The Planner - March 2021

MARCH 2021 ARE LOCAL PLANS TOO COMPLEX? // p.4 • COUNCILS FALTER ON HOUSING DELIVERY// p.6 • HELEN FADIPE: STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY // p.18 • DESIGNING FOR NEURODIVERSITY // p.30 • ADAPTING HACKNEY // p.28 • ANGLIAN WATER’S WAYS// p.34

T H E B U S I N ES S M O N T H LY FO R P L A N N I N G P R O F ES S IO N A LS

See the difference

HOW PLANNING NEEDS TO RESPOND TO THE GROWING VISIBILITY OF THE UK’S DIVERSE COMMUNITIES

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12/02/2021 10:36

UK Employers

The way you hire from the EU has changed

You need to be a licensed sponsor to hire eligible employees from outside the UK. Becoming a sponsor normally takes 8 weeks and fees apply.

The new points-based immigration system has also introduced new job, salary and language requirements that apply when hiring from the EU. This does not apply when hiring Irish citizens or those eligible for status under the EU settlement scheme.

Find out more at GOV.UK/HiringFromTheEU

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CONTENTS

MARCH

04 NEWS 4 Q&A: Jerry Youle, professional lead for local plans at the Planning Inspectorate 6 Test shows 55 councils failed to deliver 75 per cent of housing target

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OPINION

9 Governmentauthorised report advocates town centre plans

14 Louise BrookeSmith: Novelty value

10 Welsh minister promises moves on second homes policy

16 Simon Prescott: We need spatial planning to successfully level up the country

11 Newsmakers: 10 top stories from The Planner online

16 Jenny Divine: Cities are diverse – we must plan for all their inhabitants 17 Owen Jarvis: How cohousing can help the housing secretary solve a planning problem 17 Ben Kite: Our environment is precious, so why are we delaying protections?

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“I WOULD SAY THE TRIGGER WAS HEARING PEOPLE TELLING ME ABOUT THEIR LONELINESS. I JUST FELT I NEEDED TO CREATE A NETWORK” COV E R I M AG E | N E I L W E B B

FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 Helen Fadipe discusses the ‘glass ceiling’ faced

by BAME planners with Simon Wicks

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

28 Case study: Hackney Council has created an award-winning scheme adapted to the needs of its Haredi community 30 Huw Morris discovers how planners are focusing on neurodiversity 34 How Anglian Water won the 2020 RTPI Awards for In-house Planning Team of the Year

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“I’M ALWAYS STRUCK BY THE PASSION SO MANY CLEARLY FEEL ABOUT THE GREEN BELT, BUT ALSO VERY OFTEN A PROFOUND LACK OF UNDERSTANDING ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS" ZACK SIMONS, PLANNING BARRISTER AT LANDMARK CHAMBERS ON THE GREEN BELT

42 Legal Landscape: Opinions from the legal side of planning

24 Matt Moody considers the case for a culture shift in housing design

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44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 What to read, what to watch and how to keep in touch

Make the most of The Planner – mouse over our links for more information

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NEWS

Report { THE ROLE OF THE PLANNING INSPECTORATE

Q&A: Are local plans too complicated?

By Simon Wicks

With an increasing number of local plans being found unsound and government proposing to streamline the creation of local plans, we asked Jerry Youle (JY), professional lead for local plans at the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), about the examinations process and whether local plans are too complex and unwieldy to do their job.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What's your role at the Planning Inspectorate, Jerry?

JY: Well, it is about the quality of our local plans – making sure that we do what we can to ensure that local plan examinations run effectively, the quality of our work is good and that we’re training and advising our inspectors who do local plans well. I suppose wrapped around all that is making sure that our quality assurance mechanisms are good as well.

15-year plans here for some large local authority areas with big populations, doing something quite complex – often controversial – with differing views on it, politically difficult, very complex evidence bases that draw on all sorts of things – housing need, environmental protection, viability, and strategic infrastructure.

