The Planner June 2017

JUNE 2017 DIVERSITY CHALLENGE THE GLOBAL NEED FOR INCLUSIVE URBANISM // p.22 • SUPREME COURT SETTLES DISPUTE OVER NPPF // p.26 • FOCUS ENGLAND’S NORTH WEST // p.34 • CAREER DEVELOPMENT: STARTING A NEW JOB // p.38

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

BLOCK CHANGE HOW BLOCKCHAIN COULD TRANSFORM PLANNING

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Young Planners’ Conference 2017

3 - 4 November, Manchester Healthy, Happy Places and People: Planning for Well-being

BOOK NOW Earlybird Tickets £105 + VAT ¿UVW ERRNLQJV

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PLANNER 07 18

CONTENTS

THE

JU NE

20 17

“DID ANYBODY ACTUALLY GET INTO THIS PROFESSION TO ENDLESSLY TRAWL THROUGH PDFS?”

NEWS

4 Small builders call for urgent stimuli to survive 6 Supreme Court issues ruling on NPPF paragraph 49

7 Welsh ministers consider new laws for national parks and AONBs 8 Air pollution plans plans: Government puts onus on local authorities 9 Burnham appoints Salford mayor to rewrite spatial framework 10 RTPI: HWP aims fail to ease chronic under-funding

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OPINION

14 Chris Shepley: The government’s bunker mentality makes for terrible targets 16 Peter Geraghty: UK planners show international leadership 16 Kat Salter: Time for change? Modifying a neighbourhood plan 17 Daniel Scharf: Government plans for reducing NOx shows how little it has learnt 17 Cynthia A Bowen: Planners must strengthen the ties that bind

FEATURES 18 Blockchain technology’s ability to publicly record everything of value has potential for planning

31 Tech landscape: 3D printing in planning

22 The global need for inclusive urbanism is pressing, says Francesca Perry

40 Decisions in focus: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

26 Views on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the disputed meaning of paragraphs 14 and 49 of the NPPF

22 34 Nations & Regions: North-West

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“ALL EYES WILL BE ON HOW BURNHAM WORKS WITH COUNCIL LEADERS ON THIS SPATIAL PLAN, AND HOW HE WILL SUPPORT THE REQUIRED HOUSING DELIVERY IN THE MEANTIME” DAN MITCHELL, PARTNER AT BARTON WILLMORE

COV E R I M AG E | S H U T T E RSTO C K

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INSIGHT

38 Career development: Starting a new job

14

44 Legal landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 46 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: Planning is almost always dictated by partisan political agendas

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NEWS

Report { MARKET DIVERSITY

Small builders call for urgent stimuli to survive

By Laura Edgar Three housing reports were published within days of each recently. Two focused on the reliance of volume house builders, while the other highlighted a perceived lack of support for small builders.

The House of Commons’ Communities and Local Government (CLG) committee concluded that the government must end the dominance of big housebuilders if it is to fix the UK’s broken housing market.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) accused the government of being too dependent on private developers to meet housing demand despite acknowledging England’s broken housing market in the housing white paper.

In Housing: State of the Nation, the PAC noted that the human costs of the housing crisis are emphasised by the “growing problem” of homelessness.

The number of families in temporary accommodation has risen from 50,000 in 201112 to 72,000 in 2015-16.

Even if the government meets its target to build a million homes (depending on the election result), the PAC said the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) acknowledges that it will not meet the actual level of housing need, “therefore problems of affordability and homelessness are likely to persist for years to come”.

In Capacity in the Homebuilding Industry, the CLG committee advises the government to support small and medium-sized builders to ensure a competitive market, proposals for which featured in the housing white paper.

It also called for improved access to

land and finance for smaller builders, with the government reducing the risk for them by preparing sites for development by providing infrastructure and planning permissions.

Small builders in decline “The housing market is broken, we are simply not building enough homes,” said committee chair Clive Betts. “Smaller builders are in decline and the sector is over-reliant on an alarmingly small number of high-volume developers, driven by commercial self-interest and with little incentive to build any quicker.

“If we are to build the homes that the country so desperately needs, for sale

Challenges to growth

The National House Building Council Foundation’s report Small House Builders and Developers: Current Challenges to Growth, suggests that: n 38% said a ‘sluggish, costly and inconsistent’ planning process poses a challenge to their business. n The lack of available land at a suitable price has become a more acute problem for small builders with 37% identifying it as their most serious obstacle for growth.

Both Shelter and the Local Government Association suggest that the private housebuilding sector could not be relied on alone to meet the demand for housing, says the Public Account Committee report

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n Although still a major concern for 20%, availability of finance has improved in the past two years, with more small builders obtaining finance from banks or private sources.

I M AG E S | G E T T Y / I M AG E S O U RC E

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PLAN UPFRONT The Department for Communities and Local Government noted that 60 per cent of new private homes are built by just 10 large firms

Council (NHBC) Foundation suggests that small firms are being driven away from housebuilding because of delays and rising costs in the planning system.

Small House Builders and Developers: Current Challenges to Growth notes that a third of those surveyed (nearly 500 firms who build fewer than 10 homes a year) have waited over a year for planning permission from a local authority while 80 per cent report a significant hike in planning-related fees in the past two years.

Land prices and for rent, then this dominance must end,” he added.

Increasing the number of small sites – as detailed in the housing white paper – will support small and medium-sized builders but they “must not come at the expense of developer contributions that provide necessary community infrastructure”, said the CLG committee.

RTPI head of policy Richard Blyth told the CLG committee that it is often harder to provide infrastructure if there are a number of smaller sites rather than one big site. “I am not convinced that the Community Infrastructure Levy is terribly effective at filling those gaps. On the large sites there have been some very impressive deliveries of infrastructure, which have come as a consequence of economies of scale.”

Blyth also illustrated the scale of recent reductions in resources in local authority planning departments – something the RTPI has been campaigning to increase.

The report says reduced resources in planning departments are a factor in many of the other challenges indentified, such as the prioritising of larger sites over multiple small sites, the time taken to process planning applications and the time taken to negotiate with developers.

The RTPI identifies the issue as being less of a skills gap, and more of a capacity gap, and says in most cases, “local planning services are surviving on the goodwill and professional integrity of the officers, but this may not be sustainable”.

While the calls for, and measures to support small and medium-sized builders are numerous – Brian Berry, CEO at the Federation of Master Builders, for one, has been vocal on the subject – a report by the National House Building

The report also says the lack of available land at a suitable prices has become more of a problem for small builders– 37 per cent identify it as a serious obstacle to growth. In February’s housing white paper the government announced that it wants to bring forth more small sites that are more easily accessible to smaller firms.

Neil Smith, head of research and innovation at NHBC, said: “While the planning process is recognised as a necessary control, small housebuilders and developers continue to express considerable frustration with it.

The increasing complexity, time taken to achieve a decision, and the unpredictability and inconsistency within the planning process are slowing the delivery of new homes and, in some cases, causing companies to leave this market.”

Smith said that greater certainty and more standardised approaches, clarity concerning the fees and tariffs and a more responsive service from planning departments “would increase predictability and significantly help to speed up the process, thereby increasing the number of homes built”.

The RTPI, said Blyth, has “long argued” that more needs to be done to support small to medium-sized builders.

“We must get them building again if we are to tackle this nation’s housing shortage, and under-resourced planning departments is one of the issues. There are also many other ways in which small and medium-sized builders could be given more work, such as building homes for councils, housing associations and even central government, without the need for planning permissions.”

Small and large sites should work together, said Blyth.

Recommendations from the CLG committee in Capacity in the Homebuilding Industry n The government, working with developers and local authorities, must ensure that data collected by local authorities on the development pipeline is more thorough and reliable. It must show how many planning permissions have been granted and what stage they are at, as well as who owns the land, when the permissions will be built out, and any reasons for delay. This should be done by autumn 2017. n Councils should be required to demonstrate that the additional income from the increased fees has been used to accelerate housing and other developments, and to publish this information on their website to give developers assurance that the additional costs can be justified.

The proposed second 20 per cent increase should incentivise all aspects of planning, not just the processing of applications. n The committee wants the government to ensure that in its response to the community infrastructure levy review, it considers the appropriateness of homes built using permitted development rights not contributing to local services, infrastructure or affordable housing. n Local authorities must show a commitment to the planning function and ensure there are incentives and support in place for employees who are seeking further training and formal planning qualifications, such as those facilitated by the RTPI.

n Capacity in the Homebuilding Industry is here: tinyurl.com/planner0617-capacity n Housing: State of the Nation is here: tinyurl.com/planner0617-developer

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NEWS

Analysis { PLANNING POLICY

Supreme Court issues ruling on NPPF paragraph 49

By Laura Edgar

This was the first time that the Supreme Court had considered the NPPF

In May, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the application and meaning concerning paragraphs 14 and 49 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), overturning the Court of Appeal’s interpretation of the phrase “relevant policies for the supply of housing”.

The ruling means appeals by Suffolk Coastal District Council and Cheshire East Borough Council against a Court of Appeal decision in March 2016 were dismissed.

The case began with a development in Cheshire and another in Suffolk, one was approved, and the other refused.

Neither council was at the time able to demonstrate a five-year supply of housing land as stated in the NPPF. On appeal, the Cheshire inspector decided that the council’s countryside and green gap policies were policies for the supply of housing and therefore “out of date” while the Suffolk inspector considered the settlement boundary and countryside policies to not be policies for the supply of housing and therefore found them to be “up to date”.

Both decisions were challenged on the basis the decision-taker had misunderstood the scope of the term “policies for the supply of housing”.

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years supply target is to be achieved. That is the narrow view”.

“In neither case is there any reason to treat the shortfall in the particular policies as rendering out of date other parts of the plan which serve a different purpose.”

According to the Supreme Court, the important question is not how to define individual policies, but whether the result is a five-year supply in accordance with the objectives set by paragraph 47. “If there is a failure in that respect, it matters not whether the failure is because of the inadequacies of the policies specifically concerned with housing provision, or because of the over-restrictive nature of other non-housing policies. The shortfall is enough to trigger the operation of the second part of paragraph 14.”

Like the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court said it is paragraph 14, not paragraph 49, that provides the The legal case brought the two together “substantive advice by reference to which – Hopkins Homes v Suffolk Coastal the development plan policies and other District Council and Richborough Estates material considerations relevant to the v Cheshire East Borough Council. application are expected to be assessed”.

The Court of Appeal’s This means permission judgment broadened the “THE [HOUSING] should be granted definition of the “relevant unless adverse impacts SHORTFALL policies for the supply of would significantly and IS ENOUGH TO housing” detail in paragraph demonstrably outweigh TRIGGER THE 49 of the NPPF so that it the benefits when assessed OPERATION OF can be taken to refer to against the NPPF’s policies THE SECOND all policies that create or taken as a whole. This would PART OF constrain land for housing also apply where specific PARAGRAPH 14” development, such as green policies in the NPPF indicate – THE SUPREME COURT belt designation. development should be Therefore, where a local restricted. authority cannot demonstrate The Supreme Court upheld an up-to-date five-year land the inspector’s decision from supply, these relevant polices 2014 that 146 homes could be were to be considered as not up to date. built on open land at the edge of Willaston, The two councils were permitted to near Crewe. challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision In Suffolk, the council refused in the Supreme Court – the first time the permission for a development of 26 Supreme Court has considered the NPPF. homes in Yoxford, which was upheld by It found that the Court of Appeal’s an inspector on appeal. The High Court interpretation of what “relevant policies quashed this refusal, which the Court for the supply of housing” means was of Appeal upheld. This must now be wrong. It said that the “straightforward redetermined. interpretation is that these words refer to the policies by which acceptable housing n Read the Supreme Court ruling here: sites are to be indentified and the fivetinyurl.com/planner0617-supremecourt

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

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PLAN UPFRONT

What they said: “The clarification that the Supreme Court has provided on those policies that affect the supply of housing where no local plan or five-year supply of land is demonstrable and is a positive step forward for the industry at large.”

Paul Campbell, joint managing director at Richborough Estates Jonathan Clay, of Cornerstone Barristers and a representative for Suffolk Coastal District Council, said it brings clarity to a complex and much fought-over area of planning law and policy and “asserts in the clearest terms the primacy of the development plan and the policies of the local plan through which local people can shape and protect their own environment while accommodating the development they need”.

Philip Ridley, head of planning at Suffolk Coastal District Council, said that while the appeal has been dismissed, the Supreme Court has “fully endorsed the key substantive points we were seeking to raise”.

“This is a victory for those of us wanting to follow a proper planning process and communities across east Suffolk will be greatly relieved, as it shows us the strength of the local plans and gives us a defence against inappropriate development in the future.”

Welsh ministers consider new legislation for national parks and AONBs The Welsh Government is considering legal changes to landscape protection regimes in place for national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

This follows the publication of a review of these designated areas by the Future Landscapes Working Group, chaired by Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

Ministers are considering whether greater weight should be given to the importance of such areas and their ecosystems in decision-making and whether governance arrangements should evolve to reflect local circumstances only.

The group’s report says designated landscapes should be the leaders of the sustainable management of natural resources in their areas and emphasises the importance of joint working to achieve this. It proposes “the development of a ‘place planning’ approach may be a means of meeting the need for innovative, place-based

collaboration that addresses economic and environmental challenges”.

“Place plans can represent a cultural shift, enabling appropriate development that supports national, local and community objectives for well-being," it says.

“The idea is to empower communities to enhance their influence over development sites, local distinctiveness, new green economy ideas and community infrastructure. This will be a community-led approach characterised by greater collaboration between authorities and communities, a better understanding of community needs and responsive delivery.

“Such an approach is consistent with the existing and emerging frameworks of local development plans, designated landscape management plans and area statements and is an opportunity to inform and influence their content leading to whole place plans.”

Pioneering forestry and land management law for Scotland The Scottish Government has launched its first forestry and land management legislation in the Scottish Parliament.

The Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Bill is designed to provide the country’s £1 billion forestry sector, which supports 25,000 jobs, with a modern approach to forestry development,.

New organisational structures for forestry in Scotland have also been announced. In combination, these changes will enable the government to better support the industry to create growth in the rural economy, mitigate climate change and develop the role forestry plays

in health, education and recreation.

The bill will mean forestry will be fully accountable to Scottish ministers and the Scottish Parliament and it should make more effective use of the country’s publicly owned land.

Separate from the bill, the government will create a new executive agency, Forestry and Land Scotland, as well as a dedicated forestry division within government.

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NEWS

Analysis { AIR QUALITY

LONDON CALLING

Air pollution plans: Government places onus on local authorities

By Huw Morris Every day 64 people in the UK die from nitrogen dioxide pollution.

It’s a staggering statistic quoted recently by Mr Justice Garnham, the High Court judge who threw out another government attempt to delay plans for improving air quality last month.

Air pollution causes 40,000 premature deaths a year, according to the Royal College of Physicians, including 23,500 from nitrogen dioxide.

The gas, primarily from diesel vehicles, has been at illegal levels in nearly 90 per cent of urban areas since 2010. The Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee branded the issue a “public health emergency” in April 2016.

The latest legal victory by environmental lawyers ClientEarth was its third against the government over its failure to tackle the crisis, with the Supreme Court and the High Court previously ruling the lack of an effective plan breached EU and domestic law.

Indeed, the High Court dismissed government plans as “illegally poor” last year.

The new strategy, duly published, is heavy on pledges to cheer from the sidelines but light on concrete action.

It wants local authorities to “develop new and creative solutions to reduce emissions as quickly as possible, while avoiding undue impact on the motorist”.

Among them is increasing the number

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of clean air zones (CAZ) from the six originally planned to 27. This would make the biggest impact on pollution and provide cost benefits of over £1 billion, says the government. The CAZ policy would cut 1,000 times more nitrogen dioxide than a diesel scrappage scheme – heavily advocated by environmentalists and the medical profession – even if that scheme requires diesels to be replaced by electric cars.

Crucially, the strategy does not

“AIR POLLUTION CAUSES 40,000 PREMATURE DEATHS A YEAR, ACCORDING TO THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS”

Air pollution is particularly bad in the capital. London breached its annual air pollution limit for the whole of 2017 in just the first five days last January. Chronic exposure shortens Londoners lives by between nine and 16 months, according to King’s College London.

In response, Mayor Sadiq Khan will force polluting cars to pay up to £24 a day to drive into the city when he creates an ultra-low emission zone in 2019.

commit to creating any of the 27 CAZs or to funding them or even to specifying any city or town. Moreover, local authorities should exhaust all other options before introducing CAZ charging for diesel vehicles, as will happen in London (see box), including retrofitting buses and removing speed bumps.

Reaction to the new strategy was at best underwhelming, at worst scathing.

ClientEarth chief executive officer James Thornton said: “It looks much weaker than we had hoped for,” and said his organisation would study the plan in detail.

“The court ordered the government to take this public health issue seriously and while the government says that pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health, we will still be faced with illegal air quality for years to come under these proposals,” he said. “There needs to be a national network of clean air zones which prevent the most polluting vehicles from entering the most illegally polluted streets in our towns and cities. We fail to see how the non-charging clean air zones, proposed by the government, will be effective if they don’t persuade motorists to stay out of those areas."

