council’s dissatisfaction with the initial campaign, noting that while the WCP does not specify how long marketing should be undertaken, the

four-month period seemed “inadequate” to prove the lack of demand. But he noted that marketing had continued after the sale with reference to social uses, and had been running for four years, “well in excess” of the council’s requirements.

He added that the fact considerable interest had been declared suggested that the marketing campaign had “hit the required target”, and the lack of offers made despite this showed that a social use is not viable. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Wood ruled that despite the “deficiencies” of the initial marketing exercise, it had now been proved that there is no demand for a social or community use for the building.

Noting that granting permission for a change of use to residential would not conflict with the WCP, he allowed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/X5990/W/16/3145237

An apartment in Clerkenwell has been denied unrestricted short-term renting

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HOUSING

Airbnb-style let would cause noise nuisance ( SUMMARY An inspector has blocked a change of use to allow unrestricted short-term renting of a central London flat, ruling that it would encourage parties and “staying up late” – disrupting neighbours’ lives. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a twobedroom apartment on the third floor of a six-storey block of flats in Clerkenwell, London. According to a government act ratified in 2015, planning permission is required for short-term lets of more than 90 days a year. The proposal sought permission for a change of use from residential to “self-service holiday accommodation” for a period of five years, which would allow unrestricted short-term letting.

Inspector Caroline Mulloy noted that this would conflict with the local core strategy, which resists developments that cause a fall in permanent housing supply. Mulloy was unswayed by the appellant’s argument that temporary permission would not cause a permanent loss. She said temporary permission is only allowed in cases where a “trial run” of the new use is required, or if circumstances will have changed by the end of the period, neither of which she considered relevant here. She added that even a temporary fiveyear loss of housing would undermine the council’s supply calculations. She

also cited concerns about the living conditions of neighbours, ruling that continuously changing occupiers would cause “potential increase in party activity”. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Mulloy noted the proposal’s modest benefits to the local economy and the additional income it would provide for the appellant, but she ruled that these were outweighed by the harm to public policy and neighbours’ living conditions she had identified and dismissed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/V5570/W/17/3171108

CHANGE OF USE

Chocolate factory conversion is in good taste ( SUMMARY A plan to restore the former Elizabeth Shaw chocolate factory in Bristol to create a mixed-use scheme including 135 homes will go ahead with no affordable housing, after an inspector ruled it would render the development “unviable in the current market”. ( CASE DETAILS The factory, in Greenbank, Bristol, was first occupied by the luxury chocolate company in 1915. The business departed in 2006, leaving the building empty.

Since then, the future of the site has been highly controversial.

After a number of schemes were successfully resisted by the community, the latest proposal sought I M AG E S | I STO C K

21/07/2017 15:36

Bristol’s former Elizabeth Shaw chocolate factory can be redeveloped with no affordable housing element

permission for a mixed-use development comprising 91 flats and 44 houses, along with about 2,000 square metres of commercial, business, leisure and community space.

New housing schemes usually include affordable housing provision of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent, but after undertaking a viability assessment, the appellant said that including affordable housing would render the project financially unviable.

After its own viability assessment came to the same conclusion, the council failed to reach a decision in time and the case was referred to inspector G P Jones, who assessed the appellant’s amended submission. This included a unilateral undertaking (UU) with four different planning obligations, to supplement its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) payment of just over £978,000. All four included contributions to street trees, fire hydrants and traffic management measures.

Obligation A offered only those commitments; Obligation B included an additional £45,000 towards local bus stop enhancements, Obligation C added the provision of six affordable rented units, and Obligation D included all of the above. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Jones ruled that despite the appellant’s offer, no amount of affordable housing would be viable, and so obligations

C and D should be ruled out.

Noting the concerns that had been raised by local people over the additional traffic the scheme would cause, he attached most weight to obligation B, which would bring most improvement to local public transport.

He noted the considerable net benefit of creating 135 new homes on derelict brownfield land. He allowed the appeal, subject to the contributions agreed in obligation B of the UU. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/Z0116/W/17/3166851

HOUSING

Homes scheme for heritage gem ( SUMMARY Sundridge Park Mansion in Bromley, a “heritage asset of the highest level” designed

by Regency architect John Nash, can be converted into 22 homes after an inspector found the works would improve the building’s setting. ( CASE DETAILS The grade I listed 18th century mansion and surrounding park comprise one of only four collaborations between Nash and landscape designer Humphry Repton. A home until 1900, it was a hotel and conference centre during the 20th century, before being vacated in 2014. Permission to convert the building into 14 homes was granted in 2011.

The latest proposal sought

permission to create 22 homes, as well as demolition and extension works, including a new car parking structure. The application was originally refused by Bromley council, which considered the scheme inappropriate on metropolitan open land (MOL), and possibly harmful to a designated heritage asset.