Then planning legislation requires examiners to assess soundness, and if a plan is not sound, to recommend making modifications. That’s a simple one-liner, but that quite often means big issues relating to things like finding housing sites. The council might have to go away, find more evidence, work out what it thinks should be changed to make the plan sound and consult on it. There probably needs to be more hearings and the inspector then has to decide.

It’s not a simple yes/no decision.

Is it too rigorous?

JY: I think at the moment it strikes a fair balance between rigorous and being proportionate, given the scale of the things that inspectors are examining.

Jerry Youle says planning ‘touches on almost every aspect of human endeavour somewhere along the line’

What is the inspectorate’s role in examining plans?

JY: We’re the people who appoint the independent examiners who are charged with assessing whether plans are sound. The responsibility for those decisions lies with the examiner, not with the Planning Inspectorate.

The role of the inspector is to assess, when the plans come in, if they are sound. But it doesn’t stop there. They also recommend changes to make the plan sound if it’s not.

Why does it take so long to examine local plans?

JY: Quite often it takes between one and two years. When looked at from the outside that does seem like a very long time. But these are very big things to examine. We are talking about

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PLAN UPFRONT

Why have we seen so many local plan where, if the plan is not plans face difficulties during sound, there is an opportunity to examinations recently? fix it. The duty to cooperate is a JY: Well, I don’t know whether legal test relating to something the statistically, actually, we’re seeing local authority must have done more plans face problems. But it before it has submitted the plan. It might feel like that. I think it’s can’t be fixed in examination. the sheer controversial nature of Have we made the local plan what is being done within local plans. The planning issue is often process too complicated? about meeting housing needs, JY: It is complicated. Local plans which is really important, and are doing some big things. that has to be balanced against If, like North Essex, you’re going all the protective measures, the to be thinking about allocating green belt, areas of outstanding three new towns, we need to natural beauty, biodiversity and realise those are very, very big so on. Often those are in tension. decisions. And there are lots of So even if you took away all the things the local authority and controversy, you would still have the country probably want to people trying to grapple with what make sure we get right when the right answer is. those things happen. So it is But then you layer not surprising on top of that what is they become “WHAT IS GOING TO going to be politically complex. That’s BE POLITICALLY acceptable to a local what makes ACCEPTABLE TO A authority and local so LOCAL AUTHORITY AND planning people? It’s like interesting, LOCAL PEOPLE? IT’S two tectonic plates isn’t it? It LIKE TWO TECTONIC clashing, the art of on PLATES CLASHING, THE touches what planning wants almost every ART OF WHAT PLANNING aspect of human and the art of the WANTS AND THE ART politically acceptable. endeavour OF THE POLITICALLY Local authority somewhere ACCEPTABLE” officers and planning along the line. inspectors quite often end up standing in What tips the middle of that. would you give to councils to Are there any help ensure particular areas that increase that a plan gets through the that tension or the likelihood examination? of failure?

JY: Don’t assume that big JY: Nearly always it is about problems can be fixed in housing needs – one authority examinations – some can’t and reaches a conclusion that it can’t some will be so big and difficult meet its own housing needs they will take a very long time itself. Then the issue is have they to resolve. It is important to look engaged with their neighbours at the representations carefully. about whether they can help?

Are they making good points you There is a tendency for should address before going into neighbours quite naturally to say, the examination? Resource your “Well, we’re struggling here to team well – the examination is meet our own housing needs; an intensive process. Finally, be it’s a bit of a problem meeting confident in your plan. Local plans yours as well, isn’t it?” are a good thing and you know The duty to cooperate is not your area better than anyone else. like the soundness test in the Have pride in your plan.