Jonathan Grigg, professor of paediatric respiratory and environmental medicine at Queen Mary University of London, sounded a similarly pessimistic note.

“Given that previous initiatives that have not directly targeted diesel emissions have failed dismally in the past, I am not confident that these proposed local interventions, however innovative, will achieve a step reduction in exposure of vulnerable populations, such as young children.”

I M AG E S | G E T T Y / I STO C K

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PLAN UPFRONT Mr Burnham says he is committed to addressing Greater Manchester’s housing crisis

Makeover mooted for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary The University of Edinburgh has filed a change of use and restoration application to transform the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary into a major educational hub.

The proposals involve extending the A-listed building to provide teaching and learning spaces, a major new public event space, library, café and bar.

The scheme is designed to offer 21,300 square metres of floor space, 6,000 square metres of which will be new-build.

Architects Bennetts Associates intend to optimise conservation of key features of the 19th century building including the retention and restoration of the stone walls, slate roofs and entrance hall.

New four-storey ‘infill buildings’ would be constructed in the two courtyards between the east and west hospital wards to provide space for lecture halls and teaching spaces.

Developers will also remove the existing gatehouse directly in front of the main entrance on Lauriston Place to make way for a new entrance square.

Burnham appoints Salford mayor to rewrite GMSF Greater Manchester’s new mayor Andy Burnham has appointed Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett to ‘radically rewrite’ the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF).

Burnham has appointed Dennett as the portfolio holder for housing planning and homelessness.

He will lead on refocusing Manchester’s housing policy to tackle the housing crisis as well as rewriting the framework.

Dennett will also work with the newly established Greater Manchester Homelessness Action Network to develop solutions to the problem and “ensure every Greater Mancunian has a safe and stable roof over their head”.

Burnham said he would oversee a “radical rewrite” of the GMSF. “I will keep those high ambitions for the homes and jobs we need but there will be a substantial reduction in the loss of green belt.

Our plan will build the right kind of homes in the right places.”

He also issued a call to developers to work with him to “revitalise and reshape” town centres.

“I want our towns to be residential centres that are fit for the future,” he said.

Burnham said Dennett, as Salford City Mayor, “is driving the development of social and affordable homes across the city”.

Dennett said refocusing the Greater Manchester Housing Fund as monies are recycled will be “critical to building truly affordable housing” and meeting housing needs.

RTPI close to establishing degree apprenticeship The government has approved in principle a proposal by the RTPI to develop a degree apprenticeship for chartered town planners in England.

This is the first step in creating an apprenticeship that would combine academic education with vocational training aimed at equipping future employees with vital skills as well as a degree.

School-leavers will be able to earn a wage from an employer while being sponsored to complete a full bachelor’s or master’s degree without paying fees.

Existing graduates or employees with no planning qualifications may be eligible.

The length of the course hasn’t been confirmed yet, although usually they are completed within six years.

The cost of a course fee is shared between the government and the employer.

Once the scheme has been developed and agreed in full, employers and universities offering RTPI-accredited planning courses can start to train the first

apprentices from as early as spring 2018.

The RTPI would support a trailblazer group to develop the standard and the end-point assessment for the degree apprenticeship. This group would include employers from the public and private sectors.

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NEWS

News { Report: NI housebuilding activity goes up a gear

1,760

new home starts between October and December 2016, an increase of 27 per cent on the same quarter in 2015 (1,381).

1,750 The number of new homes under construction across Northern Ireland was up by more than 25 per cent towards the end of last year, according to the most recent quarterly Housing Bulletin, just published by the Department for Communities.

new dwelling completions – an increase of 10 per cent on the same quarter in 2015.

1,568

new social housing dwelling starts in 2015/16.

€24m earmarked to bring Ireland’s vacant social housing into use

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The Irish Government has announced the latest round of funding, plus targets, designed to ensure that local authorities return a minimum of 1,400 void and vacant social housing units to productive use this year, at a cost of €24 million.

The move is a continuation of the government’s commitment under its social housing strategy to deliver 47,000 housing units by 2021 at a cost of €5.35 billion.

Housing minister Simon Coveney said: “Feedback from local authorities in respect of this programme is very positive. Since the introduction of the programme in 2014 valuable assistance has been provided to local authorities in dealing with vacant units and significant progress has been made in tackling the backlog.

“These measures will also greatly assist local authorities in achieving

quick turnaround and re-letting times for such units.”

Since its introduction in 2014 the Department for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government’s so-called Voids Programme has provided approximately €85million of funding, which has result in more than 7,200 properties being returned to productive use.

A key priority of this scheme is to rehouse homeless families in homes that have been restored to an energyefficient condition.

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RTPI: HWP aims fail to ease chronic under-funding The RTPI has expressed concern that measures in the housing white paper (HWP) that will see money from planning fees increases reinvested in local planning authorities may not be enough to mitigate years of under-investment.

Responding to the consultation proposals in the HWP, the institute welcomed the government’s plans to allow local authorities to raise fees for planning applications by 20 per cent to be reinvested in planning departments. If an up-todate local plan were in place, this would rise to 40 per cent.

The RTPI has called several times for the planning system and local planning departments to be properly resourced.

It is “concerned that these measures may not be sufficient to mitigate for years of underinvestment and resources need to be made available to enable the local planning authorities to cope with the demands” government policies will place on them.

The institute also greeted the government’s vow to join up development with infrastructure, and urged the government to work on this across departments.

It said while “there is growing recognition of the role of builders in delivery (or failing to deliver) the lack of cooperation from infrastructure providers (even when money is available) can be equally detrimental”.

It adds that the HWP fails to mention a mechanism to capture rising private land values to benefit communities. n Read the RTPI’s response here: tinyurl.com/planner0617-hwp

22/05/2017 12:47

LEADER COMMENT

Opinionn Planning and the middle of a chain reaction – You’ll read elsewhere in this edition about last month’s Supreme Court ruling on the disputed meanings of paragraphs 14 and 49 of the National Planning Policy Framework. The issue of what constitutes a “relevant policy for the supply of housing” has been debated back and forth ever since the NPPF first came into force back in 2012, so the Supreme Court’s decision has been seen by some as welcome clarification about the primacy of development plans. The Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court also said, had misinterpreted the phrase “relevant policies for the supply of housing”.

The critical question, according to Lord Carnwath, was not about individual policies but whether the result of their application is a five-year supply in accordance with the objectives set by the NPPF’s paragraph 47: “If there is

Martin Read a failure in that respect, it matters not whether the failure is because of the inadequacies of the policies specifically concerned with housing provision, or because of the overrestrictive nature of other non-housing policies. The shortfall is enough to trigger the operation of the second part of paragraph 14.”

The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal that paragraph 14, and not 49, provides the “substantive advice by reference to which

the development plan policies and other material considerations relevant to the application are expected to be assessed”.

All this came about as we were working on our feature this month on blockchain, a technology which – if the author has it right – could lead to a ‘post-document’ world in which the way governing authorities operate is revolutionised and many of the steps in the planning process automated. There are plenty of technologies with the potential to influence or boost productivity within the planning process, but blockchain – essentially a rock-solid verifiable

“PRESSURE ON BOTH CENTRAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES WILL FORCE FURTHER DIGITAL INNOVATION, AND ITS IMPACT ON HOW POLICY IS APPLIED COULD BE SIGNIFICANT”

transactional database ledger – could lead (among other things) to ‘next to live’ information feeds that could take, for example, the Supreme Court ruling and flow that out to interested parties. That’s as simplistic an explanation as there could possibly be for such a potentially life-changing technology, but you can read more about it on p.18.

Pressure on both central and local authorities will force further digital innovation, and its impact on how policy is applied could be significant. The Conservative manifesto (to pick but one potential governing party) talks of a ‘new presumption’ of digital government services by default. Indeed, our current government has already put considerable weight behind such concepts as building information models; doing the same with blockchain might unsettle some ‘middlemen’, but could prove beneficial and even liberating to the wider planning profession.

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CORRESPONDENCE

Inbox

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

Jerry Birkbeck — As I’m a more or less retired planner and landscape architect, a comment by Alice Charles in ‘RTPI Members Working Around the World’ (April issue) from Geneva resonated with my thoughts.

She said she would change planning education “to ensure courses provide students with adequate training in design, construction and engineering”.

It’s a sensible suggestion that needs to be taken up by all professions in the built environment.

It is evident that many planners working in development control in particular and local planning in general have a poor appreciation of the basic principles of good design and construction. When I trained as a town planner at the then Lanchester Polytechnic in the 1960s, design and construction was a main part of the course.

What is frustrating is that at Birmingham City University all four disciplines are on the same campus but there appears to be little interaction between them. I believe that planners are not so involved.

This is a nonsense if this is the case. To begin to achieve quality design, I’d recommend that the presidents of the RIBA, ICE, LI and RTPI meet to ensure that this is the target for undergraduate education and becomes standard in the UK. Jerry Birkbeck, retired

Ben Kite — The government’s draft air quality plan to tackle pollution rightly focuses on traffic emissions in towns and cities, where air pollution poses the

Two minutes with Phil Gibby

PHIL GIBBY is the SouthWest director of Arts Council England, and has worked for the organisation since 2010.

His background is in fundraising and communications, and he has previously held senior management positions at Welsh National Opera, Arts & Business and Bristol Old Vic.

How vital are the arts/creative industries to our towns and cities’ night-time economies?

“They play a critical role.

A report by Bucks New University into Bristol’s music scene last year suggested it was worth £123 million revenue and £45m gross value added to the local economy – and that’s only one component of the arts and cultural sector’s contribution to the night-time economy.”

What threats do they face?

“There’s a major existential threat to the night-time economy, and it’s planningrelated. Fifty per cent of venues in Bristol have been threatened by development, planning or noise issues, even though the housing white paper insists that existing businesses must be taken into account within the NPPF.” What is the Arts Council doing to protect the nighttime economy?

“We attach great importance to our partnerships with local government, and cultural

greatest public health risk. But there are only brief references to impacts in other areas and on the natural environment.

This strategy could have sought to make better use of the land use planning system in general as a tool to tackle air pollution in a holistic sense.

Much of the burden for delivering action is also placed

organisations, so naturally we’re interested in this territory. In the South-West we’re fortunate to be working with several local authorities, such as Southampton, Bournemouth and Plymouth, which place an increasingly high value on how culture can help shape place, and deliver against economic and social imperatives.

“Maximising the potential of the night-time economy is a significant element in that.

We’re developing a paper on place, planning, and public realm work – in particular, we want to warm up our links with planners and design bodies, and all of this should feed into our thinking on cultural development as a driver for place.”

What are creative industries looking for from planners?

“We’re looking for the great leap forwards, and planners would probably say the same too of cultural and creative organisations. The main challenge isn’t a set of entrenched issues that are

on local authorities, risking a disjointed approach across and between different areas.

There is little new guidance for planners and environmental practitioners on how plans to reduce air quality impacts can be implemented in practice, on a local level.

In view, for example, of the recent High Court case

difficult to reconcile – it’s the absence of a common language. There’s certainly a role for us to play in that, for example, in terms of further developing the sector’s understanding of local and neighbourhood plans.”

How open are local authorities to adopting the ‘agent of change’ principle?

“The ‘agent of change’ idea is critical to the night-time economy and I think political support can be built for it in most places. I don’t hear of many locations that don’t want stronger creative and cultural sectors, and stronger nighttime economies, and ‘agent of change’ ought to be an effective tool to achieve that.

“The challenge is that for many developers it can feel like an obstacle to progress, while local authorities generally have less time and capacity than they would like to bring it into play. How this dynamic evolves over the next year or two will be a major test in terms of whether local authorities and developers are seen as enablers of, or barriers to, a successful night-time offer.”

How effective are measures such as the register of Assets of Community Value? Do you have any examples of where measures above have worked?

“Nothing tangible yet in terms of night-time economy, but it will be interesting to see how this develops in locations such as Torbay, which is developing an Assets of Cultural Value register as part of its Great Places programme.” n www.artscouncil.org.uk

quashing housing provisions set out by Lewes District Council and the South Downs National Park Authority due to inadequate consideration of potential in-combination effects on a protected area, this leaves a lot to chance.

Ben Kite, managing director of ecological consultancy EPR

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CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion The government’s bunker mentality makes for terrible targets “Have you seen the Gazette?” asked Mr Khan while examining his trousers, which were warm and damp after a substandard drying cycle.

“It seems they’ve sneaked their reporter into the secret nuclear bunker up the road.”

They were all agog as he explained that the bunker was being used by a small group of target-setters from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Their target was to come up with as many new and challenging targets for local authorities as they could. The Gazette described an underground lair full of whirring machinery, flashing lights, glamorous CLG operatives in sleek overalls gliding around the cavernous space with bundles of randomly generated objectives, and a fearsome Chief Target Setter in a large armchair stroking a white cat.

Security was tight. But apparently one of the bunker’s staff had won two tickets for Macbeth with Jasper Carrott at the Gaiety, and the spottyfaced youth who made up the Gazette’s entire team of reporters had managed to penetrate the ring of steel to deliver the prize.

“Haven’t the council got enough targets?” mused Mrs McTavish. “I don’t think there’s a man alive who’s got enough ink in his cartridge [knowing Mrs McTavish, this was probably not a euphemism] to print out a full list.”

Mrs Braithwaite agreed.

“They’ve certainly been successful over the years, these bunker people,” she said. “I was reading the housing white paper in bed

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“THE COUNCIL STRUGGLES TO MEET ITS PRESENT TARGETS – NEVER MIND ANY NEW ONES” last night and it includes even more of them.

“For example, it suggests two classics: ‘make clear that on top of the allowance made for windfall sites, at least 10 per cent of sites allocated for residential development in local plans should be sites of half a hectare or less’, which is a bit of a mouthful, and ‘national planning policy should expect local planning authorities to seek a minimum of 10 per cent of all homes on individual sites for affordable home ownership

products‘, though only on sites over 10 units or 0.5ha. Which is not very ambitious, to say the least. I think both these fall foul of the launderette list of terrible targets.”

“Let me remind you of some of those,” said Mr Khan.

Despite his deficiencies in the trouser-drying department, Mr Khan was hot on modern administrative practices and, while Mrs McTavish wrestled with the powder, he enumerated inter alia: “No 1: targets set nationally for things which should be determined locally: not everywhere is the same as everywhere else.

No 3b: Measuring things that can be counted at the expense of equally important things that can’t, e.g. number of houses but not quality or character. And No 7: unintended consequences, e.g. prioritising the wrong thing, or making poor decisions just to

meet a deadline.”

“The council struggles to meet its present targets – never mind any new ones,” said Mrs Braithwaite. “For two reasons. One is that there is more work. The other is that there are fewer people. These, taken together, seem to me to be plausible reasons. Oddly enough CLG’s own agency, the Planning Inspectorate, has unsurprisingly been missing targets in recent years, for similar reasons.”

“I noticed the paradoxical fact that the secretary of state has been missing his own targets for dealing with called in and recovered cases,” said Mr Khan, surveying his slightly singed trousers. “Apparently he has a new target (the old one, which a former chief planning inspector tells me they used to have 15 years ago, having presumably been quietly dropped). But it’s been reported that fewer than 20 per cent of cases have been inside the statutory threemonth target recently.”

They wondered if the spotty-faced youth could find his way back into the bunker and point this out.

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

22/05/2017 11:01

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“They (garden towns) are not towns at all, in fact several are simply blobs of urban sprawl outside more than one existing town” AUTHORS OF A SMART GROWTH UK COALITION REPORT ON THE GOVERNMENT’S PROGRAMME FOR GARDEN TOWNS AND VILLAGES FINDS THERE IS LITTLE TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM TRADITIONAL GREENFIELD SPRAWL

“All eyes will be on how Burnham works with council leaders on this spatial plan, and how he will support the required housing delivery in the meantime” DAN MITCHELL, PARTNER AT BARTON WILLMORE, ON WHAT NEW GREATER MANCHESTER METRO MAYOR ANDY BURNHAM WILL NOW DO WITH THE GREATER MANCHESTER SPATIAL FRAMEWORK

“I find some difficulty in ascribing the term ‘landscape’ to a site comprising two fields” INSPECTOR KAREN L RIDGE TAKES ISSUE WITH ONE PARTICULAR COUNCIL’S A ARGUMENT

“Just when you think you’re at the top, you see how much further you still have to go... one false summit after another, with each getting more difficult to tackle” NICOLA BARCLAY,, HOMES FOR SCOTLAND,, LIKENS HOUSING DELIVERY TO CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN

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

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“There’s no silver bullet to solve the housing crisis” IAN THOMAS, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT LENDINVEST, HOPING TO “DRIVE MOMENTUM BEHIND INDUSTRY INITIATIVES TO INCREASE SECTOR SKILLS, ENHANCE THE VOICE OF THE PROPERTY SECTOR AND ULTIMATELY PUT MORE HOMES ON BRITISH STREETS”

J U NE 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

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22/05/2017 14:03

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

O Opinion

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Peter Geraghty, is former RTPI president and current director of planning for Southend Borough Council

UK Planners show international leadership

While th the focus of planning in the UK is on the housing crisis it is easy to forget the role planners play internationally. Urban settlements account for only 2 per cent of the Earth’s surface, and yet are inhabited by more than half of the world’s population and consume 75 per cent of the world’s natural resources. By 2050, the world urban population is expected to double, making urbanisation one of the 21st century’s most transformative trends.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underpinned by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seeks to create a sustainable future for all citizens (of particular interest to planners is SDG 11 –relating to cities).