Inspector David Prentis disagreed with the council’s findings. He noted that the proposed two-storey parking structure to the rear of the house would allow the removal of a large area of hardstanding to its front, which had previously been used for parking – a net gain to the openness of the MOL. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Allowing the appeal, Prentis observed some evidence of loss and damage to the building’s fabric since it was vacated in 2014, so he considered it “highly desirable” that it should be brought back into use, and found that residential use would be most suitable.

The proposed alterations would be in keeping with the building’s overall design, and the changes to parking would improve its setting.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/G5180/W/16/3157888 APP/G5180/Y/16/3157889 APP/G5180/W/17/3171036 APP/G5180/Y/17/3171038

HOUSING

Flats allowed at former Sky HQ ( SUMMARY Four office blocks in Brentford can be converted to 297 flats under Class O of the General Permitted

Development Order (GPDO), after an inspector granted prior approval for traffic and transport issues. ( CASE DETAILS New Horizons Court in Brentford comprises buildings formerly occupied by broadcaster Sky. The proposal sought a change of use from class B1 (office use) to class C3 (residential) under Class O of the GPDO. The scheme required prior approval from Hounslow council on three issues: transport, contamination and noise. The council granted approval for all but the transport issue, saying the scheme would cause a harmful increase in traffic.

It cited the walking route to the nearest service centre, which involves crossing a six-lane A-road using an “unattractive” subway crossing or stepped bridge, saying residents would have to rely on cars. But inspector Olivia Spencer noted that there is a Tube station, plus food shops and other facilities within walking distance, and the speed limit at the main road crossing is 40mph. She said not all residents would take the same route, and the increase in outgoing traffic would be balanced by people no longer approaching the site to work there. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Spencer ruled that “at worst, there would be no significant change” in the volume of traffic to and from the site, and strong evidence to suggest the number of carborne trips would fall. The appeal was allowed.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/F5540/W/16/3165795

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INSIGHT

LLegal landscape THE CASE AGAINST FRACKING Estelle Dehon will shortly represent Preston New Road Action Group at the appeal against the decision to allow fracking in Lancashire.

How should we assess the impacts of fracking on climate change and public health? And how should the precautionary approach influence a grant of planning permission for fracking, given the state of scientific understanding? The Court of Appeal will consider these questions this month.

The legal challenge concerns the UK’s first approval for fracking for shale gas. Granted by the secretary of state last October after a six-week inquiry, this permits Cuadrilla to operate four fracking wells for six years at Preston New Road in Fylde, Lancashire.

Fracking, or high-volume hydraulic fracturing, entails wells drilled vertically for up to 3.5km and then horizontally for up to 2km. ‘Hydraulic fracturing’ – small explosions along horizontal wells – opens up cracks in the shale, followed by water, chemicals and small particles being forced into the cracks to release the gas. This, and some of the frack water, then flows back to the surface.

Rock fracturing from vertical wells is an established extraction process, but fracking began in the US in about 2000.

Just one fracking operation has taken place here – at Preese Hall, Lancashire, in 2011 (without planning permission).

Fracking is controversial.

It raises concerns about the

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Estelle Dehon potential for water pollution; climate change impacts from methane and carbon emissions; seismicity (the fracking of Preese Hall caused two earthquakes, which led to a moratorium on fracking); and public health impacts.

These last arise from pollution, noise, light and dust from drilling and HGV movements. The Preston New Road fracking site is on a greenfield site, 500 metres west of the village of Little Plumpton, and 360m from the nearest residential property.

The permission is for ‘exploration works’ – construction of the well-pad, drilling of four exploration wells and ‘initial flow testing’ over 90 days (during which any gas would be flared),

followed by 18-24 months of ‘extended flow testing’ (during which gas would be piped directly into the grid).

Given that the productivity of fracking wells diminishes steeply between five to 10 years of operation, one of the points that the Court of Appeal will consider is whether the extended flow testing is not ‘exploration’, but ‘production’.

Lancashire County Council initially refused permission in the wake of local and national opposition. Cuadrilla appealed and the resulting inquiry dealt with the usual planning issues – lack of conformity with the development plan and impact on amenity from traffic, noise and public health concerns.

The evidence was that the current state of scientific understanding indicates there are likely public health effects, but to what extent is not yet known, as fracking is still new.

“THERE ARE LIKELY PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACTS, BUT THE EXTENT OF THESE IS NOT YET UNDERSTOOD, GIVEN THAT FRACKING IS NEW, AND PROPER HEALTH STUDIES ARE ONLY JUST BEGINNING”

This argument was rejected and the secretary of state found that the application complied with the development plan; that noise, traffic and health impacts could be regulated; and that the application did not fall foul of the UK’s climate change obligations. Paragraph 120 of the Planning Practice Guidance on Minerals (PPGM) required the secretary of state only to assess the “exploration” phase and to discount any impacts from production.