I M A G E | P L A N N I N G I N S P E C T O R AT E

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Local plans latest

90%

of local authorities have an adopted local plan (1)

40%

are less than five years old or have been reviewed/updated in the past five years (2)

80%

of local planning authorities will need to review an existing plan or adopt a new plan to meet the government’s proposed 2023 deadline (3)

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months is the average time from submission to a plan being found sound (under 2012 NPPF) (4)

53%

of adopted up-to-date plans require a statutory review within two years (5)

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emerging local plans in England were either withdrawn from examination or found unsound in 2020: Wealden (withdrawn: duty to cooperate, housing need); St Albans (withdrawn: duty to cooperate); Sevenoaks (unsound: duty to cooperate); Chiltern and South Bucks (withdrawn: housing need, green belt)

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more local plans have been identified as being at risk in 2021: Tandridge, Tonbridge and Malling, York (1) CPRE What’s the plan? report, May 2020 (2) CPRE What’s the plan? report, May 2020 (3) CPRE What’s the plan? report, May 2020 (4) Lichfields research, 2019 (5) Lichfields research, 2019

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NEWS

Analysis { HOUSING DELIVERY TEST

Test shows 55 councils failed to deliver 75% of housing target

By Laura Edgar

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At the other end of the scale, some councils delivered just shy of the 75 per cent threshold, such as Bristol (72 per cent) Broxbourne (74 per cent) and Tower Hamlets (74 per cent).

Of the remaining councils, 33 delivered more than 85 per cent but missed the 95 per cent pass mark, including Canterbury (87 per cent) and Hinckley and Bosworth (92 per cent), so these authorities must now produce an action plan.

The 19 councils that delivered between 75 per cent and 85 per cent of their target, such as Mole Valley (81 per cent) and Gosport (84 per cent) must identify a buffer in addition to producing an action plan.

A total of 217 councils, including the London Legacy Development Corporation, face no action at all.

Action plan

Buffer

55

19

None

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Housing Delivery Test 2020 consequences

217

The 2020 Housing Delivery Test shows of 20 per cent more land (on top of their that 55 local authorities in England face five-year housing land supply), as well as the presumption in favour of sustainable develop an action plan. development.

This means that they failed to deliver 75 The results per cent of their housing target.

The 2020 results show that 55 councils To calculate the Housing Delivery Test, will face the presumption in favour of the total net homes delivered over a threesustainable development. year period is divided by the total number Eastbourne Borough Council produced of homes required over a three-year the worst performance, delivering 457 period. The 2020 test considers 2017/18, homes out of a required 1,571 homes, 2018/19 and 2019/20. which equates to 29 per cent. The 2019 On 23 March 2020, the first national test results show that the council delivered lockdown was introduced to stem 38 per cent of its assessed need and faced the spread of Covid-19. To reflect the the presumption in favour of sustainable temporary disruption development. this caused, the period Seven other councils “THE 2020 for measuring the homes fell into the presumption RESULTS required in 2019/20 has category for 2019. Basildon SHOW THAT been reduced by one Council (45 per cent), 55 COUNCILS month, a Housing Delivery the London Borough of WILL FACE THE Test technical note Havering (36), North PRESUMPTION published by the Ministry Hertfordshire District IN FAVOUR OF of Housing Communities Council (36 per cent), and Local Government Thanet District Council (54 SUSTAINABLE (MHCLG) explains. per cent) and Three Rivers DEVELOPMENT" The reduced District Council (54 per requirement means cent) face the presumption that each authority’s in favour of sustainable requirement was development again, the calculated from 01/04/17 2020 results indicate. to 01/03/20, totalling 35 months, rather New Forest District Council exceeded than the normal 36-month requirement. its target, delivering 107 per cent and Councils must deliver at least 95 per faces no action, and the City of London cent of their housing target to pass the Corporation delivered 238 per cent of its 2020 test. When the test was first used in target so it also escapes any penalty.

2018, councils had to deliver 25 per cent In addition to Eastbourne, Basildon, before facing the presumption in favour of Havering and North Hertfordshire, the sustainable development, and this went councils that failed to deliver half of up to 45 per cent in 2019. their target are: In line with national planning guidance, Adur (48 per cent) councils that delivered between 85 per Castle Point (48 per cent) cent and 95 per cent of their assessed Epping Forest (49 per cent) need must develop an action plan to Epsom and Ewell (34 per cent) assess why they under-delivered and Kensington and Chelsea (49 per cent) to remedy it. Councils that delivered Sandwell (49 per cent) between 75 per cent and 85 per cent of Southend-on-Sea (36 per cent) their assessed need must identify a buffer Watford (48 per cent)