This places planners at the heart of delivering the 2030 Agenda.

The RTPI recently endorsed the Commonwealth Association of Planners’ Fiji Declaration (November 2016). It urges Commonwealth governments to implement the New Urban Agenda and SDGs, calling on them to recognise the crucial role of planning to deliver these international commitments. The Fiji Declaration developed at the first major international planners’ conference after Habitat III, draws attention to SDG11 in particular.

The RTPI, with the Royal Institute of British Architects and Institution of Structural Engineers, has formed the UK’s first

Kat Salter is an independent consultant and PhD researcher at the University of Reading

Time for change?

Modifying a neighbourhood plan

advisory group to offer built environment expertise to global humanitarian crises (UKBEAG).

UKBEAG was launched at an event in October 2016 attended by the British Charge D’Affaires during Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador. UKBEAG brings together the expertise of more than 100,000 built environment professionals in more than 150 countries.

Through UKBEAG, the institute is playing a key role in the Global Alliance for Urban Crises.

Launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016, Istanbul, this is an innovative partnership of 65 groups – from local authorities, the humanitarian sector, professions, and academia – that have joined forces to prepare for and respond to urban crises.

Rapid and unplanned urbanisation is exacerbating the effects of a range of natural and humanmade disasters. Armed conflict in densely populated areas causes death and injury among civilians, and earthquakes inflict devastation on cities, as does severe weather. The alliance promotes a vision of inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and towns, as expressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It recognises that planners can play their part in achieving this by providing valuable expertise not only at times of crises, but also in helping to future-proof urban settlements and supporting sustainable development.

“BY 2050, THE WORLD URBAN POPULATION IS EXPECTED TO NEARLY DOUBLE”

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2 BLOG

BLOG

Governm Government support for neighbourhood neighb planning continues with the Neighbourhood Planning Act gaining Royal Assent in April. It includes proposals to speed up and simplify the process, but will they have the intended effect?

Let’s take modification of neighbourhood plans as one example. The law enables a local planning authority (LPA) to modify a plan if the proposed change is minor and will not materially affect planning applications. But it is unlikely that the required revisions to plans will fall into this category, so it is difficult to see the circumstances in which this legislative tweak would apply.

By last October nearly 40 per cent of neighbourhood plans were ‘made’ in advance of an up-to-date local plan and while communities are encouraged to align their strategies and evidence base with the emerging local plan, it is not imperative. Communities not adopting this sequential approach may find that policies in the emerging local plan override those in their neighbourhood plans and render them out of date.

And for groups that have engaged with an emerging local plan this too may be changed during the examination process.

Lichfields found 48 per cent of plans adopted post-NPPF had their housing requirement

increased. In the South-East, of the three LPAs with the most ‘made’ neighbourhood plans, one local plan has been withdrawn and two examinations are suspended owing to a shortfall in housing.

Town planners understand that one is unable to rest on the plan alone and if the LPA cannot demonstrate an adequate housing land supply, neighbourhood plan policies and allocations could also be undermined.

Many neighbourhood plans are becoming out of date owing to wider changes in planning – including the government’s aim to boost housing.

They are likely to require substantial modification, necessitating the neighbourhood to repeat the whole process because the plan needs to speak for the wider community and be robust and deliverable. Funding is available for groups and the LPA to support this process and it should be quicker the second time round – but I doubt that will reassure many about the benefits of neighbourhood planning.

Engagement in neighbourhood planning needs to be designed, communicated and embraced as a continuing process.

Otherwise, groups could find that over time government and local authority objectives will have more influence and their own willingness to engage may erode.

“ENGAGEMENT IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING NEEDS TO BE DESIGNED, COMMUNICATED AND EMBRACED AS A CONTINUING PROCESS”

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22/05/2017 11:02

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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Daniel Scharf is a planning adviser at Blake Morgan LLP

Government plans for reducing NOx shows how little it has learnt

The gove government has reluctantly published Improving Air Quality: publish Reducing Nitrogen Dioxide in Our Towns and Cities (link below) with responses required by 15 June.

It is claimed that this plan is no better than the original that the courts rejected, and would not adequately deal with a problem that causes deaths of UK citizens at an annual rate equivalent to the Battle of the Somme. There is also a special legal duty of care to children whose lungs and brains are being irreversibly harmed.

The government continues to propose the wrong answers to the wrong questions.

The harm being caused by diesel and petrol engines (and dust from brakes, roads and tyres) as well as the noise and harm to life and limb, will not be removed by the bid by the Conservative government to place the responsibility on local authorities to reduce NOx in a few isolated locations and roads through designating clean air zones (marginally less dirty zones).

This challenge is an opportunity to move quickly to a clean, safe, reliable, affordable and fair transport system. Lower maximum speeds in urban areas and on the strategic road network, (the technical report behind the proposals says that 50mph is the optimum speed) would trigger a virtuous circle creating these new conditions.

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BLOG

Cynthia A Bowen is director of planning at Rundell Ernstberger Associates, a US planning, landscape architecture and urban design firm. She is also president of the American Planning Association (APA)

Planners must strengthen the ties that bind

The alternative (as per the plan) would be to continue with a dirty, dangerous, unreliable, expensive and inequitable transport system that becomes an increasing burden on people, business and the environment. The government needs to learn the lesson of the past 45 years during which NGOs have predicted and prevented environmental disasters, and understand that looking after its people involves taking responsibility for the protection of the environment.

Casualties on a wartime scale fully justify a proportionate response in terms of the industrial capacity (repowering of transport and clean power generation) and acceptance of the associated behaviour changes.

The move to a road transport system based on low emission and autonomous vehicles will engage planners in ensuring that the potential benefits are realised and the harm, especially to disadvantaged groups, is minimised.

Obvious implications would be less need for road space parking and for residential and commercial developers to be obliged to provide electric vehicles and charging points. Other changes could be associated with maintaining access to facilities and jobs through a transition during which the speed and distance in the movement of people and goods is falling. tinyurl.com/FMW0617-air

“GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO PROPOSE THE WRONG ANSWERS TO THE WRONG QUESTIONS”

The APA w wrapped up its national planning conference on May 9, 2017. What was evident was that, 2017 no matter where planners were from, we are faced with trying to figure out what to do during these times of political, social and economic uncertainty.

Around the United States, a trio of crises demand our attention.

First, too many people have too little opportunity. Second, there is an erosion of trust, of faith in the institutions that bind communities together and less trust in the role of public servants, experts – even in data and facts. Third, there’s a weakening of a true sense of community.

These challenges are counter to planning’s core values of open and inclusive communities, broad public engagement, policies protecting the public interest and, indeed, civic life generally.

In today’s political climate, planners must reaffirm their commitment to planning and dig in to fight the good fight.

It’s these types of challenges that force us to find new ways to do our jobs, and different ways to communicate what we do.

We need to reframe why planning is important and what it can do. There are times when we need to step back and change our approach to a situation or change our expectations.

After all, we shouldn’t expect to change someone’s political point of view because that isn’t

going to happen. Instead, we need to change the lens through which they see their world. It is up to us to tell the planning story.

Planners excel at seeing the world from multiple points of view, and at communicating the same points many different ways depending on the audience.

Planning has a special obligation to confront these challenges. Many of the really big drivers of today’s uncertainty – persistent inequality, climate change, migration, rapid urbanisation, slow economic growth, faster technological change, and limited policies for inclusive growth are rooted in a lack of connection to qualities of place and community.

How we continue to develop and redevelop our cities, neighbourhoods, towns, and infrastructure has a direct bearing on how we solve those problems. As community budgets and federal resources get tighter, we can help our communities use the dollars they have more wisely by bold, well thought-out planning to address each of these problems. We can look at ways to make our communities more efficient by helping them identify critical infrastructure to invest in that promotes development, diversify land uses to create core mixed-use nodes, creating public spaces that people are connected to and identify with, and ensuring that our communities are more resilient and more prosperous.

“AROUND THE UNITED STATES, A TRIO OF CRISES DEMAND OUR ATTENTION”

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T EC H N O LO G Y

BLOCK CAPITAL DEVISED FOR THE DIGITAL CURRENCY BITCOIN, BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY HAS CREATED THE BACKBONE OF A NEW TYPE OF INTERNET AND ITS POTENTIAL TO PUBLICLY RECORD EVERYTHING OF VALUE HOLDS OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PLANNING COMMUNITY. RONAN O’BOYLE EXPLAINS

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T EC H N O LO G Y

Ledgers have forever been at the heart of commerce, most prolifically in the recording of money and property. So it’s not too much of a leap to imagine the new distributed ledger system, blockchain, as continuing to play a vital role as these sectors modernise.

There has been much speculation about how blockchain could contribute to a more efficient and less labour-intensive property industry. In whichever role it is put to work, the sequential and time-dependent nature of blockchain can assist in creating ‘next-to-live’ information feeds and an ever increasing archive of information on all aspects of the built environment.

When introduced to new technologies we are often too conditioned by existing frameworks to imagine how far reaching the implications could be. The UK development and planning system presents a similar obstruction, bringing with it the weight of its own legacy.

However, if we ignore these existing constraints – that we still work with paper documents or PDFs; that we rely on a frustratingly large and varied number of different sources of information – then

we might be able to imagine a post-document world in which every ‘transaction’ becomes a chance to share a multitude of valuable data. Rather than being locked up in individual documents, it’s information that would be accessible and transparent yet also unalterable and verifiable.

In such a scenario, when ownership of a property changes hands the transaction would be instantly processed through the verification of all parties involved in an unalterable database. This transaction could contain digitised, traceable, accessible and transparent details of the asset in question – the price paid, former owner, new owner, floor area (and thus price per square metre), construction date, floor plan, number of rooms, room type, environmental performance certificate… the list can go on and on.

If we were thinking of collecting this information using today’s mindset, we might imagine a convoluted set of forms that get saved as PDFs into a private folder until the owner wishes to sell the asset. It is indeed difficult to think about this information being represented as anything other than black on white.

“WITH EACH TRANSACTION WE BUILD UP MORE AND MORE COMPARABLES AND REAL­TIME INFORMATION”

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T EC H N O LO G Y

What if we could actually see this data?

Companies like software developers City Zenith, which has launched Smart World (“the all-in-one data platform for the built environment”), give us an idea of how powerful an interactive 3D city model, with embedded data, can be.

So, what if our example transaction above was the very first transaction after this particular blockchain system was ‘switched on’? What would a 3D model of the UK, populated by the information attained in blockchain transactions, look like? Initially it would be pretty empty – we would probably find a lone, ghostly volume, floating a few stories above the ground. But it wouldn’t take long. When a house down the street is sold, we’d have another volume (firmly on the ground this time). Then, more apartments are quickly sold nearby. These aren’t just hollow floating masses materialising to build a virtual environment – they’re a goldmine of data connected to an ever-growing network.

A good comparison would be with building information models (BIM).

In BIMs, each selection contains data about that part of the model. Selecting a wall would show the construction materials, possibly the phase of construction that it will be delivered in, the building regulations it meets, and so on.

Why should a property transaction be any different? It can contain any information that the system demands of it. And similarly, as with a BIM model that many users can collaborate on, conflicts are raised if all users on the network cannot verify the data.

With each transaction we build up more and more comparables and real-time information that soon allows us to see trends developing across the entire construction market. This is an autonomous

world, populated by the transactions in the blockchain, verified by the parties involved.

We would have a live indicator of price paid for each property type, in each location (so long, extortionate consultancy reports!). We would have up-to-the-minute indicators of sustained price growth in a location and/or property type (so long, speculation!).

Companies like Built-ID (formerly Industry Hub) are attempting to ‘digitise’ word-of-mouth by incorporating valuable data about the contributors to each property development. The property itself and all those involved in the development are linked. This information could be yet another data requirement for property transactions, whether they be planning applications, tenders, contracts or leases. If these were required to include information on suppliers in a blockchain system, they would be confirmed by all parties involved and automatically updated.

“THE WORLD (OR THE TECHNOLOGY THAT DRIVES IT) WILL NOT WAIT. WE WILL SOON BE IN A POST­DOCUMENT WORLD”

Back to reality What would this take? Not as much effort as you might think. We only have to look to our everentrepreneurial colleagues in Sweden to realise that blockchain technology is manifesting itself in solid applications within the property industry.

So the question is whether we are satisfied with continually retrofitting current systems to meet growing challenges, or instead can those with the authority be brave enough to start anew?

The world (or the technology that drives it) will not wait. We will soon be in a post-document world and those not prepared to adapt, or not prepared to at least make the necessary decisions to adapt, will suffer from inferior efficiencies.

Here’s how blockchain can potentially revolutionise planning.

BLOCKCHAIN EXAMPLES IN REAL ESTATE/PLANNING

Dubai Smart Dubai recently announced that it wants Dubai to be “the first blockchain-powered government in the world by 2020”.

It is running a series of workshops to educate the public and private sector so that pilot projects can begin later this year. The desired outcome is to make government services more efficient and help promote enterprise in Dubai.

This will be attempted through converting all government documents to blockchain.

The Dubai government estimates that blockchain technology, could save 25.1 million hours of economic productivity each year, while reducing CO2 emissions.

Netherlands As a result of market stakeholders expressing the need for a central transaction database, StiVAD, the foundation for real

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estate data, was founded in 2011. Cadastre (the Dutch land registry agency) and StiVAD have since signed an agreement to work on a register for real estate transactions.

Sweden The Swedish National Land Survey and a blockchain start-up, ChromaWay, have recently finished a pilot project using blockchain and smart contract technology to model a property purchase with the aim of evaluating the potential from a legal, business and IT perspective.

What is noteworthy about each of these examples is that they come out of innovative, forward-thinking environments and are made at a national level. The impact of blockchain is indeed at the national level. This also points to the gravity of the embedded issues it could possibly address.

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22/05/2017 15:16

What is blockchain?

Blockchain technology was invented to create the peer-to-peer digital currency, Bitcoin, in 2008. It is an open, distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list (aka, ledger) of ordered records (called ‘blocks’).

These records/blocks are generally transactions between two parties. Each ‘block’ (or entry in the ledger) contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block (hence, chain). The data cannot be altered retroactively.

Each transaction, and hence timestamp, is created by the approval of a distributed peer-to-peer network of computers/ servers – an encrypted consensus – allowing for autonomous management.

Transactions are thus recorded efficiently, in a verifiable and permanent way for all on the network to see – removing the need for a ‘middleman’/central authority/third-party.

The ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically, i.e. ‘On payment of gross sum, pay VAT to HMRC’.

Blockchain is thought of as the second generation of the internet – an internet of value, rather than of information alone.

A blockchain transaction can be used to record any exchange or interaction. Other current uses include identity management, voting, file storage, and energy management. Potential uses include issuing passports, collecting taxes, assuring the supply chain of goods, etc. It holds tremendous potential for a wide variety of industries, including property and urban planning.

appropriate agencies (and their data) could be consulted almost instantaneously and sequentially.

National, regional, local, neighbourhood level authorities, as well as organisations like Historic England and the Environmental Agency, could all contribute to approving an application.

Consultation The approval necessary by multiple actors ensures that the data will be transparent to all parties involved. This will go a long way to tackling issues of trust and information asymmetry that currently exist.

Plan Making/Evidence Bases Individual plan policies and/or designated sites could be updated one by one (remember, no more documents!). I don’t think it is too far-fetched to imagine that policies could be directly linked to their relevant evidence base. As this updates, so does the policy. It is quite evident from these examples that many of the profession’s more mundane tasks could be replaced by this new technology. This is indeed exciting, but I am more excited about what a planner is in this new world. What would you do with this ‘free’ time and with all this knowledge at your fingertips? I hope you would feel empowered. And I hope our cities and communities would reap the benefits.

Planning Concerns Blockchain’s perceived power lies in its ability to revolutionise the way As with all new technologies the logistics still need to governing authorities operate. So the most profound effect for the be worked out. The impact of widescale blockchain planning industry will likely manifest itself on the public sector side. implementation could be devastating for existing This is not necessarily something to fear in light of the massive industry ‘middlemen’. Also, running a blockchain resource challenges facing local planning authorities. In fact, as we system could result in massive energy use; one estimate believe at Urban Intelligence, emerging technologies will free people is that running it would take as much energy as running up to engage in value added tasks. (After all, did anybody actually get Denmark (energy requirements to run bitcoin are into this profession to endlessly trawl through PDFs?) comparable to that of electricity use in Ireland).

At each stage of the planning process there are steps that could be And there are regulatory issues. Who sets the automated through the correct application of a blockchain system. The standards that are necessary so that the system can role algorithmic technologies that enable the basic blockchain approach out effectively? What are those standards? How do they can be modified to incorporate rules, ‘smart contracts’, digital differ from industry to industry? Again, this is inevitably signatures and an array of other new tools. All of these elements allow a national/supranational concern and should be for the digitisation and automation of standard processes that do not addressed as soon as possible. require the time or resources now diverted to them.