Two High Court challenges followed. Preston New Road Action Group alleged that the secretary of state incorrectly interpreted the development plan and the NPPF, and that insufficient reasons were given for conclusions on landscape impact. Gayzer Frackman, whose home was damaged by the Preese Hall earthquakes, alleged a failure properly to assess the effects of emissions from the project, because of the failure properly to assess extended flow testing and because, contrary to the EIA Directive, paragraph 120 of the PPGM required the decisionmaker to ignore the likely significant effects.

He also said the scientific consensus about the lack of knowledge of health impacts meant a grant of permission was irrational in light of the precautionary approach required by EU environmental law: this requires permission to be refused where it is impossible to determine the existence or extent of alleged risks. These grounds, rejected by the High Court, form the basis of the appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Estelle Dehon is a barrister with Cornerstone Barristers specialising in environment and planning law, with a particular expertise in climate change

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LATEST POSTS FROM THEPLANNER.CO.UK/BLOGS

B LO G S The High Court has ruled that St Albans has not fulfilled the requirements of the ‘duty to cooperate’ with neighbouring authorities in preparation of its strategic local plan. This is fatal to the plan and its examination will not continue. So what now?

L E G I S L AT I O N S H O R T S Lessons to be learned from the St Albans High Court ruling Richard Butler St Albans City & District Council (SADC) submitted its strategic local plan (SLP) in August 2016. Last November, the inspector ruled that the duty to cooperate requirement had not been met and that SADC should withdraw the plan and undertake meaningful and effective discussion with neighbouring authorities.

SADC challenged this in the High Court, arguing that effective cooperation had been undertaken but that an impasse had been reached; St Albans maintained it is a separate housing market from neighbouring authorities and has differing views on housing need. SADC noted that the duty to cooperate was not a duty to agree and therefore there was no further requirement to cooperate.

The judgment confirms that the duty to cooperate has not been met.

SADC must now consider further legal recourse or accept the judgment and start again with its plan, providing evidence of effective working with neighbouring authorities.

A new plan is not likely for at least 18 months, leaving the current 1994 version of the St Albans Local Plan the prevailing development plan document.

This is bad news for the council as there is clearly a difference of opinion with neighbouring authorities.

St Albans says the housing need for the district is 435 dwellings a year; neighbouring authorities shared evidence of a need for St Albans of 710 dwellings a year. Future work will need to be more closely aligned with neighbouring authorities; particularly over housing need, green belt review and infrastructure requirements.

The need to maintain dialogue across boundaries This case is a reminder that the duty to cooperate requires continual and effective dialogue with neighbouring authorities during plan preparation over cross-boundary matters. Indeed, this may further promote the trend seen in areas for neighbouring local authorities to produce joint plans.

The former SLP contained four broad locations for residential development, releasing areas of green belt land for development.

Two were east of Hemel Hempstead, adjoining the neighbouring authority of Dacorum. The judgment will bring to the fore discussions on whether these sites will be counted as providing housing to meet the needs of St Albans district only, or whether a cross-boundary agreement will be established to recognise the growth to Hemel Hempstead as attributing at least in part to the housing needs of Dacorum. This, along with the need to resolve differences over evidence base matters, will load greater pressure onto St Albans to meet housing need in an area of high housing demand, housing affordability issues and significant green belt constraint.

There is simply not enough previously developed and non-green belt land for development; a more effective review of green belt land will be required. For an authority that previously considered itself to be a single housing market area, the question of a joint local plan with neighbouring authorities may be a level of cooperation too far.

Richard Butler is an associate, planning, at Bidwells

High Court sinks marine licence dispute The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has repelled a challenge against its decision to grant a marine licence for development at Brighton Marina.

Local resident Robert Powell claimed the MMO failed to consider whether phase two of the development, by the Outer Harbour Development Company Partnership, was an actionable interference with public rights of navigation under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. He also said the MMO was not empowered to issue a marine licence unless a harbour revision was also made.

But the High Court decided that the claimant had misunderstood the legislation, and ruled there was no statutory requirement to consider whether the effects on public rights of navigation would be actionable.

Mr Justice Colgate praised the MMO for going to great lengths to collect evidence on relevant navigation issues and for consulting extensively on the points raised by the claimant.

Powell v the Marine Management Organisation is available here: bit.ly/planner0817-mmo

Green belt error sends council to court South Cambridgeshire District Council has applied to the High Court after an administrative error led to the incorrect granting of planning permission for seven homes at Haslingfield in the green belt.