Presumption in favour of sustainable development

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PLAN UPFRONT The test shows that 55 councils straddle the green line of presumption in favour of development, the top 12 principally located in the south and east

The regional picture

North Hertfordshire Sandwell

Havering Epping Forest Basildon Castle Point Watford Kensington & Chelsea Epsom & Ewell

Southendon-Sea

Adur

Eastbourne

Presumption in favour of sustainable development Adur

Gateshead

Arun

Gedling

Southwark

Ashfield

Gravesham

Spelthorne

Barking and

Haringey

St Albans

Hastings

Stevenage

Basildon

Havant

Tandridge

Bolton

Havering

Thanet

Brentwood

Ipswich

Three Rivers

City of Bristol

Isle of Wight

Thurrock

Bromsgrove

Kensington

Tower Hamlets

Dagenham

Broxbourne

and Chelsea

on-Sea

Trafford

Bury

Medway

Warrington

Calderdale

North

Watford

Castle Point

Hertfordshire

Eastbourne

Redbridge

Elmbridge

Rossendale

Worthing

Enfield

Rother

North Dorset

Epping Forest

Sandwell

Poole

Epsom and

Sevenoaks

Purbeck

Ewell Erewash

South Bucks Southend-

Welwyn Hatfield

Considered by RTPI region, all feature at least one council facing the presumption, but tthe South East has the most at 17. The East of England comes in second with 14. London has eight, the North West five, the South West four, East Midlands three, West Midlands two, and the North East and Yorkshire each have one.

The South East also has the most councils that need to identify a buffer (eight) and an action plan (10).

Comparing this with the data from the 2019 test, 19 councils in the South East fell into the buff b er category and nine into the t action plan category, the most of all the regions.

Although the East of England has a high number facing the presumption, none of its councils fall into the t buffer category. Of the 15 that faced the buffer in 2019, t 10 fell into the presumption category in 2020.

London and the South East account for 25 councils facing the presumption, whereas there are just seven in the North East (five), North West (one) and Yorkshire (one).

Areas of constraint The presumption in favour of sustainable development, or the so-called tilted balance, intends to bolster housing delivery. But looking at green belt areas and the local authorities that fall into the presumption category, many of these align. These include Basildon, Castle Point, Epping Forest, Epsom and Ewell, North Hertfordshire, St Albans, Stevenage, Three Rivers, Thurrock, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield in the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Speaking at a Civic Voice event entitled ‘Do we need to

talk about England’s green belt?’, planning barrister at Landmark Chambers Zack Simons noted that most of the local authorities facing the presumption lie within the green belt.

“What that means is, because of the way that national planning policy is structured, in reality this tilted balance will hardly ever actually take effect in these areas – which means that the consequences for most authorities of failing to meet the government’s Housing Delivery Test will be literally zero.”

Speaking to The Planner Mike Newton, director of planning at Boyer, said there are three aspects that stand out in those authorities that failed against the test: the concentration in London, South East and East of England; the prevalence of the green belt; and the high proportion of authorities that have an outdated local plan.

Regarding green belt land, “we can draw the conclusion that although some authorities are reviewing green belt they are still not releasing enough land in these areas which mostly have acute housing needs and do not meet their housing requirements”.

Newton also noted that many of the areas facing the presumption have an outdated local plan. “The report shows that 40 out of the 55 authorities who are achieving less than threequarters of their housing requirement have got a plan that is outdated. It’s important for the government to recognise these patterns in the Housing Delivery Test results and act to resolve the issues behind them.”

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NEWS

Analysis { Council responses Eastbourne Borough Council Eastbourne said that although it continues to foster working relationships with public sector partners, progress has been affected by Covid-19.

“However, we anticipate housingled schemes being submitted later this year that will be of a scale not seen in Eastbourne for a generation. Despite our approving more than 90 per cent of all applications received, there is a significant shortfall in our housing delivery rate against our set target. The larger schemes highlighted will only make a marginal difference to our housing delivery rate.”