For example, before purchasing a site the buyer could have a much Conclusion more indicative picture of whether the site can attain planning Blockchain offers a world of instantaneous trustworthy permission by accessing a standardised database of policy relating to interactions and thus system-wide change. But it will that particular site and development proposal. Crucially, this would need swift and adequate buy-in from governing also assist in financial feasibility assessments; the section 106, CIL authorities to reap the benefits. This will only be and any other necessary contributions or alterations would be clearly possible with the assistance of private sector visible from the outset (the payment procedure could also companies and dynamic public private benefit from blockchain). Of course, planning permission “THIS NEW partnerships. in the UK will probably never be a tick-box scenario alone.

TECHNOLOGY It’s not enough for the profession to keep But if the data on a development is structured in a way WON’T END a watchful eye on these developments. We that it is readable, i.e. it knows it is in a flood risk zone, CAREERS; IT WILL should all embrace and push for these then a vast array of issues could be dealt with before the OPEN UP NEW changes. And if we do, this new technology planning officer receives the application for approval (a OPPORTUNITIES won’t end careers; it will open up new Flood Risk Assessment will have satisfied this condition).

FOR GROWTH” opportunities for growth.

Approval The advantage of using a distributed network like Ronan O’Boyle is director at property tech blockchain to approve a planning application is that all the start-up Urban Intelligence

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I N C LU S I V E P L A N N I N G

CHALLENGE ‘IF WE CANNOT NOW END OUR DIFFERENCES, AT LEAST WE CAN HELP MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DIVERSITY’, SAID PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY. MORE THAN 50 YEARS ON, THE NEED FOR INCLUSIVE URBANISM ACROSS THE GLOBE IS EVEN MORE PRESSING. FRANCESCA PERRY, EDITOR OF THINKING CITY, EXPLAINS

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Much like ‘sustainable’ and ‘resilient’, ‘inclusive’ has become a buzzword in planning. The UN’s New Urban Agenda, agreed at Habitat III last October, commits to addressing global inequality through inclusive urbanism. Similar to a new year’s resolution list, the agenda paints a utopian picture – but as we well know, the reality can fall short.

Without rigorous implementation, each member state can interpret inclusivity in their own way. So what should it look like, and why should planners pay attention to it?

“Accessible, inclusive cities allow everyone to participate equally,” says Dr Victor Pineda, president of disability rights organisation World Enabled and adjunct professor of city and regional planning at the University of California at Berkeley.

As an expert on disability rights, policy, and planning, Pineda established the Global Network for Disability-Inclusive and Accessible Urban Development, mobilising 130 organisations to lobby UN members for explicit commitments on accessibility. The built environment can be enabling or restrictive. Some 15 per cent of the global population lives with a disability, but the world is still not fully accessible.

“Cities often burden people who have difficulties walking, hearing, seeing or remembering, [and

“IF WE VALUE DIVERSITY, IF WE VALUE ALL HUMAN BEINGS EQUALLY, THEN WE WILL BUILD OUR CITIES IN A WAY THAT REFLECTS THESE VALUES”

prevent them] from participating equally in public life,” says Pineda. “The problem is not with the person, but with the way the environment is designed. Planners must engage with a diverse set of people with disabilities – and there should be a strong commitment to universal design as well as robust enforcement and monitoring mechanisms.”

Borås in Sweden won the European Commission’s 2015 Access City Award, having committed resources to achieving “a Borås accessible for all”.

Here, accessibility of public facilities is guided by a dedicated strategist and advisory officer, working alongside a disability advisory board. Public transport is free for disabled and older people; buses and bus stops are accessible to people with mobility and vision difficulties; pedestrian crossings have level access, acoustic signals and tactile guidance, and a specialist mobility service is provided. The municipal government provides subsidies to make private housing accessible for people with disabilities and a scheme to install digital ‘locks without keys’ in 3,500 apartments and 2,000 entrance doors gives greater personal security to older people.

A model for inclusivity But inclusion is more than access. An inclusive place ensures that all people – regardless of age, race, faith, ability, income, gender or sexual orientation – are catered to, and their rights respected. It is a flexible place with safe and accessible healthy public spaces, widespread and affordable public transport, adequate play provision, safe space for cyclists and pedestrians, walkable neighbourhoods, wheelchair and buggy-accessible public realm, public seating, gender-neutral public toilets, visual and aural navigation for those who are blind and deaf or have dementia. It is mixed-tenure development, affordable housing, and community facilities that respond to a diversity of needs. It is a place where design takes well-being and mental health into account, and where socialising is encouraged.

Some groups can feel more excluded from the built environment than others, so planners need to think about including these more vulnerable populations. Socially marginalised migrants and homeless people often experience disproportionate difficulties accessing basic services and housing.

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I N C LU S I V E P L A N N I N G

Les Grands Voisins (great neighbours), a neighbourhood project launched in 2015 in Paris, has rehoused more than 300 formerly homeless people, as well as 300 West African migrants. The project – managed by non-profit organisations Yes We Camp, Aurore and Plateau Urbain with permission from the city municipality – transformed a disused hospital “for the common good”. Aware that housing alone cannot foster integration, the project acts as a community hub with social spaces, inclusive events (such as open-price communal meals), a public campsite and affordable workspaces for 200 social enterprises and artists.

Les Grands Voisins aims to be a model of a truly inclusive community, where groups of people with varied backgrounds can thrive in a neighbourhood that supports them and their skills. But the project is not permanent; it closes at the end of 2017. The area is being developed into an ‘eco-neighbourhood’ (part of a wider city programme of green residential districts that support economic development and social diversity) with 600 housing units (50 per cent social housing), public facilities and shops. Some emergency housing will be relocated – a permanent 75-bed shelter is planned – but most will have to move out.

Jean-Baptiste Roussat, president of Plateau Urbain, explains: “Les Grands Voisins was conceived as a temporary occupation, and we are working with the developer of the new project and

Borås in Sweden won the European Commission’s 2015 Access City Award

the public authorities in order to learn from the experiment and think about what could be replicated in future.”

Meanwhile projects cannot deliver longevity, but they can harness the risktaking power of temporary occupation to demonstrate the case for different forms of planning. “Les Grands Voisins demonstrates that social, economic and cultural projects can be mutually beneficial,” adds Roussat, “and a new kind of collaboration between public authorities and private actors is possible.”

Local voices, local lives Involving a diverse and representative mix of communities in planning also helps support inclusive places. Listening to all

“STOCKHOLM IS IN PART A SEGREGATED CITY… WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THE CITY’S DEVELOPMENT IS INCLUSIVE – AND URBAN PLANNING IS A KEY TOOL IN THIS”

local voices not only helps make a place that supports a diverse range of people, but also creates a strong sense of co-ownership, contributing to better use and maintenance.

“Inclusivity is about a wide range of people feeling a sense of belonging in a place, feeling connected to it emotionally and that they have permission to use it,” says Catherine Greig, founder-director of participatory design studio make:good.

“Participation is the route to fostering these feelings, so the more inclusive the participation, the more inclusive the place.”

Making Husby safer for women

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Husby, a suburb in north-west Stockholm in Sweden, has attracted attention for its ‘feminist urban planning’ approach to public safety.

A project centred around 600 new homes and improved public spaces was developed in close dialogue with 2,000 local residents – and addressed a gender imbalance in public space created by a low sense of safety among women.

The city council’s housing arm held workshops with female

residents to discuss where and how they felt unsafe and what they wanted to see change. As a result, improved street lighting and pedestrian walkways will help create safer routes through public space.

“Stockholm is in part a segregated city,” mayor Karin Wanngård explains. “We need to change this.

We need to make sure the city’s development is inclusive – and urban planning is a key tool in this.”

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Stockholm runs a ‘feminist urban planning’ initiative

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Vulnerable or minority groups are often victims of assault in public space, so safety is critical to supporting inclusivity. The Because I am a Girl urban programme from Plan International, Women in Cities International and UN Habitat, holds workshops with girls and women in cities around the world to identify and map what could enhance their sense of safety. The findings inform planning policy.

“We need a multitude of perspectives in participation to ensure we are building inclusive cities,” says Kathryn Travers, director of Women in Cities International.

“It’s crucial that women and girls are consulted. Gender gaps in cities lead to exclusion in public spaces. In some cities, up to 90 per cent of women experience daily sexual harassment in public space.”

Outreach enables diverse participation: a poster inviting feedback is not enough – sensitive, face-to-face engagement helps ensure that a representative spread of people are listened to, especially those who tend to be excluded by traditional planning processes.

A Stockholm suburb attracted attention recently for a so-called ‘feminist urban planning’ initiative, based on listening to residents, which is making the neighbourhood a much safer place (see Making Husby safer for women).

“The same approach won’t work with every demographic,” says Greig, “but if you use a range of activities you can reach a diverse audience and build a much broader understanding of what is needed for local people beyond the usual suspects. Planning needs to be more than public meetings and exhibitions for it to be truly inclusive.”

A mixed profession Diversity of the profession itself is also crucial. “Professions that mirror the diversity of the society they serve have a much greater chance of creating a built environment that suits that society,” states Design Council Cabe’s ‘Inclusion by Design’ guidance.

A diverse industry also improves the diversity of participation, as it helps breaks down notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’.

“Promoting inclusivity is good for all of us,” says Chris Ricot of Planning Out, a forum set up in 2016 for LGBT+ professionals in UK planning. “We want to build on the planning sector’s reputation for inclusivity and acceptance.”

According to 2010 census data, 81

Planning for dementia In the UK, 850,000 people live with dementia, and the number is rising.

In 2013, the Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia Action Alliance launched the ‘dementia-friendly communities’ scheme, publicly acknowledging places for becoming more inclusive.

A more dementia-friendly built environment is distinctive, legible, familiar, accessible and walkable.

“To tackle the challenge of dementia in cities, city design should ensure neighbourhoods retain their unique identities and landmarks to help those with the disease to better recognise their surroundings,” says Help Age International. n Read the RTPI’s practice advice on Dementia and town planning: tinyurl.com/planner0617-dementia

per cent of American planners are white.

“Generally African-American and Latino planners are vastly underrepresented compared to their presence in the population,” says Leonardo Vasquez, of the American Planning Association’s Latinos and Planning division. “But organisations that are inclusive of diverse perspectives inspire their workers to share insights and work together to create solutions.”

Currently 8 per cent of the RTPI membership is BAME. But last year the RTPI Trust created four bursaries to increase diversity in the profession by helping high-achieving students from

diverse backgrounds or living with a disability to study planning and gain chartered membership.

Inclusion is not a strategy that can be signed off and forgotten about: as our society changes – and technology plays a bigger role in it – exactly how we ‘include’ people has to be continually interrogated.

It is not just planners’ responsibility, but the profession has a powerful role in influencing policy.

Momentum is building: in April, a parliamentary report called on the government to take a lead on improving access and inclusion in the built environment. On 21 June, world experts will meet at the RTPI Planning Convention to address how planners can help to build a more inclusive future.

“The built environment is shaped by our social values, so our cities are the physical manifestations of our values,” says Pineda. “If we value diversity, if we value all human beings equally, then we will build our cities in a way that reflects these values.”

n Francesca Perry is founder and editor of Thinking City https://thinkingcity.org/. She will be hosting a session on planning and the media at the RTPI convention on 21 June. www.theplanningconvention.co.uk/

“LES GRANDS VOISINS DEMONSTRATES THAT SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL PROJECTS CAN BE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL”

Les Grandes Voisins neighbourhood scheme in Paris I M AG E | F R E DDI E S E N G OMONA Y E S W E C A M P

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PLANNING LAW

ENLIGHTENED JUDGMENT A SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT ON THE DISPUTED MEANING OF PARAGRAPHS 14 AND 49 OF THE NPPF SUGGESTS THAT THE PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT OF INSPECTORS SHOULD PLAY A GREATER ROLE IN DETERMINING THE MERITS OF APPLICATIONS IN THE ABSENCE OF A FIVE­YEAR HOUSING SUPPLY

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D As reported on page 6, the Supreme Court has issued a judgment on the disputed meanings of paragraphs 14 and 49 of the National Planning Policy framework (NPPF).

Together, these paragraphs outline the conditions under which local housing policies can be overridden by the presumption in favour of sustainable development.

But they have been interpreted differently in multiple legal cases.

In February 2017, two test cases were considered by the Supreme Court for final judgment, issued in early May. We asked two planning lawyers connected to the cases for their thoughts on the judgment.

Trevor Ivory is UK head of planning for DLA Piper and represented Hopkins Homes in the case of Hopkins Homes v Suffolk Coastal District Council. The decision to dismiss the appeal was quashed and will need to be redetermined.

What is a relevant policy for the supply of housing is a debate that has dominated housing planning appeals since the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. The phrase is at the heart of the relationship between the requirement for councils to maintain a five-year supply of deliverable housing land (paragraph 47) and the presumption in favour of sustainable development (paragraph 14) – or so we thought.

Paragraph 14 of the framework requires planning applications to be determined in accordance with the development

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“AS FROM TODAY, THE CRITICAL QUESTION IS WHETHER A PLANNING AUTHORITY CAN DEMONSTRATE A FIVE­YEAR LAND SUPPLY”

Suffolk Coastal District Council had opposed a development by Hopkins Homes for 26 houses

plan unless the development plan is absent, silent or out of date, in which case planning permission should be granted unless either the adverse impacts of so doing significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits (the “tilted balance”) or specific policies of the framework restrict development.

Paragraph 49 indicates that relevant policies for the supply of housing should be deemed out of date (no matter how new and therefore up to date they are) in the absence of a five-year land supply. Once those policies are deemed to be out of date, the tilted balance is triggered (in the absence of any specific framework policies restricting development).

Up until now debate has raged in planning appeals and the High Court about which policies are caught by paragraph 49 and so are of less weight in the decisionmaking process. Councils struggling to demonstrate a five-year land supply and desperate to resist unwelcome housing proposals have argued for a narrow interpretation of the phrase, while the promoters of housing applications have argued for a wider interpretation that catches any policy that affects the supply of housing.

Until now, the promoters of housing have had the upper hand. Not only has the secretary of state adopted the wide interpretation but, with a couple of notable exceptions, so has the High Court and, early last year, so did the Court of Appeal in its landmark judgment in the case of Hopkins Homes v Suffolk Coastal, in which DLA Piper acted for Hopkins Homes.

Now the Supreme Court has had its say after Suffolk Coastal DC appealed against the Court of Appeal’s

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Cheshire East Borough Council opposed Richborough Estates’ plan to build more than 100 homes at Willaston

decision. Five of the UK’s top judges have unanimously rejected the council’s appeal, although in doing so it adopted a very different approach to that of the Court of Appeal.

The judges disagreed with the Court of Appeal and adopted the narrow interpretation but, more importantly, decided that the categorisation of policies was, as Lord Carnwath put it, “inappropriate and unnecessary”.

He criticised the legalistic approach of deciding whether a policy is a housing supply policy or not, saying: “The important question is not how to define individual policies, but whether the result is a five-year supply in accordance with the objectives set by paragraph 47. If there is a failure in that respect, it matters not whether the failure is because of the inadequacies of the policies specifically concerned with housing provision, or because of the over-restrictive nature of other non-housing policies. The shortfall is enough to trigger the operation of the second part of paragraph 14.”

The judgment renders paragraph 49 irrelevant.

As from today, the critical question is whether a planning authority can demonstrate a five-year land supply. If not, the second limb of paragraph 14 is triggered and the decision-maker will need to have regard to the extent to which particular policies of the development plan are the reason for the underperformance when deciding what weight to give to those policies in the application of the tilted balance – regardless of whether they are housing supply policies or not.

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Simon Ricketts is a co-founder of Town Legal LLP. Town Legal acted for Richborough Estates in the case of Richborough Estates v Cheshire East Borough Council. The permission was upheld. Views expressed are personal.

“THIS IS THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND TELLING US TO BE LESS LEGALISTIC ABOUT THE WAY WE FRAME OUR ARGUMENTS AS TO THE APPLICATION OF NATIONAL AND LOCAL POLICIES TO DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS”

The Supreme Court only hears cases that raise points of law of general public importance and this was the first time that issues concerning the NPPF had come before it. The case was heard by five Supreme Court justices, with Lord Carnwath giving the lead judgment, and Lord Gill offering a separate judgment.

As Lord Carnwath wrote, the appeals provided the opportunity for the court “not only to consider the narrow issues of interpretation of para 49, but to look more broadly at issues concerning the legal status of the NPPF and its relationship with the statutory development plan”.

The hearing debated the legal status of the (non-statutory) NPPF and the source of the secretary of state’s power to issue national policy guidance as to the determination of applications and appeals.

Despite the lack of any statutory basis, the court pragmatically held that he did indeed have the power, which arose “expressly or by implication, from the planning acts which give him overall responsibility for oversight of the planning system”.

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PLANNING LAW

What does the NPPF say? The paragraphs at issue Paragraph 14: At the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework is a presumption in favour of sustainable development, which should be seen as a golden thread running through both plan-making and decision-taking.