A decision to refuse the application was incorrectly entered as an approval into the council’s computer system. South Cambridgeshire said it had changed the process and introduced extra checks to make sure the problem does not happen again.

“We completely hold our hands up and have made a human error in this case,” said cabinet member for planning Robert Turner. “We process around 2,500 planning applications a year and we make every effort to avoid errors of this sort.”

The High Court is expected to rescind the approval within six to eight weeks.

Appeal court quashes Lough Neagh ruling The Court of Appeal has quashed a decision not to order an immediate halt to the unauthorised extraction of two million tonnes of sand a year from Lough Neagh.

Former Northern Ireland environment minister Mark H Durkan had served enforcement notices on dredging without planning permission. But the dredging companies were able to continue by appealing to the Planning Appeals Commission.

The Court of Appeal said this was the wrong approach and told the Environment Department to reconsider issuing a stop notice on the precautionary principle of securing definitive evidence the dredging causes no harm to the environment.

Friends of the Earth, which brought the challenge, said the dredging is “the biggest unauthorised development in the history of Northern Ireland and no bigger unlawful mine anywhere in Europe in a Special Protection Area”.

Lough Neagh has many environmental designations including an Area of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area under the EU Birds Directive, and is protected by the Ramsar Convention.

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

by Josh Rule at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

How we’re boosting the profile of planning to government JOSHUA RULE, COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER Planning can deliver the homes, jobs and infrastructure the nation needs

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“A week is a long time in politics”, said former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

So I wonder what he’d make of the past year, then?

An unexpected vote to leave the European Union has sent the UK down an uncertain and, at times, tumultuous path. Through all of this change and uncertainty the Institute has sought to promote the important role of planning to government. Members often ask us what we’re doing to ensure government sees planning as the solution rather than the barrier to many of the nation’s challenges, building more homes chief among them.

We publicly campaigned ahead of the election on four central themes the UK Government needed to act on to secure a successful future for Britain.

We demonstrated how planning can deliver the jobs, homes and infrastructure needed for a stronger, more inclusive future. Did we have an impact? A number of our proposals found their way into the Conservative and Labour Party manifestos. The Conservatives included reform of compulsory purchase orders, improved land market data transparency,

land value capture and a commitment to build more homes. Labour committed to properly resourcing the planning system, updating compulsory purchase powers and keeping the Land Registry public.

Since the election result, we’ve written to the secretary of state and ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government with straightforward solutions to the housing crisis. We’re also working with other built environment institutes on shared Brexit issues so that our combined voice and backing of 175,000 members gives greater weight to the messages we’re sending government.

But it’s not just about a short burst of activity around the election and Brexit.

During the year we’ve been responding to consultations and inquiries. Using our members’ expertise to contribute to the Industrial Strategy, Draft UK Air Quality Plan, draft Airports National Policy Statement and the housing white paper.

Again, have we had an impact?

The Institute’s recommendations put forward in written evidence and as an expert witness was included in the final report of the parliamentary inquiry into

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public parks. Similarly, our ideas were included in a parliamentary committee report on housebuilding and reflected in its recommendations. In addition, our call for more inclusive planning was echoed in a parliamentary report on disability and the built environment.

So what’s next? Well, we’re currently seeking meetings with new and reappointed ministers to continue demonstrating ways planning can contribute to delivery across the UK. In September and October we’re holding five events at the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservative Party Conferences both as a host and partner with other organisations. It is another opportunity, for us and our members, to engage with politicians, councillors and other built environment stakeholders. The RTPI-hosted events at the Labour and Conservative Party conferences are outside the secure zone, which means that everyone can attend.

We want to see our members there, to engage in the discussion and help us to champion planning.

Our President, Stephen Wilkinson, will continue his visits across the UK. He will have visited every nation of the UK and English region by the end of the year. He has focused on those areas left behind by the economic recovery – meeting with councilors and planners to see how they are creating the right conditions for sustainable and inclusive growth. His visits allow us to have influence in cities, towns and rural areas across the UK. There is always more to be done and I haven’t even touched on what we’re doing in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, where we’re working with the respective governments to promote a positive role for planning. As always, we want members to send through their ideas to publicaffairs@rtpi.org.uk about how we can continue to promote planning to politicians. n Read Planning for a Successful Future, the RTPI’s election manifesto:bit.ly/planner0817election n Read the Institute’s consultation responses: bit.ly/planner0817-responses n Sign up for our Labour Party Conference event: bit.ly/planner0817-labour n Sign up for our Conservative Party Conference event: bit.ly/planner0817conservative

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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 planning system in Northern Ireland

Emma Walker MRTPI ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR TURLEY When a planning application is submitted attention focuses on issuing statutory consultations rather than assessing the principle and design of development. A new approach could be that the design and principle of development is considered by planners (i.e. planning judgement) prior to technical consultations. This could minimise revisions and the need to re-consult.