The council is contending with “limited and constrained geography” – to the south it borders the English Channel and to the west is the South Downs National Park. “We will be scoping housing growth through the development of our local plan, which like many others is scheduled for adoption towards the end of 2023. As such, we do not see the presumption status being lifted any time soon.”

St Albans City & District Council St Albans City & District Council dropped into the buffer category for the 2019 test and now faces the presumption after

the 2020 test. It said it had published its action plan to address the shortfall in housing delivery.

It highlights that the step change in housing requirements can only be delivered through the adoption of a new local plan. This will “almost certainly require the council to release green belt”.

The council has asked landowners, builders and other interested groups to put forward sites within the St Albans district that might be suitable for development, as the action plan sets out.

According to the action plan, the council will work on developing early work, such as masterplans, to assist in the timely submission of planning applications on key emerging draft local plan sites. It is expected that this will allow housing delivery targets to be met during the new local plan period.

Sandwell Council The main barriers to creating and

“WE ANTICIPATE HOUSING­ LED SCHEMES BEING SUBMITTED LATER THIS YEAR THAT WILL BE OF A SCALE NOT SEEN IN EASTBOURNE FOR A GENERATION" ­ EASTBOURNE COUNCIL

maintaining a robust supply of housing land in Sandwell include the presence of occupied employment uses and shortage of land for relocating those uses, explained Danny Millard, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for inclusive economic growth.

“Given the increase in demand for employment land and sites, which was not anticipated when the last strategic planning assessments were carried out for both the Black Country in general and Sandwell in particular, the supply of brownfield land that might otherwise have come forward to meet local and wider housing needs has not materialised. This reflects the health of the local economy and is in many ways to be welcomed,” he added.

The council is undertaking a number of actions to increase housing delivery, including working with the West Midlands Combined Authority to bring forward sites such as Friar Park in Wednesbury, a huge swathe of former industrial land, which is expected to deliver 750 homes.

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Johnny Thalassites, the council’s lead member for planning, said: “Building homes remains a top priority for us.

Although more than 75 per cent of our small borough sits inside conservation areas, planning permission was granted for more than 700 homes in the last year.

These take time to come to fruition.

“We have an action plan to boost housing delivery and we have an ambitious home building programme of our own, with plans for 600 homes over five years, 300 to be offered at social rent. The first 97 of these now have planning permission.”

It should also be noted that the new London Plan has reduced the borough’s housing target from 733 to 448 housing units a year.

Full responses from the councils can be read here: bit.ly/planner0321Housingdeliverytest2020 The 2020 Housing Delivery Test can be found on the UK Government website: bit.ly/planner0321-hdt

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PLAN UPFRONT

Government-authorised report advocates town centre plans “with a focus and commitment on The Scottish Government has the wellbeing of people, the been urged to introduce a planet and the economy”. moratorium on out-ofThe report makes the town development and case for a focus on local to back the production accessibility to services of town and town and endorses the idea of centre plans to be 20-minute co-produced with neighbourhoods. It also communities. calls for a greater That call emerges in emphasis on data a report from the Town collection and use at town Centre Action Plan and town centre levels.

Review Group, As well as prescribing a commissioned by ministers last Fort William moratorium on out-of-town June to evaluate the development, the group suggests a administration’s Town Centre First government review of current tax, funding, approach and refresh it. and development arrangements. This The group concludes that a refocus and might require amendments to nonre-emphasis of the principle would be domestic rates, a digital tax, amendments beneficial. It stresses that towns and town to VAT and an out-of-town car parking centres should be prioritised in National space levy.

Planning Framework 4 and called for town Another key theme is the need for a centre plans to be developed and climate change response. This would implemented with the local community

involve building on existing programmes like Climate Action Towns and include microgeneration, retrofitting of town centre buildings and the alteration of space in town centres for active travel, pedestrian movement, green space and social settings.

All of these are measures that would enhance the resilience of town centres, contends the report.