For plan-making this means that: n Local planning authorities should positively seek opportunities to meet the development needs of their area. n Local plans should meet objectively assessed needs, with sufficient flexibility to adapt to rapid change, unless: • any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in this framework taken as a whole; or • specific policies in this framework indicate development should be restricted.

For decision-taking this means: n Approving development proposals that accord with the development plan without delay; and n Where the development plan is absent, silent or relevant policies are out-of-date, granting permission unless: • any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in this framework taken as a whole; or • specific policies in this framework indicate development should be restricted.

Paragraph 49. Housing applications should be considered in the context of the presumption in favour of sustainable development. Relevant policies for the supply of housing should not be considered up to date if the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites.

The court stressed that the NPPF is is unmistakeable,” he writes, referring no more than “guidance” or a “material to “the futility of authorities’ relying in consideration” for the purposes of section development plans on the allocation 70(2) of the 1990 Act: “It cannot, and does of sites that have no realistic prospect not purport to, displace the primacy given of being developed within the five-year by the statute and policy to the statutory period”. development plan.”

This is the highest court in the land The distinction between interpreting telling us to be less legalistic about the the meaning of words (a matter for the way we frame our arguments as to the courts) and the application of guidance application of national and local policies (exclusively a matter for the planning to development proposals. We have all authority and inspectors) is stressed in perhaps been guilty of seeking too often Lord Gill’s separate judgment. to reduce matters of planning judgment to The court drew the analogy with a narrow points of legal interpretation. It is a policy for the supply of employment land, habit we need to break. which may become out of date because The court stressed the expert role of of a new source of employment in the inspectors. Of course, not all decisions are area. Whether it is out of date, and what taken by inspectors. Is the same latitude should be the consequence, are matters of to be given to local planning authorities’ planning judgment, including any effect decisions, whether given on or against on other related policies. officers’ recommendations, or to those Competing policies may need to be of the secretary of state? The point is given less weight, but “again unaddressed, given that that is a matter of pure “THE COURT STRESSED the only two situations planning judgment, not before the court were THE EXPERT ROLE dependent on issues of legal OF INSPECTORS. OF decisions taken by interpretation”. This should inspectors.

COURSE, NOT ALL also be the approach in I would suggest that DECISIONS ARE relation to housing policies the new government TAKEN BY deemed “out of date” under INSPECTORS” reflects on its approach paragraph 49. “It also shows to proposed revisions why it is not necessary to to the NPPF in the label other policies as “out light of this judgment. of date” merely in order The amendments that to determine the weight the government had to be given to them under paragraph 14. proposed to paragraph 14 may not give As the Court of Appeal recognised, that rise to undue concern, but shouldn’t will remain a matter of judgment for the more thought be given to whether it decision-maker.” is right or not further to complicate This is vital stuff! It changes what paragraph 49 with reference to a has been the orthodox approach to the three years’ supply safety net where paragraph 49/14 conundrum, rendering a neighbourhood plan is in place less important the analysis of which containing defined housing policies, as policies are “relevant policies” and proposed in the December 2016 written bringing us back to a sensible balancing of ministerial statement? the issues and allowing the need to secure Isn’t this precisely the over-prescriptive an adequate supply of housing land to approach being deprecated by the court be taken into account in determining the – and one driven perhaps by a concern weight to be applied to a policy – even for that communities were seeing local those policies not specifically caught by designations in some way “switched paragraph 49. off” or automatically being given less Lord Gill’s separate judgment stresses weight through being treated as “relevant the importance that the NPPF places policies”? This should no longer be on boosting the supply of housing. feared. Instead, a sensible balancing “The message to planning authorities exercise will need to be undertaken.

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LANDSCAPE

Tech { L A N D S C A P E

P31 TECH P34 REGIONAL P40 DECISIONS P44 LEGAL P50 PLAN B P51 EVENTS

PLANNING IN 3D ONCE A HIGH­TECH MCGUFFIN BELOVED OF PROCEDURAL FORENSICS TV CRIME DRAMAS LIKE CSI, THE 3D PRINTER IS NOW THE NEXT MUST­HAVE TOOL FOR DEVELOPERS AND PLANNERS, SAYS MARK SMULIAN The idea of detailed models of buildings being squirted out of a machine might once have belonged in the realms of science fiction, but it is now here and could be coming to a planning application near you.

If past technological leaps are anything to go by, the costs of 3D printing will steadily come down and its ease of use increase, meaning that before long it may be commonplace.

It’s not commonplace yet though and, as Barton Willmore’s director of graphic communication Aaron Clarke says: “3D-printed masterplan models certainly have the added ‘Wow’ factor and catch

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people’s attention, which is exactly what they need to do, whether supporting the consultation process, or as an aid to marketing afterwards.”

Its perhaps fitting that one of the UK’s largest housing developments should be the subject of the largest use yet made in construction of a 3D printer.

Barking Riverside’s 10,800-homes mini new town in East London can now be seen in detail by visitors to its project office after being turned into a 3D model by Hobs Studio, which claim it as the country’s largest printed masterplan.

Could the plan be improved upon?

Try it. Parts of the model can be removed, redesigned, reprinted and reinserted to accommodate changes and, for example, show consultees how different options would look.

Hobs Studio managing director Michelle Greeff said: “Using technology and automation, 3D printing allows the production of models to run considerably faster, while also creating a more accurate and detailed result, through the use of 3D photogrammetry data.

“It’s not just the printing that is a complex process – post-production is also key, with our team adding in final details to ensure that the model really captures the essence of Barking Riverside.”

Barking Riverside is now a joint venture between social landlord L&Q and the Greater London Authority, having suffered a number of false starts since this 180 hectares of former industrial land was first identified in the 1980s as one of the capital’s prime development sites.

Original developers Bellway and the former regeneration quango English Partnerships had intended that it would

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LANDSCAPE

Tech { L A N D S C A P E by now be home to 19,000 people, but progress has resumed.

It lies in a somewhat isolated bend of the Thames and was once due to be served by a new line of the Docklands Light Railway, but will now get a onestation branch of London Overground.

How was it done?

The model was designed from scans taken by aircraft flying over the site, combined with studying the masterplan.

It was made using SLA, a resin-based technology where a strong ultra laser draws a 2D cross-section image of a digital 3D drawing onto a bed of photocurable resin. The laser turns the liquid resin hard and this is then coated with more resin to allow the laser process to be repeated on top. The 2D layers are progressively built up to a 3D object.

At the end the model-making team prepares the models for spray painting, builds a large plinth to accommodate it,

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adds lighting LEDs and fits all components correctly.

The robust resin allows for interactive alterations to the model, which can be likened to tiles that form a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle.

3D printing’s cost is calculated per cubic centimetre, and additional detail does not add to costs.

Depending on the type of 3D print technology used, context models can start from £200 for A5 size to £1,800 for A1 dependent on the data supplied.

The same digital model can be used to output other illustrations including CGIs, animations, augmented and virtual reality.

Use of 3D printing in construction Can more use of 3D be expected?

Clarke says: “People respond better to 3D than 2D – it’s easier to understand, scrutinise and it feels more tangible.

“There is definitely a need to break out of static 2D planning drawings and

The model Size: 3.60 metres x 2.6m x 1m (including the base).

Production time: 4.5 weeks, including 80 hours of file preparation, 10 hours in post­production and 200 hours of model making and assembly.

Materials: 35 litres of resin.

Printer: iPro 9000 XL printer, manufactured by 3D Systems – the largest such printer in the UK. Features: More than 1,000 buildings, the tallest standing 80mm, although one­third of the model surface shows the River Thames.

Installation: The model has 40 sections of roughly 60cm2 each and took two days to install.

Scale: 1:750, Building took four­and­a­half weeks and assembly a further two days.

understand how we can better inform and interact with the public on projects.”

Hobs Studio’s experience suggests that 3D will become more widely used because it enables project managers, architects, developers, planners, urban designers and nearby communities to share models and ideas and see more clearly what a development look and ‘feel’ like at a far cheaper cost than would the traditional construction of a model.

Longer term, ‘printed’ life size structures are possible.

According to the Construction Industry Knowledge Hub, which is supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Chartered Institute of Building, the Building Research Establishment and other bodies, 3D printing has become affordable in the past decade and so viable for creating almost any shape.

In construction, 3D printing can be used to create components or ‘print’ entire buildings.

The hub has noted that construction is well suited to 3D printing as much of the information needed will have been collected during the design process.

There have already been attempts made – though not in the context of Barking Riverside – to ‘print’ entire lifesized houses as simple structures that could be easily assembled from printed components.

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The aftermath of IR35

O

n 6th April, changes came into effect for IR35, the ‘intermediaries’ legislation affecting those working through their own personal service company in the public sector. Town planning already suffers from significant skill shortages and excessive workloads following ten years of mandatory redundancies, predominantly in the public sector. Planning and development departments are now really feeling the brunt of constant spending cuts, with increased pressure on authorities to produce more with less. So - how will these changes affect the contract market within local authorities?

Contract town planners in local authorities are already paid 20% above those in permanent positions. With demand so high, authorities have to pay uplifted rates to attract staff. The majority of contractors set up to work via a personal service company now face the prospect of working ‘inside IR35‘ through traditional PAYE methods – and thus paying more tax. In some cases, councils have had to further increase rates in order to ‘balance out’ contractors' earnings and stop contractors moving on.

This price hike, however, has been too much for some organisations and contractors have simply moved on or are ‘sitting it out’ until the right role comes about. Not many have simply ‘accepted’ the loss in earnings.

Others will move back to the private sector, either to permanent positions or to contracts that are exempt from the IR35 legislation. However, the private sector does not come out of these changes unscathed, feeling the effects during submission stage when applications are slowed down significantly due to a lack of public sector resource.

Despite all of this, public planning services continue to generate significant levels of income with increasing numbers of authorities identifying opportunities for planning performance agreements (PPAs). Income generated by PPAs is significant, so there is a pressure to deliver on them which in turn creates a need for additional staff who don't currently sit under the organisations ‘team structure’. In most cases they are prepared to pay for consultants to deliver them and work ‘outside’ of IR35.

This new legislation will not help an already strained public sector. But only time will tell how it will really affect the planning profession.

SASZA BANDIERA Managing Director, Oyster Partnership

22/05/2017 16:41

LANDSCAPE

Nations & Regions focus { THE NORTH­WEST

Devolution advances Regional devolution is a major theme in the North West, which is ahead of other English regions having just acquired two city region elected mayors.

Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region’s Steve Rotheram are both former local Labour MPs. Each has a £900 million investment fund over 30 years, a consolidated transport budget, bus franchising and strategic planning powers.

Burnham additionally enjoys a £300m housing fund, an ‘earn back’ mechanism to fund infrastructure if economic growth targets are hit, and control over £6 billion a year in health and social care

spending.

Both city regions form part of the proposed Northern Powerhouse, a wider devolutionary programme to pool the resources of multiple cities across the north of England.

Transport linkages are seen as critical to growth, and Manchester is set to eventually benefit from the High Speed 2 rail line from Birmingham and London. Some, though, see the mooted High Speed 3 as even more important – in particular, the east-west link from Liverpool to Sheffield that would transform a notoriously slow journey.

Although the North West’s housing

pressures are not as acute as in some areas there is still a demand for housing land, in particular in Cheshire. An early battle for Burnham will come over the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, which was drawn up by the 10 borough councils but which Burnham has said involves unacceptable encroachment on the green belt.

Away from conurbations, the Lake District National Park faces pressures for wind energy, minerals extraction and coping with massive visitor numbers. The coastline is increasingly the scene of renewable energy work and the Cumbrian coast meanwhile is a centre of the nuclear industry.

MAJOR PROJECTS AND RECENT SUCCESSES Liverpool Waters -

The first phase of Liverpool Waters is the ‘Princes Dock’ neighbourhood, in which an office scheme and three residential towers will be delivered – part of an eventual £5.5 billion mixeduse regeneration of a 60 hectare historic dockland site. Liverpool Waters is part of the wider ‘Atlantic Gateway’, which includes more than 50 projects to open in coming years. www.liverpoolwaters.co.uk/

Liverpool 2 -

A £400m development

by Peel Ports opened last November to create a terminal to accommodate the world's largest container vessels, offering Northern exporters a more

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competitive route to international markets. Built on 16 hectares of reclaimed land, it has an 854 metre quay wall and land created from 5.5m tonnes of dredged sand and silt. www.peelports.com/campaigns/ liverpool2

Manchester St Johns -

A canalside redevelopment making use of historic warehouses to provide 320 hotel bedrooms, 560,000 square feet of workspace, 240,000 sq ft of retail space and 13 acres of public realm, this site includes the former Granada HQ, the UK’s oldest operating purposebuilt TV studios. South Village will become a residential area within the St John’s neighbourhood, on the site of the former Coronation Street set. https://stjohnsmanchester.com/

Manchester Spinningfields -

A new city quarter with 165 financial and commercial services organisations, together with retail, restaurants, the John Rylands Library and the People’s History Museum. The £1.5bn regeneration has provided 20 new buildings, including the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, a distinctive 90-metre tall construction sometimes known as ‘the filing cabinet’. www.spinningfieldsonline.com/

Chorley Digital Park and Hub -

The Strawberry Fields Digital Hub is an office development for the digital sector within Chorley’s new Digital Health Village on 13 ha near the M61. It offers 5,000 sq m of purpose-built office space with flexible leases terms for future and access to a high output data processing centre on site.

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

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The North­West Valuable skills Along with the need to find sites for housing and regenerate areas that have declined, planners will find the North West needs specialist skills in energy and transport planning.

The Cumbrian coast, for example, is a centre for nuclear power, wind energy and minerals, all expanding nationally. Lancashire’s coast serves the renewable energy industry and may soon see the emergence of a fracking industry.

The North West is a hub for logistics, with many sites devoted to this – notably Omega, near Warrington. HS2, and possibly HS3, will dramatically improve the region’s travel links and Crewe will be an HS2 and logistics hub.

Manchester and Liverpool offer city centre regeneration projects, reflecting growing economic confidence amid changes in governance and growing investment.

It’s likely that the region will see growth in infrastructure and economic activity in coming years – and that means possibilities for planners.

Interview: Blackpool rocks Rob Green is head of enterprise and investment at the Blackpool and Fylde Economic Development Company.

Owned by Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre councils, the company aims to drive inward investment, particularly to enterprise zones at Blackpool Airport and Hillhouse International business park. The former is based on energy, manufacturing and digital industries, while Hillhouse is an old chemical production site, now occupied by 40 firms working mainly in polymers.

Blackpool was long associated with tourism, but that declined with the popularity of foreign holidays, badly damaging parts of the local economy.

“We have got investment in tourism, and saw 17 million visits last year, with money going into 3-5 star hotels, though a lot of that is public sector-backed," says Green. A £20 million conference centre is planned

to complement the Winter Gardens, providing up-to-date facilities.

“Parts of Blackpool, though, still have some of the worst deprivation in the country.”

Blackpool Airport is mainly used for executive flights and services to energy rigs in the Irish Sea, having lost scheduled services to the Isle of Man and Belfast.

Green says there are several sites that could provide logistic support for shale gas drilling,, with planning permission granted by the government for experimental fracking at a site in West Lancashire.

Energy operations are important to the local economy, with “some 95 businesses involved in energy with oil and gas in the Irish Sea and there are projects for barrages to generate energy and energy from waste plants”, says Green.

Signposts RTPI North West is run by a seven-strong Regional Management Board chaired by Bob Phillips of Urban Imprint. Beneath this, a larger Regional Activities Committee maintains a busy programme of events throughout the year.

Phillips points to “a large CPD programme with 25 day or half day events on topics chosen by our members, which I think is the largest regional programme outside the South-West.

“This year we have had sessions including tourism and ethics alongside old favourites like development finance and affordable housing. The most popular sessions will have around 100 people at them.”

He also points to the region’s well-supported awards, its annual dinner, which draws some 450 of its 1,250 members, and its research programmes.

“A few years ago we did the resourcing of planning by local authorities, and this year we are looking at affordable housing and delivery,” he says. n RTPI North West web pages www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-north-west/ n RTPI North West annual reviews and business plans www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-north-west/ annual-report-and-business-plan/ n RTPI North West CPD programme 2017 www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-north-west/ events/ n Young Planners’ Conference 2017: The North West is hosting this year’s RTPI Young Planners’ Conference in Manchester on 3-4 November, on the theme of Health, Happy Places and People www.rtpi.org.uk/events/ young-planners-conference/ n RTPI North West annual dinner: The Hilton, Manchester Deansgate, 6 October.

Contact Beverley.watson@rtpi.org.uk for details. n Greater Manchester Combined Authority: www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk n Liverpool City Region Combined Authority: www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk n Cheshire and Warrington LEP: www.871candwep.co.uk n Lancashire LEP: www.lancashirelep.co.uk n Cumbria LEP: www.cumbrialep.co.uk n Email: northwest@rtpi.org.uk n Twitter: @RTPINW n Find your RTPI region: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpinear-you/

Next month:

South-East p34-35 regional focus.indd 35

22/05/2017 14:06

MEETING HORSHAM’S FUTURE PLANNING AND BUILDING DEVELOPMENT NEEDS BE PART OF IT Head of Development £51,263 - £55,446 pa + benefits

Principal Planning Officer (Applications) £40,056 - £43,820 pa + benefits

Senior Planning Officer (Environment) £35,444 - £39,177 pa + benefits • Part Time

Validation Officer £21,962 - £24,174 pa + benefits

Planning Officer (Implementation) £19,430 - £30,785 pa + benefits

Conservation Officer £19,430 - £30,785 pa + benefits • Part Time

Landscape Architect £19,430 - £30,785 pa + benefits • Part Time

With an evolving service culture and a changing government agenda, Horsham District Council is seizing the opportunity to strengthen and expand its planning teams.