Securing planning permission is often noted as delaying development, however, it is only the start of a process to implement development. Discharging planning conditions is fundamental to the delivery, yet in Northern Ireland there are no formal arrangements in place for the procedure. No fees are incurred and no time frames are set and such there is limited impetus on councils to deliver decisions.

The Strategic Planning Policy Statement (2015) was intended to provide a single planning policy document, however, the previous PPSs remain in place under transitionary arrangements until local plans are in place. Until then, we have an additional layer of policy and ongoing debates about the weight to be given to PPSs under transitionary arrangements.

COMMITTEE PRIORITIES: NOMINATIONS SUB­COMMITTEE Chair Ian Angus MRTPI explains three of the key duties of the sub-committee: We decide on Fellowship applications on behalf of the Board We make recommendations on Honorary Membership and the Gold Medal to the Board We ensure the best possible RTPI representation on external bodies is maintained The Nominations Sub-committee is responsible for scrutinising members’ applications for nomination to external bodies and co-options to the Board of Trustees, General Assembly and standing committees on behalf of the Board. It also considers applications for Fellowship of the RTPI and makes recommendations to the Board on nominations for Honorary Membership, the Gold Medal and Outstanding Service Awards. In 2017, the Gold Medal was awarded to Sir Terry Farrell in recognition of his outstanding achievements as one of the world’s most influential architects, planners and urban designers. The Sub-committee aims to ensure transparency in all these processes and that all candidates are treated fairly.

1 Upfront planning judgements

2 Introduction of a formal process and timescales for the discharge of planning conditions

3 Streamline regional planning policies to avoid duplication and provide a single point of reference

POSITION POINTS

WHERE SHOULD HOUSING GO? Savills’ report Making Planning Work with the Market shows it doesn’t just matter how many homes we build, but also where we build them. It explores this issue at a national level, and found a worrying shortfall in areas with the highest demand. The RTPI’s research analysed growth patterns in 12 city regions, such as Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, to see if new housing is near jobs and public transport. It showed some areas where growth was occurring in poor locations, creating costs and future risks. The RTPI will continue this research in 2018.

n The RTPI’s report: bit.ly/planner0817-mapping n Savills’ report: bit.ly/planner0817-savills

CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT The Committee on Climate Change’s latest report to Parliament shows the UK has made good progress in reducing emissions. But this has been driven largely by phasing out coal while emissions from transport and buildings are rising. The government now must set out policies to tackle this problem by supporting the planning of low-carbon built environments and investing in local public transport, walking and cycling, congestion charging zones to restrict polluting vehicles, and the coordination of development with sustainable transport infrastructure. The industrial strategy should also contain a mission to make all new buildings zero carbon.

n The report: bit.ly/planner0817-ccc

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NEWS

RTPI { I NT ERNATI ON AL I N FOC US : R T P I MEMBERS W OR KI N G AR OUN D T H E W O R LD Ishaku Maitumbi contributes to rebuilding post-conflict nations

Putting people back into planning PLANNING THEORY AND PRACTICE IN FOCUS

BY MIKE HARRIS, DEPUTY HEAD OF POLICY & RESEARCH

ISHAKU MAITUMBI MRTPI SPATIAL PLANNER/PROGRAMME MANAGER UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME NAIROBI, KENYA, WORKING IN SOMALIA Working in post-conflict countries – such as Somalia, you get to contribute to what the system will look like in decades to come in a way that you cannot in the UK, where the system and governance are well established.

This is very rewarding from a planning practitioner point of view.

I manage two United Nations Habitat programmes in Somalia, one strengthening local government to improve service delivery and the second supporting local government to provide solutions for the reintegration of returning refugees and internally displaced persons with a focus on urban settings.

As with most international organisations working in Somalia, I am based in Nairobi, Kenya, but I travel there frequently.

This usually means getting up at 3am for a 6am flight, followed by a full day’s work, and returning a few days later.

The working week in Somalia is Sunday to Thursday, so I often end

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up travelling and working at the weekends too.

Traffic, urban sprawl and limited public spaces are some of the challenging issues associated with Nairobi.

Better public transport would help to ease the traffic and the rail line to link Nairobi with the coastal city of Mombasa is a significant step in the right direction.

There are three things related to planners’ training and practice that could be strengthened to improve the profession.

First, equipping planners with substantive negotiation skills to better engage with developers in a constructive and meaningfully way. Second, better training in communication with politicians.

Third, a better understanding of how public investments are financed.