Welcoming the report, Barbara Cummins, convenor of RTPI Scotland, said: “Scotland’s town centres are an important part of everyday life. Indeed, this role is becoming even more essential in the postCovid green recovery given the need for people to have local access to the services and facilities they need.

“Planners can play a vital role in this so I am pleased to see that the expert group has shown how they can be front and centre in helping make this happen.”

Read the full story here: bit.ly/planner0321-Scottishtowns

800 rental homes proposed for Belfast’s Titanic Quarter Pre-application discussions with Belfast City Council are under way over a proposal for a new residential area in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

It is designed to provide 800 buildto-rent flats, 20 per cent of which would be affordable.

Lacuna Developments, Watkin Jones Group plc, Titanic Quarter Ltd and Belfast Harbour are behind the £175 million waterside project earmarked for a 1.4-hectare site.

As well as the flats the scheme would include shops, cafés and restaurants, a gym, a pharmacy, and crèche with opportunities for the

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community, arts, and cultural sectors.

The plans also involve a public square and park, along with a public riverside promenade. The flats would have roof terraces, courtyards, and lounges.

The proposals include on-site renewable energy measures, reduced reliance on cars and investment in active and public transport.

If built, it would be the city centre’s first significant build-to-rent scheme.

The announcement came as the annual Deloitte Crane Survey revealed there had been no new housing developments started in the city during 2020.

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NEWS

News { NPPF to stress placemaking Housing secretary Robert Jenrick proposes to alter England’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) so that it places ‘greater emphasis’ on beauty and placemaking.

These proposals, which are subject to consultation, were published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government alongside a draft national design code, all in response to the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’s

report Living with Beauty, which came out in February 2020.

The draft national design code provides a checklist of design principles for new developments.

Street character, building type and façade all feature, while new development should address wellbeing and environmental impact. Councils can use these as a foundation for their local design codes, explained the ministry.

Jenrick has also vowed to create an Office for Place within the year to support communities in turning their designs into the standard for all new buildings in their area.

The government said the changes proposed mean the word “beauty” will be “specifically” included in planning rules for the first since the system was created in 1947.

Read the full story here: bit.ly/planner0312-NPPFdesign

Irish appeals body chair lobbied for retention of fasttrack housing Dave Walsh, chairman of An Bord Pleanála, personally lobbied the government to extend the fast-track regime for housing developments of more than 100 units, which is due to end this year.

The scheme, suggested Walsh, could be retained in a more limited form for large schemes of 300 to 400 homes in an email sent last September to housing minister Darragh O’Brien. The message was released to The Irish Times under a Freedom of Information request. Walsh’s email stressed he was giving only his own thoughts on policy areas.

Walsh told the minister he was aware of “ongoing reservations” from local councillors that the scheme “undermined” the decision-making powers of local authorities. And he contended that there was also a need for a better way to track how many new homes were being delivered than the numbers granted planning permission.

Full story: bit.ly/planner0321-ABPchair

Welsh minister promises moves on second homes policy The Welsh Government has highlighted the issues raised by second homes as ripe for further policy initiatives.

In a written statement, housing and local government minister Julie James stressed: “We are acutely aware of growing concern in some parts of Wales about the impact of second homes on communities, access to housing and affordability and the impact this has on the Welsh language. Whilst not a pan-Wales issue, it is one that is affecting communities and provokes strong feelings at local or hyper-local levels.”

James said that the government is commissioning research to make a more qualitative assessment of government interventions in other parts of the UK and beyond. She pointed out how Wales was the only UK administration to have enabled council tax premiums to be levied on second homes.

“I welcome the creative use by some local authorities

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of these powers to stimulate the better use of the dwelling stock in their areas and utilise the additional funding to underpin housing plans and the development of affordable housing,” said James.

Eight councils charge premiums on second homes, and from the next financial year Gwynedd is set to levy the full 100 per cent currently available. Money raised would bankroll more affordable homes.

A key contribution that planning could make, James added, is to ensure there is adequate supply of sites for new homes for local people. She promised to continue to work across the Senedd and with local authorities and others “as we seek to develop the right solutions.”