You’ll be based in our brand new, open plan Vɉ JLZ ^P[O H WYVNYLZZP]L J\S[\YL PUJS\KPUN OV[ desking, wireless access to the planning network MYVT HU`^OLYL H[ OVTL VY PU [OL Ä LSK NP]PUN an outstanding work/life balance. And you’ll OH]L ZPNUPÄ JHU[ ZJVWL [V ^VYR HJYVZZ [LHTZ to broaden your knowledge and expertise. )LULÄ [Z! >OH[»Z TVYL V\Y ZHSHYPLZ HYL OPNOS` competitive for the industry and our comprehensive ILULÄ [Z PUJS\KL [YHPUPUN YLTV[L ^VYRPUN HUK MYLL parking for essential user roles. *SVZPUN KH[L! [O 1\UL H[ TPKKH` This is your opportunity to join and deliver our exciting planning vision for the future.

Apply online at our website.

Neighbourhood Planning Officer £19,430 - £30,785 pa + benefits

Planning Support Assistant (CIL) £19,430 - £24,174 pa + benefits • Part Time

www.horsham.gov.uk 36

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22/05/2017 12:48

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

CAREER OPTIONS

New opportunities in Horsham WITH AN EVOLVING SERVICE CULTURE AND A CHANGING GOVERNMENT AGENDA, HORSHAM DISTRICT COUNCIL IS SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY TO STRENGTHEN AND EXPAND ITS PLANNING TEAMS.

T

a number of appointments to he publication of the Housing fresh vacancies, partly due to White Paper confirmed internal promotion – are set Horsham’s view that their to keep Horsham ahead of the service offer must grow and curve. adapt to meet the challenges of “I am keen to ensure the the modern planning environment. service continues to develop as it Where the prevailing solution for many has done,” the outgoing Head of local planning authorities has been to Development explains. “Which cut budgets and strip back the service, is why we are advertising these Horsham has a track record of successfully posts now.” bucking this trend.

Among the challenges In 2015 they rationalised their and opportunities that new management structures while investing recruits will face, changes to in additional officer-level posts to ensure planning legislation across both they had the right staff, undertaking the policy and right tasks.

Led by Aidan Thatcher, the “IT ALL ADDS UP TO development management, have Development Management AN OUTSTANDING created a need to review Service saw greater stability OPPORTUNITY how planning offers its and efficiencies, improved FOR AMBITIOUS services. performance on application INDIVIDUALS The department must timeliness and appeal TO MAKE THEIR have the talent in place success, improved customer MARK ON AN AGILE to ensure it has an upsatisfaction – and the AND EVOLVING to-date Development creation of a more proactive SERVICE” Plan, continues to deliver culture when determining growth across the district, applications. maintains a deliverable Two years on, with Thatcher five-year housing land moving on to pastures new, supply – and meets the department is open for the future Housing Delivery Test. This further development. As Aidan himself is no mean feat in an area of significant says: “Horsham is a forward-thinking development pressure. council that puts planning at the heart of Meanwhile, neighbourhood planning its operations. It is a high-profile service, continues to grow. With more than 90 both politically and with our residents. As per cent take up in the district – and the a result of this, the Council is focused on realisation that the concept is not as light delivering change where it is needed and is touch as first envisaged – the scale of the committed to developing the service into opportunity is significant and the need for one that meets all its challenges.” sufficient resources paramount.

Having welcomed the increase in New posts, new opportunities planning application fees, Horsham have Several newly created posts – as well as

also reviewed how they will use this to invest in the planning service in order to meet the requirements of emerging legislation – as well as future projects such as the implementation of CIL – while continuing to improve the quality and timeliness of service delivery.

It all adds up to an outstanding opportunity for ambitious individuals to make their mark on an agile and evolving service. The culture at Horsham is a progressive one, with modern technology enabling flexible working – in the office, at home or in the field – plus a range of state-of-the-art improvements in the pipeline.

The department also has a firm commitment to, and a healthy budget for, the professional development of its staff, with plenty of in-house and external courses, as well as acting-up and shadowing opportunities.

Become a planner in Horsham Browse the vacancies opposite and keep an eye on The Planner Jobs website where you’ll find news, advice and opportunities in Horsham and beyond: jobs.theplanner.co.uk

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Career { D E V E L O P M E N T C HOW TO START A NEW JOB

Getting a new job is cause for celebration, but if you want to make a good first impression, work begins immediately. How do you prepare for your first day, build bridges with new colleagues and stand yourself in good stead for the future?

Matt Moody gathered some perspectives

38

SHAUN LEWIS is director of town planning recruitment at Lewis Davey

CHARLOTTE MORHET is a local plan officer for the London Borough of Waltham Forest and co-founder of Women in Planning

SAVE THE DATE

exciting, but it’s a good idea to consider the team you’re saying goodbye to,” says Before you start your new job, you’ll Hiles. “If you’re connected with them on need to negotiate a start date. Taking social media, you might want to avoid some time out can have its benefits, sounding too excited about leaving them says Tom Hiles, who started a new role behind.” as a planning officer with Cheshire East You should also be careful not to preCouncil last year. empt any official announcements, “Taking a break gives you an cautions Lewis. “It’s best for your new opportunity to reflect on your new colleagues to hear about you joining position – take some time to ask directly from their boss and not through yourself questions like what you hope to social media. Similarly, you should allow get out of the new job, what you want to your previous employer time to speak to achieve, and why you decided to leave clients about your departure before they your former position.” see the change on social media. Updating A break can have practical benefits on the day you start is the safest too, according to Shaun Lewis, a director approach.” at recruitment firm Lewis Davey.

“If you’re more experienced and leaving COME PREPARED your job, it can often be Your first day at a new job is because it hasn’t quite “A BREAK BETWEEN not dissimilar to an worked out, so a break to interview. You’re aiming to JOBS CAN BE A regroup and consider your GREAT WAY TO make a good impression on priorities is a good idea. existing staff and learn as RELAX BEFORE Also, when you start a much about the organisation THE CHALLENGES new role you should avoid AHEAD” as you can. Preparation is taking extensive holidays key if you plan to hit the in your first few months, ground running. so a break between jobs “It’s worth being bold and can be a great way to arranging to speak to people relax before the challengyou’ll be working with es ahead.” before your first day, even if it’s just your line manager”, says Hiles. “If your team is in the middle of a big project when you UPDATING YOUR STATUS arrive, they might not be able to spare There’s no problem with telling friends much time to talk about the bigger and family as soon as you receive your picture and the company’s situation. offer, but when should you announce Having a good understanding of current your new job to professional contacts? projects and live issues ahead of your first It’s important to be considerate to both day will help you make a meaningful former and future colleagues. contribution from the get-go.”

“Starting a new job is always really

TOM HILES is a planning officer for Cheshire East Council, specialising in neighbourhood planning

GETTING THERE Punctuality is essential, so leave nothing to chance on your first day.

“A dry run of your commute is a great idea”, advises Hiles. “Online directions aren’t trustworthy enough to risk it on your first day and show up late”.

Timing is important for this, adds Lewis. “Journey times can double or even triple during rush-hour, so make sure your practice run happens at the same time of day you’ll be travelling to work. It’s worth checking out the parking situation, too, if you’re driving.”

LEARNING THE ROPES Most organisations will require you to complete an induction. Some of the content might seem self-explanatory, but don’t underestimate its importance, says Lewis.

“Your induction is crucial – it’s likely that what you learn will form the bedrock of your knowledge for the future. It’s important to dismiss your preconceptions, focus on what you’re being told, take adequate notes and ask questions where things are unclear.”

Charlotte Morphet, who started work with the London Borough of Waltham Forest early in 2017, stresses: “In the rush of your first week, it can be easy to forget things, so listen to any instructions and information you’re given, and make sure you note it down.”

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JOBS If you’re being inducted as part of a group, networking starts now. First impressions count, so don’t think you can neglect your new colleagues until the induction is over.

LUNCH Lunch can be a great time to get to know new colleagues in a relaxed setting. “Ask someone to show you their favourite lunch spot”, suggests Morphet.

“It’s a great way to build a relationship, and it’s worth getting the inside track on tried-and-tested places to eat.”

It’s a good way to get your bearings too, adds Lewis. “Get a look around and get to know both your colleagues, and the area.”

MAKING FRIENDS “You spend a large period of your life at work, and many people meet some of their best friends in the office”, says Lewis. “But don’t force it and take your time. If you go out for drinks with

Make Planner Jobs your first port of call for town planning jobs, careers advice and the latest people news from across the sector.

Visit jobs.theplanner.co.uk

Understanding the company structure colleagues avoid the temptation to drink is important, whether you’ll be part of a heavily due to nerves. You don’t want to compact team or larger organisation. be that person!”

“Ask your boss for an organogram, so you Hiles agrees that building can establish who reports to who early relationships can’t be rushed. “Be on,” says Hiles. “Understanding who the confident and professional while you’re top performers in your getting to know your team, team are – and why – is a but don’t try too hard to “STARTING A good way to visualise how make close friends in your NEW JOB IS you can be successful.” first few weeks. Office ALWAYS REALLY “Once you reach the end politics and alreadyEXCITING, BUT IT’S of your first week, you established personal A GOOD IDEA TO should feel satisfied but dynamics can be CONSIDER THE TEAM challenged with your new complicated and hard to YOU’RE SAYING workload, and know what fathom for a newcomer.”

GOODBYE TO” you want to prioritise,” When it comes to explains Morphet. breaking the ice, there’s For Lewis, it’s time to one tactic that never fails, take stock. “At the end of according to Morphet – the week, review your “offer to make the tea!” induction notes so it is as fresh in your mind as when you were WORKFLOW first introduced to it,” he says. “Continue An important part of settling in to a job to review content on a weekly and is understanding how your colleagues monthly basis until it is cemented in like to work, and how you fit into that your mind.” process. “It’s a good idea to ask your Once you feel organised, relax and manager about their workflow,” says take some time for yourself, he adds.

Morphet. “This includes how – and how “Grab a drink and celebrate a successful often – they want to check in with you, first week in your new job!” their sign-off procedure for your work, and how you can keep each other informed.”

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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

‘No evidence’ HMO would mar social cohesion ( SUMMARY Permission has been granted to convert a four-bedroom home into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) in Pontypridd, after an inspector decided that there was no empirical evidence to support local residents’ claims that HMOs harm social cohesion and fuel antisocial behaviour. ( CASE DETAILS The house is in a dense urban area in Pontypridd, north of Cardiff. Some 30 per cent of houses in the area are registered HMOs, most occupied by students from the University of South Wales. It was one of six locations studied for a 2015 report by the

Welsh government on HMOs and their impact on communities. Inspector Paul Selby acknowledged the report, but stated that each case must be assessed alone.

Selby noted the concerns of the planning authority, which said HMOs have harmed social cohesion, reduced access to homes for local people, and resulted in a proliferation of takeaways.

Residents cited an increase in crime, antisocial behaviour and noise.

Although he said there was “no doubt” these issues had affected the area, Selby did not consider them grounds to block the appeal.

He observed the lack of local policy defining a threshold for HMOs, and a lack of empirical evidence for one to be enacted.

He conceded that HMOs could lead to a higher risk of problems like littering and fly-tipping, but said these are not unique to HMOs, and An inspector has green-lit an HMO for Pontypridd students

the local authority could “exercise its powers” to deal with any persistent cases. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Selby concluded that in the absence of evidence that the proposal would specifically exacerbate problems, its benefits, including provision of housing, should be afforded most weight. The appeal was allowed.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/L6940/A/16/3160167

HERITAGE

Garden renewal would enhance Regent’s Park ( SUMMARY An inspector has approved plans to reinstate a garden next to London’s Regent’s Park that was in place for much of the 19th century before being replaced with a road, after ruling it would enhance the setting of grade I listed buildings nearby. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal site is a small road between the Regency terraces bordering Regent’s Park. The grade I listed houses were designed

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by Regency architect John Nash. The Regent’s Park Conservation Area protects the area. Inspector Jonathan Hockley noted the “international importance” of the area drawn from its architectural history.

The proposal involves redeveloping Chester Gate, a private road but a public right of way, into a symmetrical ordered garden in the Regency style.

Camden Council blocked the application on the advice of eminent architectural academic Dr Geoffrey Tyack, who suggests interference with terraces should be kept to a minimum.

Hockley disagreed with this decision, referring to evidence submitted about the history of the site. Plans from 1826 include a garden in the proposed location, and maps and photographs from 1835 and 1870 show its existence before it was removed near the turn of the century. Hockley ruled that the proposal “can reasonably be called a reinstatement” rather than a new development. He pointed to the appraisal document for the conservation area, which recommends the reinstatement of missing features and rectification of alterations where possible.

Hockley dismissed

I M A G E S | G E T T Y / R O D W W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S

22/05/2017 12:43

The Bourne supremacy ruled out a proposal for a seventh bedroom in a house near the Dorset SSSI

highway safety concerns, noting that although the road would be reduced to a single lane, most traffic is already single-file because of the single-lane entrance at the opposite entrance to the road. He said concerns about the specific design of the garden could be managed using conditions. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Hockley said reinstating a former historical garden would enhance, rather than harm the area’s character.

The appeal was allowed.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/X5210/W/16/3162987

HOUSING

Javid blocks 265home scheme despite shortfall ( SUMMARY Secretary of state Sajid Javid has overturned an inspector’s decision to allow 265 homes in Essex, refusing to allow development in the green belt despite acknowledging that the housing supply in the area is as low as 0.4 years.

Point is falling well short of expectations.” Agreeing with the inspector’s estimate that Castle Point Borough Council could prove a supply of between 0.4 and 1.1 years, Javid ruled that based on an objective assessed need calculation, the figure is likely to be nearer 0.4 years.

He acknowledged that the development would bring market and affordable housing to the area. ( CONCLUSION REACHED In balancing the weight of green belt harm against housing provision, Javid referred to a 2015 written ministerial statement which states that “unmet need is unlikely to outweigh harm to the green belt so as to establish very special circumstances”, changing what had formerly been guidance into formal policy.

Javid dismissed the appeal, concluding that Griffiths had not afforded the policy enough weight, and overturned his decision, ruling that harm to the green belt trumped housing need.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/M1520/A/14/2216062

HOUSING

( CASE DETAILS Javid agreed with almost all of inspector Paul Griffiths’ report. Like Griffiths, he noted that the development would cause “permanent and significant harm to the openness of the green belt”, in conflict with National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). He also agreed that other concerns raised, including flood risk, highway safety and air quality did not weigh against the proposal.

Javid added: “The housing supply situation in Castle

Extra housemate could harm Dorset Heaths ( SUMMARY An inspector has blocked plans to turn a room in a six-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO) into a seventh bedroom, after ruling that even one additional resident could harm the nearby Bourne Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

( CASE DETAILS The house is 400 metres from the Bourne Valley SSSI, part of the Dorset Heathlands Special Protection Area (SPA). The proposal seeks to convert an unused room into an additional bedroom, increasing the capacity from six to seven residents.

Inspector Robert Parker stated in his report that in order to grant permission, he must be “satisfied beyond reasonable doubt” that the development would not adversely affect natural sites protected by the European Environment Agency.

Parker referred to a Supplementary Planning Document for the heathlands area, published

by Poole Council in 2015. It outlines the intensification of residential development in the area, and the resultant pressure on the protected heathland. It shows that increased public access to the area had led to an increase in wildfires, damaging recreational use, soil erosion and other harm caused by humans and pets.

The appellant used a now-withdrawn planning circular to argue that adding one person to a house of six would not cause substantive change. This did not persuade Parker, who ruled that a bedroom in

an HMO is no different to a one-bedroom flat, in that its occupant is still expected to access nearby open space.

Parker acknowledged the provision of a public sport and recreation ground next to the house, but ruled that the Bourne Valley’s proximity of 400m meant residents would nonetheless probably make use of it for jogging and similar activities. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Parker accepted that the effect of one additional resident would be “difficult to quantify”, and that “in all probability, the harm arising would be small”. But, unable to conclude “beyond reasonable doubt” that the proposal would not harm the protected area, he dismissed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/Q1255/W/16/3163837

HOUSING

Landslide death fuels homes row ( SUMMARY An inspector has dismissed flooding concerns in his granting of outline permission for an 85-home

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DiF { D development in Cornwall, despite strong opposition after a local woman was killed in a landslide caused by surface water. ( CASE DETAILS The proposal is for 85 homes – 30 per cent affordable – near the coastal town of Looe. The application was refused by Cornwall Council, which ruled there was a lack of evidence to prove that flooding would not occur. The council reached this decision despite no objection from the three regulatory bodies concerned with flood risk – the Environmental Agency, and the council’s Estate Adoption and Flood Drainage teams.