The best thing about being an RTPI member is the global prestige: everywhere I go, being an RTPI chartered planner gives me professional recognition.

What is the relationship between planning and making people’s experience, feelings and aspirations the goal of what planners do?

Does such a humanist approach challenge the supposedly rational, technocratic, evidence-based nature of planning practice (and indeed research about planning)?

In the latest issue of the Institute’s academic journal (vol 18, issue 2), published by Routledge/ Taylor & Francis, contributors to the (free to access) Interface section consider the place of humanism in planning.

Does it mean a different kind of planning for the 21st century, beyond the state-led and then market-oriented planning we became used to in the 20th century? If both of the latter, in their different ways, were all about efficiency, what does planning look like when we put human satisfaction and quality of life at the centre of it?

This also represents a challenge to planning research, suggesting a shift from the search for abstract and generalisable theories to recognising subjective human experience and viewpoints. In short, fewer stats and more stories.

Heady but important philosophical questions for the reflective practitioner to chew on.

Other articles in the issue echo this tension between top-down and bottom-up planning – in urban transport, the HS2 consultation, informal settlements, the temporary use of buildings by squatters, and neighbourhood planning.

Finally, readers can consider how we can measure and map mixed use, and how planning can create stronger markets for development (based on RTPI-commissioned research). n Read the latest issue at: bit.ly/planner0817-ptp RTPI members can subscribe to the journal for a significant discount: bit.ly/planner0817-subscribe

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21/07/2017 15:38

RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us BOOKING OPEN RTPI SCOTLAND ANNUAL CONFERENCE The 2017 Conference, The New Agenda: Planners as Visionaries, Facilitators and Enablers, is now taking bookings at www.rtpiconferences.co.uk.

The conference, to be held at the COSLA Conference Centre, Edinburgh, on Tuesday 3 October, will see engaging speakers including Jennifer Wallace of the Carnegie Trust UK, Andy Milne of SURF, and Anne McCall MRTPI, director of RSPB Scotland, debate planning for inclusive growth, social justice, and environmental sustainability. The evolving review of planning in Scotland presents a timely opportunity to make sure that these pillars of the New Urban Agenda agreed at UN Habitat III in Quito last year are embedded in our planning system.

SAVE THE DATE: RTPI’S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The RTPI’s Annual General Meeting will be held on 26 October during the RTPI’s General Assembly. All members are welcome and encouraged to attend. It is your opportunity to raise issues you consider important to the running and governance of the Institute. There will be more information closer to the date about the time and venue. You will need to formally RSVP to the RTPI’s Governance Manager when further details are released.

For more information visit: bit.ly/planner0817-agm2017

RTPI SHORTS

SCOTTISH PLANNING REVIEW ADVANCES

BY KATE HOUGHTON MRTPI, POLICY & PRACTICE OFFICER, RTPI SCOTLAND The review of the Scottish planning system has taken another step forward, with the Scottish Government publishing a position statement following analysis of the response to the January 2017 consultation paper Places, People and Planning. While the government has not committed to the contents of the planning bill at this stage, there is some clarification on what we can expect to see. The position statement invites comments by 11 August that go further than those already made during the original consultation stage, including on the Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Report.

The key points are: c The requirement for the preparation of Strategic Development Plans is likely to be removed, with more flexible Regional Partnership Working replacing them. c The government is minded to create a statutory link between community and spatial planning. c A right for communities to prepare their own plans is likely to be introduced, within the framework of the Local Development Plan.

More information about the FCC: tinyurl.com/planner0717-fcc Read about the RTPI’s new smart city-regions project: tinyurl.com/planner0717-smart-cities www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-scotland/events/ rtpi-scotland-annual-conference/

CALLING ALL YOUNG PLANNERS TO ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN MANCHESTER This year’s theme will delve into ‘Healthy, Happy Places and People: Planning for Well-being’. Tickets are still available, and we strongly suggest getting in early so you don’t miss out.

We are also currently seeking three Young Planners from across the UK and Ireland to speak at the conference on a topic such as housing, climate change or regeneration that’s important to them in our ‘Planner Soap Box’ session. If you are attending and would be interested in presenting, please send through an outline of your intended topic to marketing@rtpi.org.uk For details and to book your ticket visit: bit.ly/planner0817-ypc

RTPI NORTHERN IRELAND ANNUAL CONFERENCE: WOULD YOUR LOCAL PLAN WITHSTAND AN APPEAL? Planners will not want to miss hearing about the latest developments in Northern Ireland first hand. Our plenary panel includes Andrea Kells, Chief Commissioner at the Planning Appeals Commission, who will discuss the critically important new Local Development Plan system. Plus Mark Hand will explain how to use performance management to create sustainable places. The conference will also learn from beyond the Province’s borders including Paul Barnard, Assistant Director for Strategic Planning & Infrastructure, Plymouth City Council on delivering homes and on Delivering Marine Planning alongside Local Development Plans in Scotland – who were recent award-winners at the RTPI’s Awards for Planning Excellence.