Full story: bit.ly/planner0321-secondhomesWales

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CATCH UP WITH THE PLANNER

Newsmakers N Local essential services at risk from permitted development in England Government proposals that would allow a range of commercial buildings to be turned into residential units without going through the full planning process risks the loss of essential local services and an increase in poorquality homes, warns the RTPI. bit.ly/planner0321-RTPIwarning

A conversation about the green belt Green belt is a technical rather than environmental policy, loved and yet largely misunderstood by the public. These were just a couple of the points emphasised at a Civic Voice event entitled ‘Do we need to talk about England’s green belt?’ bit.ly/planner0321-greenbelttalk

Environment bill is delayed The government has delayed the environment bill, blaming the Covid-19 pandemic, and the proposed legislation will not return to the House of Commons for debate until the next parliamentary session. bit.ly/planner0321-delayed

Affordable housing bill published in Ireland The Irish Government says that its new bill will provide for the introduction of three new schemes that ministers insist will increase the supply of affordable homes. bit.ly/ planner0321-Irishbill

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South Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning committee has granted outline planning permission for a 4,500-home development at Waterbeach New Town East. bit.ly/planner0321-4500homes

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RTPI Scotland is calling on the e next Scottish Government to create healthy places for people by embedding 20-minute neighbourhoods into policy, practice and investment decisions. bit.ly/planner0321-RTPIScotsElection

Go-ahead for major regeneration scheme in Bangor Ards and North Down Borough Council has approved a £50 million redevelopment of Bangor town centre, close to the seafront. The mixed-use scheme will involve extensive regeneration work in the rundown Queen’s Parade area. bit.ly/planner0321-BangorNI

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Approach to economics must change to reverse biodiversity loss An independent review into the economics of biodiversity has concluded that there needs be a ffundamental d tto b d t l change in the approach to economics if biodiversity loss is to be reversed and prosperity enhanced. bit.ly/planner0321-Dasgupta

Planning flyers launched in Ireland to boost public insight

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A series of online information leaflets to help the public navigate the Irish planning system has been launched by local government and planning minister Peter Burke. bit.ly/planner0321leaflets

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Homes at Cambridgeshire new town approved

Next Scottish Governmentt ‘should create places for people

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Pioneering intergenerational ‘village’ proposed in Dumfries An ambitious scheme to develop a so-called ‘intergenerational’ village with nearly 500 new homes is shaping up in Dumfries. If it gets off the drawing board it would be the first of its kind in the UK. bit.ly/planner0321intergenerational

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LEADER COMMENT

Event When instincts of localism and centralism collide Criticism of UK government structure has tended to centre on, well, its centralism. Research has routinely concluded that the regions remains heavily dependent on Westminster.

Yes, the last 25 years have seen devolution, city regions and more – but vehement criticism remains about the slow pace or uneven distribution of the powers passed down by Whitehall.

With this in mind it’s interesting to look at Planning for the Future’s optimistic view of community involvement in the setting of local plans in England. This is the potentially very welcome localisation of plan shaping, with empowered and enthused councillors and communities coming together to create local plans that they own, outlining their vision, determining which land is for which use, and even helping to fashion the

Martin Read design code that developers need to adhere to. Local ownership, local control - an enticing prospect.

It’s not just the potential conflict with central government when housing numbers are attributed to these new plans, although clearly this has the potential to cause considerable tensions with the larger number of local people involved in the plan’s development and maintenance. It is also about how any one local

plan affects other, adjoining local plans. Because if we do indeed end up with local communities embracing their role in assessing, structuring and adapting local plans, such groups would undoubtedly look to understand the work of the other local plans affecting their own. With so much planning cutting across boundaries, and with more local people aware of their own area’s plans, it is difficult not to envisage talk turning again to the reintroduction of at least some form of strategic planning in due course. The fear is doubtless that doing so would reintroduce another tier, thus slowing the very decisionmaking practice Planning for the Future envisions.