There has been strong public opposition to the proposal, mainly in light of the death of a local woman in a landslide. Following an inquest, the coroner’s report found that her death was caused, at least in part, by the movement of surface water near her home.

Inspector Andrew Owen assessed the appellant’s

DECISIONS IN FOCUS Flood Risk Assessment, noting that it considered events up to a likelihood of one in 100 years, plus a further 30 per cent allowance for climate change. Considering that no regulatory body had raised concerns, Owen found no reason to doubt its accuracy.

He also considered local topography, observing that the proposed scheme would be some distance from the scene of the landslide, being separated from it by a green field and dense woodland. ( CONCLUSION REACHED As none of the regulatory bodies wished to amend their positions following the inquest, Owen found no reason to block the scheme on the grounds of flood risk.

He allowed the appeal, and granted outline permission.

A separate application for the award of costs against the council was dismissed.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/D0840/W/16/3155280

An inspector ruled that flood risk was not a salient enough factor to block an 85-home development in Looe

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GREEN BELT

Human rights outweigh harm to green belt ( SUMMARY An inspector has granted temporary permission for a traveller family to occupy a site on green belt land near Cheltenham, after ruling that the family’s circumstances and human rights outweigh harm to green belt openness. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal site, on green belt near Bishops Cleeve in Gloucestershire, is subject to a 2007 High Court injunction preventing the siting of caravans or any other residential development.

Inspector Susan Ashworth identified various other issues with the development. She said the site is near enough to services and schools, and well enough served by a bus service to be considered an accessible location. She also found that a revision to the application to create larger visibility splays on the access route would allay road safety concerns.

Regarding the area’s character and appearance, Ashworth acknowledged the urbanising effect of the development, but considered views of it to be “limited”.

Despite allaying these concerns, she noted that the development would reduce the openness of the green belt (albeit on a localised basis) and should be considered inappropriate development unless “very special circumstances” could be demonstrated.

Ashworth considered the circumstances of the family, noting the poor health of

the appellant’s children and their lack of schooling. These issues had been exacerbated by a lack of local pitches, which had forced the family to travel extensively.

Ashworth stated that, taking into account the European Convention on Human Rights, “it would clearly be in the best interests of the family to be allowed to live on the appeal site”, noting that the lack of alternative provision weighed heavily.

However, according to the government’s Planning Policy for Traveller Sites, personal circumstances and unmet need do not constitute the “very special circumstances” needed to allow otherwise inappropriate green belt development. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Ashworth concluded that the local plan being developed by the council would mean more traveller sites would become available within the next five years. She therefore granted temporary permission for five years, saying the non-permanent nature of green belt harm was enough to tip the planning balance in the appellant’s favour.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/G1630/W/16/3144176

HOUSING

Housing scheme would harm green wedge ( SUMMARY An inspector has rejected a 216-home scheme near Whitwick, Leicestershire, I M AG E S | I STO C K / A L A M Y

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Concerns about harm to bat habitat contributed to rejection of a Georgian square-style development in Hampshire

“strong, healthy and vibrant” community that would result. He acknowledged that it only conflicted with one local policy, which he had afforded limited weight. But he decided that the demonstrable and permanent harm to the openness of the green wedge meant the appeal should fail.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/G2435/W/16/3150237

after deciding that it would permanently harm a ‘green wedge’, despite the appeal site occupying only 2.3 per cent of the protected rural area. ( CASE DETAILS The site forms a small part of a much wider site that was subject to a major planning application in 2010. The proposal, for 1,420 homes and extensive accompanying infrastructure, was dismissed by the secretary of state in 2012, and then the High Court in 2013. The new proposal is for 216 homes, including considerable open space provision and national forest planting.

North West Leicestershire District Council had refused the plan because it conflicted with local policy, which seeks to protect the green wedge and prevent coalescence between Whitwick and its neighbouring village of Coalville. This was supported by the Whitwick Action Group, which opposes development of “our precious green wedge”.

Inspector Clive Hughes assessed the housing supply, noting the large discrepancy between the council’s estimate of 6.83 years with a 5 per cent buffer, and the appellant’s estimate of 2.82 with a 20 per cent buffer.

He noted that although the appellant had exaggerated the area’s need based on projected economic growth, the council had underdelivered housing for eight years, so the 20 per cent buffer was appropriate.

Hughes concluded that while the council had been too optimistic about some of its planned developments, it could “generally demonstrate” a deliverable supply of 5.33 years.

Notwithstanding this satisfactory five-year supply of housing, Hughes ruled that local policy the council cited in its rejection still could not be considered up to date because it was not consistent with the NPPF. Although he afforded the policy little weight, he considered the issue raised by it. He said the council’s position that the development would cause coalescence between the two villages was “plainly inaccurate”, noting that it would leave a gap of 495 metres and would only take up 2.3 per cent of the rural area. But he acknowledged that the scheme would harm the open feel of the site. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Hughes noted the scheme’s benefits, including the

HOUSING

‘Georgian square’ plan would not enhance village ( SUMMARY Plans to build 13 houses and five apartments in a Georgian style in Hampshire have been refused after an inspector decided that despite being of a high standard, the design would be incongruent with the village’s existing housing. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal site is within the settlement boundary of Chilworth, which has an eclectic mix of architectural styles set in relatively large plots. Inspector Neil Pope observed that this “absence of formality” contributes to the attractiveness of the area – designated a Residential Area of Special Character.

The scheme would be designed and laid out in the style of a traditional Georgian square. Pope said the design was of a high standard, and “would comfortably fit and enhance townscape quality in some parts of the country”, but would be incongruous with the existing houses, which

have a “looser, unassuming arrangement” in large plots.

Pope also considered potential harm to the nearby Chilworth Common Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). Noting that it is not unusual for homes to be situated on the boundaries of SINC areas, he did not agree that the scheme should be refused on these grounds alone.

But the inspector was concerned about potential bat roosts in two trees on the site. An ecologist’s report found no evidence of bats roosting there at the time, but Pope said the bat season was at its end at the time of his visit. He said there was insufficient data to establish the likely effect on bats year-round, and it would be inappropriate to award permission at this time.

On the issue of affordable housing, Pope noted that although both parties agreed that on-site provision would not be viable, they disagreed on the financial contribution required in lieu of it. Pope found in favour of the appellant’s proposed figure of £160,000 – far less than the £1.3 million calculated

by Test Valley Borough Council – because only the appellant had provided satisfactory evidence. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Although Pope found the appellant’s affordable housing contribution acceptable, this was a neutral factor compared with the scheme’s potential harm to the area’s character and bat habitats. The appeal was dismissed.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Refs: APP/C1760/W/16/3159869

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LLegal landscape TO BUILD MORE HOUSES, WE NEED TO THINK SMALL The housing white paper may have reframed the housing debate, but transformation in housebuilding won’t happen until local authorities prioritise the needs of small and medium-sized builders, says Bernadette Hillman.

Small and medium-sized builders could be doing more to help plug the housing shortfall and increase housing density in urban areas, but local planning authorities must prioritise the delivery of more ‘development-ready’ sites.

At the last count, the country needs an additional 230,000 homes a year to keep pace with demand; but the last time more than 200,000 homes were built in a single year was in 1988. As has been identified in the government’s housing white paper, a diverse approach is needed to help solve this problem and planning teams must play their part.

Currently, there is a tendency for under-resourced planning authorities to prioritise the needs of larger housebuilders. According to the latest research by the Home Builders Federation, 293,127 homes were granted permission in 2016 but the number of sites fell by 11 per cent, indicating a shift towards larger schemes.

This willingness to give priority to larger developers is not surprising when we consider that eight of the largest housebuilders are

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Bernadette Hillman responsible for more than half of all new homes built, according to the House of Commons’ Communities and Local Government Committee.

Backed by the right incentives, however, smaller builders could be doing much more to develop smaller sites and increase housing density in built-up towns and cities.

Back in 1998, two-thirds of all new homes were built by SMEs (small and mediumsized enterprises), but over the past 18 years this has dropped significantly. Some small and medium-sized developers

are being driven away from housebuilding altogether because of deeply frustrating delays and rising costs in the planning system and this is adding to the housing crisis.

By way of example, the planning team at Shakespeare Martineau has supported clients that have had to wait for more than a year for planning permission from a local planning authority, while their planning-related fees have risen significantly. The uncertain economic outlook is also making it harder for SME builders to plan ahead and this is leading to a more cautious approach.

While it is still early days,

“SMES COULD ALSO BE GIVEN MORE PUBLIC SECTOR OR LOCAL AUTHORITY­BACKED PROJECTS, WITH PLANNING PERMISSIONS IN PRINCIPLE OR AN EQUIVALENT TYPE OF PERMISSION”

the government’s Home Building Fund, which was launched in October 2016, aims to provide funding to support SME developers.

The housing white paper also proposes a number of measures to support accelerated construction by encouraging partnerships between small and mediumsized firms, other private sector partners and contractors.

The housing white paper has certainly helped to reframe the housing debate by focusing on measures that will boost supply in the medium to long term. Practical steps are needed now to support SME builders. In particular, these developers need access to more development-ready sites, which are backed by the right infrastructure and planning permissions. Such opportunities will make it easier to secure the finance needed to get projects under way quickly.

Incentives provided by the government to support the development of larger sites have not been forthcoming when it comes to smaller projects. This imbalance must be addressed. SMEs could also be given more public sector or local authority-backed projects, such as building homes for councils, housing associations and central government, with planning permissions in principle or an equivalent type of permission.

The housing white paper is promising to do all the right things, but local planning authorities need to be doing more now to prioritise the needs of SME builders to stand a fighting chance of meeting housing requirements in the future.

Bernadette Hillman is a partner and head of the London planning team at Shakespeare Martineau

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22/05/2017 11:25

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www.horsham.gov.uk J U NE 2 0 17 / THE PLA NNER

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

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

If you like planning, put a number on it DR MIKE HARRIS, DEPUTY HEAD OF POLICY AND RESEARCH

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The latest stage in our work on the value of planning is to commission the global consultancy Arup to develop and test a tool for capturing the impact of local authority planning in Wales.

Why are we doing this work?

Most obviously, we need the evidence.

Planning departments have been the hardest hit of all local authority functions. The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculates that planning and development in England alone have been cut on average by 59 per cent since 2009-10 – in real terms by more than £1.47 billion. In Scotland, planning has seen budget reductions of 31 per cent, while in Wales planning has been cut by more than 50 per cent on average.

This new research in Wales is being supported by RTPI Cymru and Welsh Government.

We need to demonstrate how planning is critical to local growth and development, and why more of the benefits from planning need to be reinvested in local planning services.

This can raise concerns about making an economic argument for planning, especially appearing to rest the argument for planning on economic grounds. But if the purpose of planning is ultimately to build a better society, this must include the economic dimension.

The post-war belief in planning didn’t

sidestep the economy. Rather, planning was part of a programme in which the state would play an important role in improving how the economy functioned for all (the mixed economy). Providing more jobs, opportunity and ensuring that everyone benefits from economic growth needs to be just as central to our argument for planning today.

Another way of putting this is that unless we put forward a better model of development, the economic debate will continue to be set by those who are ideologically hostile to planning.

Neglecting the economic aspect won’t make the debate on planning go away –rather it just yields the field to the critics. Worse, perhaps, it risks implicitly accepting their argument that ‘less planning’ means ‘more growth’, when the reality of resource-starved planning departments and ‘left behind’ areas suggests the exact opposite.

One thing that has changed since the 1940s is our concern about environmental sustainability (although the post-war programme included a vision for environmental well-being, for example, through green belts and garden cities). Climate change in particular challenges our current model of economic growth and development.

Again, the answer isn’t to sidestep the economic, but to consider seriously

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what ‘good growth’ – an economy that enhances well-being for more people within environmental limits – actually looks like. For this, we can’t just focus on how much development planning helps to deliver, and, relatedly, narrow metrics such as GDP. We also need to consider the quality of development and who will benefit from it.

Fortunately, there is an emerging set of approaches to help us do this, for example, social return on investment and other indicators of well-being. We will incorporate these broader measures into our work.

Taking this approach should allay concerns about succumbing to ‘Treasury thinking’, the ‘tyranny’ of narrow economic understanding and forms of measurement. We need better numbers that reflect the economic but also social and environmental value of better development. This isn’t about putting a ‘price’ on nature or happiness. It’s about using all the means available to us to make the case for planning in the public interest.

Moreover, the notion that ‘numbers’ somehow undermine an ethical vision or purpose is demonstrably incorrect. Does measuring poverty detract from the moral case for reducing it? Does estimating environmental degradation reduce our ability to be moved by nature?

The most vocal and persistent critics of planning don’t force themselves to make a false choice between ‘numbers’ and ‘values’. These critics have marshalled both quantitative economic evidence (however partial) and moral arguments (‘freedom in a market society’) against planning. We need to respond in kind.

Ultimately, neglecting the economic isn’t a sign of our belief in planning. It suggests our lack of confidence that we can make the case. This isn’t to capitulate to ‘growth dependency’. It’s to reassert what planning has always been about – shared and sustainable prosperity. n How we have been championing the value of planning: tinyurl.com/planner0617-value

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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 English planning system

Harriet Richardson MRTPI PLANNER BATCHELLER MONKHOUSE Planning is such an important sector and affects everyone every day. Why then is there so little education and marketing about planning and its role in society? There was a push as part of the RTPI centenary celebrations to promote planning through the RTPI Ambassadors scheme, however, more should be done nationally to make place-making a fundamental element of curriculums.

To maximise engagement with the younger generation we must modernise interaction with the planning system. Consultations should take advantage of social media so that people can easily make concise comments, which would in turn reduce work for local planning authorities when reviewing responses.

Planning jargon should be kept to a minimum, making planning documents more accessible.

Exciting the young about planning and development will increase Britain’s ability to produce more sustainable and innovative designs and construction methods, which is essential for economic growth and improving people’s quality of life. We need to be more radical, drawing inspiration from around the world to confront existing and future problems with sustainable, long-term solutions.

COMMITTEE PRIORITIES: POLICY PRACTICE AND RESEARCH COMMITTEE The Policy Practice and Research Committee oversees the Institute’s work on promoting planning on the national stage.

It provides an input into policy discussions at a national level which affect planning and it seeks out and promotes good planning practice.

Sue Bridge, chair of the committee, gives an update on the year’s priorities.

Getting the best deal for UK planning and planners on leaving the EU Commissioning top-class research on the value of planning Supporting the highest planning practice The committee is responsible for policy practice and research across the five RTPI nations in the UK and Ireland, and beyond. Its work on Planning Horizons, policy papers e.g. Strategic Planning and our Practice Advice Notes often feature in The Planner. RTPI members can get involved through regional round tables held on policy, and through responding to calls on the website.

1 Greater education in schools about the importance of planning and involvement in shaping the places where we live and work

2 Clearer local plans with more efficient consultations using technology to encourage wider engagement and interaction across a range of demographics

3 Radical approaches to addressing planning issues, taking innovative examples from around the world to tackle housing, infrastructure and environmental issues

POSITION POINTS

BUILDING FOR EQUALITY: DISABILITY AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT In its latest report, the Women and Equalities Committee said the government must improve access and inclusion in the built environment. This should include public procurement, fiscal initiatives, sharing best practice, and bringing the full range of work on improving access and inclusion into a coherent and transparent strategy, with the DCLG held responsible for making this happen.

It echoes the RTPI’s call for more inclusive planning both by local authorities and national government. RTPI CEO Trudi Elliott told the committee that we need to think about disability needs earlier in the process, adding that good design and planning helps everyone.

n RTPI’s response: tinyurl.com/planner0617-inclusive

INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY The government’s industrial strategy seeks to address long-term challenges to the economy to improve living standards and economic growth by increasing productivity and driving growth across the nation.

The RTPI thinks the strategy shows a welcome reaffirmation of a more coordinated and directional approach to economic planning, but it fails to link with other government strategies such as housing and the environment, and is too centralised. A failure to invest in planning would be noticed overseas, particularly if there were a race to the bottom on environmental standards.

n RTPI’s response: tinyurl.com/planner0617-industrial

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NEWS

NEW MEMBERS

RTPI { RT PI ELEC TI ON S 2017

“Many congratulations to all of our new Chartered Members. Employers rightly recognise the professional expertise and integrity conferred by chartered status. Being a chartered member of the RTPI makes you part of a large professional team involved in a diversity of work designed to create better places.” – Stephen Wilkinson, RTPI president

Do you have the passion to help shape the future direction of the Institute?

STEPHEN WILKINSON, PRESIDENT, RTPI We want to draw on your considerable skills and expertise to help shape the future direction of the Institute. Across the UK we are living through uncertain and exciting times, which requires planning to provide certainty and confidence.

Our General Assembly (GA) has a key role in developing future policy and practice. It scrutinises the work of the trustees and holds them to account on behalf of the membership. As a member of the GA, you will have the opportunity to be elected to the board.

With nominations for the elections due to open soon, this is the perfect opportunity for you to directly help shape and influence the future of our Institute. There are 14 Chartered, one Legal and three Student/Licentiate roles available for election to the GA this year.