Save the date now for the premier planning conference in Northern Ireland: Tuesday 26 September 2017.

More information: bit.ly/planner0817-rtpini

MEMBER DEATHS It is with great regret that we announced the deaths of the following members. We offer our condolences to their families and colleagues.

Philip Wright F Bridget Green Peter Smith Dawn Meeson Samuel Fisher David Woods David Ball Alistair Robson Robert Thomson Edgar Rose David Williams Derek Thorpe

South East South West Overseas West Midlands East England South East East England South East Scotland West Midlands South West South East

George Worthington

Northern Ireland East England West Midlands South West

Peter Golder David Slee Nigel Potts

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Recruitment { With an annual spend of £130 million per year, and a large number of exciting projects in the pipeline, Southend Borough Council are looking for the following staff members to join their successful Development Control Team. All of the positions come with an exceptional benefits package to include, free parking, competitive salary and pension.

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Planning Officers Management Grouping: Chief Executive Team: Growth & Regeneration Salary: £28,667 - £40,984 per annum (inclusive of market premium) Location: Bexleyheath Contract: permanent /36 hours per week Closing Date: 28th August 2017 Job reference: CEX0000031 This is an exciting time for the London Borough of Bexley; we are at the heart of regeneration and change as London moves east. The Planning Department is gearing up for growth and we are looking to attract ambitious planners; from graduates starting their career, to those capable of leading on major and strategic applications.

Reach the largest possible talent pool of RTPI candidates by advertising your planning vacancies in The Planner.

Investing in people is important to us, so we offer dedicated training and career development is essential to us.

These roles are key for the delivery of the Council’s strategic corporate priorities.

Working for us you will have the opportunity to make a real difference for our residents, securing ‘Growth’ with new homes and regenerating our town centres.

The ideal candidate will have relevant planning qualifications and eligibility for membership of the RTPI as well as experience of working within Development Management. You will be ambitious for new opportunities and want to work as part of dynamic and friendly team to meet the Borough’s growth ambitions.

If you’re looking for a new challenge, career progression, and a flexible, modern and accommodating working culture, come and join us on our Journey.

For an informal chat about these posts, please call Robert Lancaster on 020 3045 3342.

Please contact the recruitment team on 020 7880 6232 or email recruitment@theplanner.co.uk

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Bexley is a London Borough with big growth ambitions across the Borough and along Bexley Riverside. We also have award-winning parks, open spaces and listed buildings.

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INSIGHT

Plan B P

China’s massive investment in building a 21st-century trading nation in double-quick time has thrown up a rich melée of the spectacular and the whimsical.

On the side of the spectacular, for example, is the proposal for a new Silk Road stretching from China to Europe, which has been described as the biggest infrastructure project in history.

For whimsy, you need look no further than Thames Town, the exquisitely replicated British market arket town near Shanghai that is used d primarily as a backdrop for wedding dding photographs.

Harmful waste or harmless whimsy? In many ways, China has become the crucible for a contemporary built environment nt experiment that embraces both h the best and worst of planning and architecture.

So what should we make of the Panda Power Plant in Datong?

Yes, it’s a solar farm built by a company called Panda (Panda Green Energy). It’s also built in the shape ape

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of a panda (using different types of solar cell to replicate the panda’s markings). In fact, it’s intended to be the first of 100 green power plants to be built in the shape of pandas and other animals as part of the aforementioned new Silk Road initiative, to raise awareness of sustainability among young people.

Spectacular? Certainly – after all, it covers 250 acres (about 250 football pitches in modern parlance) and will have a final capacity of 100MW. That’s quite a lot, right?

Whimsical? It’s in the shape of a panda.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, right? After all, the world could generally benefit from a little less hostility and a little more whimsy, could it not?

Given the current government’s hostility to renewables, Plan B wonders whether solar farms shaped as animals might have more appeal to the guardians of our green and pleasant land.

Obviously, they would have to be archetypally British creatures.

We suggest a lion, rampant naturally. Or maybe a fox would be more appropriate.

I M AG E S |

THE PULL OF PANDA POWER

Will Self, also no stranger to whimsy, launched Vital Little Plans, and was typically acerbic as he launched a new collection of the shorter writings of Jane Jacobs in early July.

Riffing “paratextually” on Jacobs’ relevance to modern Britain, the novelist and built environment commentator was withering about the postwar direction of British urbanism. He reserved particular contempt for the Grenfell towers of the world and their “cladded barcode facades”.

“Oscar Wilde said there are no such thing as moral or immoral books; there are only good or bad ones,” noted Self. “I would contend that architecture is a different kind of art – a necessarily social art – and therefore there are moral and immoral buildings.”

He continued: “It may be that Grenfell represents the end of that and a consequence of the neoliberal vision of the city – place and space so absolutely commoditised that they are absolutely detached from physicality [i.e. the Jacobsesque idea that the physical form of the built environment expresses our ideas about how best to live].”

The British fail to do urbanism with any conviction, Self insisted, not least because of their persistent “uchronic” attachment to a pastoral idea of an England that never really existed, but which has been codified within Ebenezer Howard’s garden city ideal.

Throw in the Brits’ post-war efforts to reproduce a more modern Corbusian kind of urbanism and you get “banjaxed visions of the ‘city radieuse’”, In other words, which are e equally unconvincing. unconvinc our cities a are not very good as a cities.

So what works? Sadly, it’s not n a question that answered the night, although he Self answe ered explicitly on th that lent us a language and a did recall th hat Jacobs had len buoyant communality way of thinking thin nking about the bu of good cities citiies (“the sidewalk ballet”, “eyes on the street”)) that could inform contemporary city building.

Nevertheless, must be seen in a Nev vertheless, Jacobs m mid-20th context mid d-20th century American Am and a her work could not provide off-the-peg solutions to the urban soluti challenges of con contemporary Britain.

As Self observe observed: “The problems that London is faci facing now are new. And we need new comment.”

UNDP / ISTOCK

SELF ON CITIES

n Paws for thought: Tweet us - @ThePlanner_RTPI 24/07/2017 11:02

LANDSCAPE

THE MONTH IN PLANNING The best and most interesting reads, websites, films and events that we’ve encountered this month WHAT WE'RE READING...

WHAT WE'RE BROWSING...

Burn Out: The endgame for fossil fuels by Dieter Helm The economist, chair of the Natural Capital Committee and Oxford University Professor of Energy Policy reads the signs and argues that the fossil fuel age is on the verge of ending.

Thinking City Planner contributor Francesca Perry is compiling a fascinating selection of short verbal and visual essays that reflect her passion for contemporary (and inclusive) urbanism around the world. Here are pieces about cycling in Mexico City from Mexico, the linearity of Florida Keys and life under Birmingham’s Spaghetti Junction. Francesca is also cataloguing projects and campaigns that aim to improve the urban experience. bit.ly/planner0817-city

WHERE WE'RE GOING...

Each month the RTPI runs a range of free or low-cost events up and down the UK. Here’s our pick for the next few weeks. See the full calendar on the RTPI website bit.ly/planner0817-calendar

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING...

Baim homages to Britain Prolific director, producer and writer Harold Baim was the man responsible for the wonderful and unintentionally hilarious Telly Savalas-narrated cinema ads for Birmingham, Portsmouth, and Aberdeen in the 1970s. Over decades he recorded the minutiae of British life in a series of day trips.

Not to mention his European films and documentaries on Heathrow and the RAF. bit.ly/planner0817baim

Thomas More Tour – 500 Years of Masterplanning, August 7, London

Reimagining Hull – The City of Culture Lecture, 14 September, Hull

To mark the 500th anniversary of More’s Utopia, this guided walk will venture from RTPI HQ (just around the corner from where the Great Fire of London started) and thread through the post-1666 city, noting the influence of More’s blueprints, as well the many characters and dramas that are part of the story of the modern capital’s creation. bit.ly/planner0817-more

We reported on the hopes for Hull as UK City of Culture back in our January issue. Martin Green, CEO and director of Hull UK City of Culture 2017 will deliver the annual RTPI Yorkshire lecture, giving an assessment of the effect of the designation on Hull, as well as offering a wider view of the UK Cities of Culture project. bit.ly/planner0817-hull

WHAT WE'RE PLANNING...

The remainder rem of 2017 will see us looking at land reform, China’s gigantic One Belt, One Road Ro initiative, planning in Northern Ireland and Yorkshire, as well as our regular and analysis. If you’d like news, comment c drop us a line at to contribute, cont editorial@theplanner.co.uk editori

I M AG E | G E T T Y

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POCA in Planning Enforcement, 20 September, London Did you know the Proceeds of Crimes Act can be used by local planning authorities to seize assets such as property? Spend a day in the company of leading planning lawyers to find out the whys and wherefores. bit.ly/planner0817-poca

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Young Planners’ Conference 2017 3 - 4 November, Manchester Healthy, Happy Places and People: Planning for Well-being

BOOK NOW Tickets £142 + VAT www.rtpi.org.uk/ypc2017 #YPConf2017

Headline sponsors: Sponsors:

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