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CHARTERED MEMBERS ELECTED JANUARY­MARCH 2017

Our standing committees are primarily comprised of GA members.

This will give you the ideal opportunity to ensure that the Institute can fully address the challenges planning faces.

Recent work has included ways to increase the numbers of accredited planners, shaping policy and practice, responding to government papers and strengthening our membership routes.

We need you to stand to represent your part of the membership. It is critical that a diverse range of our members stand to enable all parts of the membership to be heard.

I have found my experience of being on the GA to be immensely rewarding, both personally and professionally, and strongly encourage you to stand for election.

For more information, please contact Berenice Seel, governance manager berenice.seel@rtpi.org.uk

Sandra Adams Stephen Allen Kevin Argue Marsha Badon Kate Bellew Thomas Blackman Alastair Bledowski Lynne Bonsall Jermaine Browne Alix Bussiere De Nercy Joseph Carr Sarah Cary Timothy Chilvers Rebecca Clarke Rodney Coke Brian Conlon Adam Coombs Timothy Crawshaw Pieter De Villiers Laura Dudley-Smith Lillian Duffield Gareth Evans Henry Farrar Donal Farrelly Brenda Ferguson Alice-Rose Fitton Rebecca Foad Benjamin Fox Daniel Fyall Martin Gaine Tony Gallagher Christopher Garratt James Grant Jonathan Greenberg Laura Grimason Robert Haigh Rozie Haines Michael Hammond Marie Haworth Joshua Hellawell Luke Hillson Neil Holly Peter Hopkins Alys Hughes Laura Hutson Gareth Jackson Adam Jackson Tessa Jones Emily Jones Adele Kalinauckas Mairead Kiely Ciaran Kiely Katherine King Rebekah Knight Zoe Knott Maxwell Laverack Adele Lawrence David Lee Sean Lewis

Taran Livingston Emma Luke Joanna Lunn Therese Maguire Victoria Manston Rachel Marber Adam McConaghy Robert McIntosh Paul McMonagle Carl Mercer Lucy Mills John Mills Robert Morgan Irvin Mossman Timea Nacsa Richard Naylor Owen Neal Samuel Neal David Nelson David Nip Carol O’Kane Thomas O’Kane Joanne Orton Michael Osbourn Kate Outterside Jonathan Pannell Anna Papazoglou Parthena Pavlidou Jonathan Pearson Michael Percival Jonathan Pillow Freya Pottinger Jack Pugsley Steven Rennie Darren Ridout Edmond Riley Francesca Rowson Menaka Sahai Frances Schulz Sean Scott Lee Shaw Joseph Shearer Jacqueline Simkins Zoe Simmonds Lee Stannard Rebecca Stevens Katherine Stevens Jonathan Stewart Katherine Sutton David Taylor Matthew Taylor Henry Wagstaff Patrick Walker Adam Wilkinson Seth Williams Morgan Williams Petra Williams Jane Wormald

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22/05/2017 11:26

RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us BOOK YOUR TICKET FOR THIS YEAR’S PLANNING CONVENTION A year on from the Brexit vote and a general election this year, the UK needs better planning more than ever. A society that works for everyone will not happen without investment in planning – or planners. The theme of this year’s Convention, ‘Delivering a strong, inclusive future’, highlights why planning matters in the current political and economic climate. Join us on 21 June in London as professionals from around the world gather to discuss issues such as: making city regions prosper, solving the housing crisis, social inequality, rebalancing the economy and helping global communities.

Book now: tinyurl.com/planner0617-convention

YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE 2017 PROGRAMME LAUNCHED How can strategic planning help deliver healthy places? What are the top three things the planning system can do to improve health and happiness?

These questions and many more will be discussed as early career industry professionals from across the country gather to discuss ‘Healthy, Happy Places and People: Planning for Well-being’ on 3-4 November at the Museum of Science and Industry In Manchester. As well as plenary sessions, a selection of workshops and study tours will further enhance delegates’ knowledge and understanding of different planning challenges.

A welcome drinks reception and gala dinner will offer delegates the opportunity to network.

View the programme and book: tinyurl.com/planner0617-yp

HELP US BUILD A STRONGER PROFESSION COMPLETE OUR MEMBERSHIP SURVEY TODAY By improving what we do, we can serve our members better and build a stronger planning profession. After our last survey we delivered a number of improvements you asked for including policy, campaigns, events and streamlined membership routes. Now we want to hear what more we can do to increase the value of your membership and strengthen the voice of professional planning.

You will receive an email on 6 June with a link to the survey and it will be clearly signposted from our home page or simply use the link below.

To take part: tinyurl.com/planner0617-survey

SAVE THE DATE RTPI SCOTLAND ANNUAL CONFERENCE The 2017 Annual Conference will be held at the COSLA Conference Centre in Edinburgh on 3 October. The review of the Scottish planning system is continuing, and we expect a planning bill before the end of the year. Meanwhile, UN Habitat III in Quito saw the New Urban Agenda adopted, outlining the vital role for planners and planning in improving quality of life by creating inclusiveand sustainable places.

Our speakers from planning and non-planning backgrounds will tackle planning for inclusive growth, social justice and environmental sustainability, and look to develop our agenda for change.

More information: tinyurl.com/planner0617-scotland

RTPI SHORTS

RTPI SCOTLAND GIVES EVIDENCE TO INQUIRY INTO AIR QUALITY Air quality has been moving fast up the political agenda across the UK. Ahead of the introduction of the first Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) in 2018, the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee invited RTPI Scotland to give oral evidence to its inquiry into air quality, and measures to improve it.

The inquiry is hot on the heels of the publication in January of Delivering Cleaner Air for Scotland. Published jointly by Environmental Protection Scotland and RTPI Scotland, this guidance helps planners understand how to deliver better air quality through development planning and development management. Scotland has a strong policy framework on this issue, but it is acknowledged that too often, delivery has fallen short.

Improving this record will depend on better collaboration between planners and other professionals.

Scotland’s continuing planning review is an opportunity to establish a more joined-up approach at the local, regional and national levels.

We mustn’t forget that air pollution does not respect international borders. Provision for air quality protection legislation in a UK that has left the EU must also be a priority of governments in Holyrood, Westminster and the other devolved administrations.

Read RTPI Scotland’s air quality evidence to Parliament: tinyurl.com/planner-617-air-quality

HOW THE INSTITUTE IS INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PLANNERS The Institute has completed its annual cycle of university review meetings. This process sees staff and RTPI volunteers travel to each of our 30-plus accredited Planning Schools. They meet with lecturers and students, examine student research, ensure sufficient resources are available, and confirm that the Planning School continues to offer its students an outstanding education that prepares them for the world of planning practice.

This is a key aspect of influencing the next generation of planners – want to get involved? New volunteers including university lecturers can express an interest to education@rtpi.org.uk.

There are other ways in which members can volunteer to inspire the planners of the future. Ideas and advice are found online in the RTPI Ambassadors’ Toolkit: rtpi.org.uk/ambassadorstoolkit. The toolkit contains an activity pack for 11 to 18-year-olds, lesson activities, a careers presentation, and more. The materials can be adapted for schools, careers fairs and teachers to allow members flexibility in how to engage with young people.

You can also encourage your employer to become recognised as an RTPI Learning Partner. Learning Partners, from small consultancies up to large councils, achieve the highest standards in terms of the training and development of their staff.

For details go to tinyurl.com/planner0617-learning

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LANDSCAPE

Plan B OF FISH, DOGS AND FALSE MAJORITIES In keeping with the principles of Jack Monroe, the food blogger who took on Katie Hopkins and won, we like to refer to ourselves and our other half as the nongender-specific Mx, rather than Mrs, Mr, Miss or even Ms. So, the other day Mx B, yours truly and the mini Bs were choosing our weekly takeaway. “Fried chicken!” cried Mini B number 1. “Yay, fried chicken!” seconded Mini B number 2. Mx B expressed a preference for fish supper, with which your humble scribe concurred.

“Woof!” barked Doggy B, whose opinion is given equal weight in our allinclusive household. Based on previous takeaway runs, we interpreted “Woof!” to mean pizza*. So we had a trilemma: fish suppers, fried chicken or pizza?

On the basis that the house belongs to Mx B, their vote was given greater weight and Plan B was requested to fetch four fish suppers to feed our hungry brood (Doggy B would have to make do with dog biscuits and a sliver of fish skin).

Plan B delayed departure, however, with the observation that what had just occurred was curiously akin to what happens every five years or two at UK general elections. Under the first-pastthe-post system, the views of property owners are inherently privileged and a false majority consistently gets its way.

In our case, 40 per cent expressed a preference for fish supper and 40 per cent for fried chicken. Yet we held sway because, even though not actually a majority, we included the sole landowner in our number. This is despite the fact that 60 per cent of our electorate were unable to own property (or even contribute to household expenses), two being children, and one being a dog.

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We were a false majority.

In a binary system with a limited franchise, Was there another proceeding first-past-the-post is the obvious default. But in that would give everyone what they a more atomised world with a wide franchise, wanted, even if unable to make the an either/or system is bound to be inadequate. kind of economic contribution that the The only way to produce the definitive result electoral system favoured (other kinds it demands is to fudge it – thus sleight of hand of contribution to household life are turns a minority into a majority every five (or available)? Indeed there was, as Plan B two) years. self-righteously pointed out.

We’re told this is to ensure ‘strong and stable’ We would first drop into the chippy, government. But the opposite is arguably true. we suggested, and order two fish suppers, And if you’re lucky enough to be part of the which would likely take several minutes largest minority you get to tell everyone else to prepare. Instead of waiting, we’d cross they’re eating fish and chips when they’d rather the road to Chicken Carnage, where we’d have fried chicken – even if it’s possible to have pick up two servings of fried chicken to both fish and chips AND fried chicken, and feed go. The fish suppers the dog to boot. would now be ready Whither planning? Well, planning and we’d be all set with is concerned with a) land use and food for four humans ownership: b) the allocation of resources. and a dog.

The idea overall is to achieve – loosely – This more the greatest good. Planning understands “THE PRACTICE proportional approach that some people prefer fish and chips OF PLANNING IS to dinner provision and some people prefer fried chicken and ALMOST ALWAYS may require a tad tries to achieve a satisfactory balance with DICTATED more planning and available resources. Planning protects

BY PARTISAN effort, but the result democracy. It is bound to listen to all POLITICAL is more satisfactory opinions and weight them duly. Yet the AGENDAS” since everyone now practice of planning is almost always has what they want dictated by partisan political agendas. (except, arguably, the smallest minority Can planning achieve all that it is capable of – Doggy B – with whom we will share an achieving if we are forever catering primarily to appropriate portion of our bounty, or give the whims of the false majority? an alternative in the form of dog-specific We (Plan B, Mx B, Mini Bs 1&2 and Doggy food).

B) feel it is entirely possible to cater to us all In the case of the 2017 general election, in a considerate way. We just have to research, we are almost certainly going to be negotiate, plan and, yes, accommodate submitting to a false majority, as we have alternative worldviews. Oh, and we sometimes in every general election since 1931. Our have to put in a wee bit of extra effort. political system, ultimately rooted as it Is this really so hard? is in the binary, land-based politics of the early modern period, still carries the n We do not actually feed our dog pizza, fried musty scent of a pre-metropolitan, prechicken or fish and chips, and we recommend you industrial world. don’t either. Your dog, that is, not Plan B’s.

nWant to chip in? Tweet us @ThePlanner_RTPI 22/05/2017 12:44

LANDSCAPE

LISTINGS

DON’T MISS

Talks, conferences, training, masterclasses – everything you need to keep on top of the latest thinking and developments in the planning world.

RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence highlight exceptional examples of planning and celebrate the contribution that planners and planning make to society. Join 400-plus planning professionals for an evening of networking and celebration of the great work in our industry.

LONDON 13 June – Environmental Impact Assessments This workshop covers the relevant legislation, provide explanatory examples and will assist with contributing to, reviewing and submitting a successful EIA. Trainer: Dorian Latham, technical director, JBA Consulting.

Venue: Prospero House (etc Venues), 241 Borough High St, London SE1 1GA Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-LO-1306 20 June – Advanced masterclass in urban design RTPI Conferences’ masterclass ‘Design in the planning system’ introduces urban design to planners, explaining how policy and management can raise standards of design in development.

This event will show local authority specialist staff and others how frameworks for highquality development can be created in practice.

Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-LO-2006 21 June – RTPI Planning Convention 2017 From devolution and housing, to smart and sustainable planning, this event will offer delegates the opportunity to hear from key influencers in the industry, learn from each other, network, discuss, debate and find creative solutions to the most pressing problems facing the profession. Other highlights include sessions on planning for disaster relief, the night-time economy, skills & careers, and an audience-led ‘Ask the chief planners’ session.

Venue: 155 Bishopsgate, London Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-LO-2106

4 July – Giving evidence at inquiries This masterclass will provide you with the tools and techniques to prepare properly for such a situation, present your evidence to the best of your ability at the inquiry.

Venue: Prospero House (etc Venues) Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-LO-0407

SOUTH EAST 9 June – Sustainable regeneration of former defence sites This one-day event looks at former defence establishments and regeneration of their heritage, focusing particularly on the SouthEast region’s experience of land disposals.

Venue: Bursledon Brickworks Museum, Coal Park Ln, Swanwick, Southampton SO31 7GW Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-SE-0906 28 June – CIL Update With CIL now a familiar term in planning, it’s time to discuss whether it still represents the best method for funding infrastructure and whether planners should prepare for it to be replaced.

Venue: St Mary The Virgin Church, Ashford TN23 1QG Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-SE-2806

SOUTH WEST 22 June – Development management This event will provide practitioners with insight into EIA, efficacy and pitfalls. It will also review the effect on development management of the 2016 Housing and Planning Act by reviewing relevant enforcement matters with

case studies.

Venue: Plymouth University, Portland Square, Plymouth PL4 8AA Details: tinyurl.com/ planner067-SW-2206

EAST OF ENGLAND 15 June – Housing delivery This conference will continue the discussion on issues relating to the “broken housing market” and its failure to deliver the numbers of homes needed to house the nation. Confirmed speakers include Janice Morphet, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, and James Prestwich, National Housing Federation.

Venue: Spirella Ballroom, The Spirella Building, Bridge Road, Letchworth Garden City, SG6 4ET Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-EE-1506

EAST MIDLANDS 14 June – Beyond the housing white paper A mix of expert speakers will discuss the practical implications of the housing white paper for planners working in both the public and private sectors from across the East Midlands.

Venue: Pera Business Park, Nottingham Road, Melton Mowbray LE13 0PB Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-EM-1406

WEST MIDLANDS 28 June – Effective planning applications This seminar will explore what makes best practice from a planning authority and applicant’s perspective.

Venue: New offices of Pinsent Masons, 55 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2AS

Date: 15 June Venue: Milton Court Concert Hall, Milton St, London EC2Y 9BH Details: tinyurl.com/planner0617-LO-1506

Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-WM-2806

YORKSHIRE 15 June – Improving design quality through consultation This conference will include best practice case studies from each stage of the planning process and conclude with principles that can be used to enrich the quality of buildings, places and spaces.

Venue: Leeds Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-YO-1506

NORTH WEST 22 June – Ethics, mediation & negotiation The event will look at the integrity of RTPI planners in not only meeting the standards required by the RTPI, but also how they navigate the greater good of the community and the environment while meeting the needs of growth and the development industry.

Venue: Pinsent Masons, 3 Hardman St, Manchester M3 3AU Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-NW-2206

NORTH EAST 12 June – NE Leisure, Tourism and Recreation How the planning system can help deliver healthy sustainable communities for more vulnerable members of society, and the role of green space, recreation and leisure in meeting the needs of healthy communities, as well as the urban design

and welfare requirements needed to address the housing, transport and other needs of the elderly.

Venue: Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4EP Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-NE-1206

WALES 8 June – Wales Planning Conference 2017: 10 Years of the Wales Planning Conference A look at the first Planning Act in Wales and the Wales Act 2017, which has also received Royal Assent, devolving further powers to Welsh ministers. The conference will also consider further changes, including the Law Commission’s work for a second planning act.

Venue: City Hall, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3ND Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-WA-0806

SCOTLAND 7 June – Sir Patrick Geddes Commemorative Lecture 2017: Poverty, Places and Equality: A role for place-based approaches?

A lecture by Naomi Eisenstadt, independent adviser to the Scottish Government on Poverty and Inequality. Naomi is also an honorary research fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Education and the Department of Social Policy and Intervention.

Venue: The Lighthouse, Mitchell Lane, Glasgow G1 3NU Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0617-SC-0706

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2017

Delivering a strong, inclusive future 21 June 2017 - London Join key influencers and planning professionals from around the world to discuss and debate how planners can contribute to building a stronger, inclusive future for all.

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Jules Pipe Deputy Mayor, Planning, Regeneration and Skills, Greater London Authority

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RTPI Conferences and the Planning Convention are managed by Kaplan on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Kaplan and RTPI Conferences: 179-191 Borough High St, London, SE1 1HR Royal Town Planning Institute’s Head Office: 41 Botolph Lane, London, EC3R 8DL. A limited number of discounted places are available for student/unemployed/retired RTPI members at £99+VAT

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