Optimists will point to an all-new level of democratic control with local people

“IT'S ABOUT HOW ONE LOCAL PLAN AFFECTS ADJOINING LDPS"

better able to influence the character and future of the places they live. But it’s difficult not to see strategic planning, and perhaps the radical reappraisal of the green belt that is often threatened but never realised, being drawn back into the conversation.

Finally, I think you know the score by now, but do please keep an eye out for the web and video links we’ve placed alongside relevant content. More extensive versions of our news and feature content are just a mouse click away, as are our appeals decisions stories, which we add to on most weekdays.

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12/02/2021 10:38

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

O Opinion

Novelty value If you’ve got kids, have you had those odd conversations when you refer to equipment or machinery, in common parlance, only to find that they have no idea what you are talking about?

Last year we were clearing out the loft for a house move and unearthed a series of record players from down the ages. I accept that my ‘His Master’s Voice’ windup gramophone with a selection of 78s must have looked like a museum artefact. But it was good fun to play hits of the 1930s and imagine grandparents and great-grandparents raving through the night.

I was, however, a little surprised when hubby and I unleashed our Decca HiFi system complete with very large speakers and our highly prized LPs of the late ’70s and ’80s. It was comical to watch the incredulity on our kids’ faces of having to get up and turn a record over – akin to having to push a knob on the telly to change channels. The fact it had an integrated tape player meant there was much mileage in the ‘laughing-at-us’ stakes.

But what was then strange was that our joint Christmas present last year was a compact ‘retro’ record player, which our daughter explained didn’t need miles of wires to connect to speakers the size of small cupboards. Although it didn’t have a tape player, it was capable of playing all our ‘best of’ albums. Yes, I am aware that every ditty under

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the sun can be summoned on Spotify at the speed of light. But listening to all those scratches and jumps on a favourite LP brings back warm fuzzy memories.

What is the link to planning? Well, yards of text, in very small font, have been written on the ‘impact of Covid – how we will live post-lockdown – what will our environment look like, and many seminars continue to analyse the fallout. But perhaps the analogy of ‘music systems through the ages’ and the novelty value of a retro record player under the Christmas tree could be a simple illustration.

It sparked a conversation on what might be lost through Covid but then possibly ‘reinvented’ as we got to thinking about activities that are likely to disappear as we move to

“MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE NEED TO KEEP HIGH STREETS ALIVE” #LifeAfterLockdown.

Retailing is likely to change as people hold on to the benefits of online shopping. Much has been written about the need to keep high streets alive and so town-centre funds and renaissance programmes are likely to encourage outlets for local suppliers and more quirky offerings that will support community cohesion. Swap ‘quirky’ for novelty and providing it proves commercially viable, then, hey presto!

Let me simply say ‘daily milk deliveries from a milk

person’ rather than a plastic bottle from the supermarket, or local markets for local people or street entertainers and village festivals.

Commuting is likely to be confined to a two or three times a week experience, as opposed to the day-in, dayout chore. Perhaps future spasmodic journeys will be entertaining experiences in their own right, and not the sardine-packed horror of trains pre-2020.

And how about all those subscriptions to the gym?

They are already replaced by online and on-demand PT sessions, but just once in a while it might be a novelty to get together with fellow Joe Wicks wannabes for an evening in the school hall.

Novelty value could see some of our old activities come back in such a way that they retain a ‘wow’ factor. Spotify and Alexa are great, but playing old LPs on our new retro turntable once in a while has become an experience and brought back the joy of when hubby and I first bought The Very Best of Leo Sayer album.

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director I L L U S T R AT I O N | Z A R A P I C K E N

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

O Opinion

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Simon Prescott is senior planning partner at Barton Willmore

We need spatial planning to successfully level up the country

It’s fair to say that the government’s levelling-up agenda in England has yet to get started. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a legitimate distraction, but has served as an urgent reminder why we need to see bold promises reflected in actions and clear results.

The issue isn’t a lack of will or funds, but the lack of a coherent plan. The One Powerhouse Consortium aims to provide a road map.

In partnership with the Royal Society of the Arts, the body sets out four draft regional blueprints that show what could be achieved if the government backed a proper programme of spatial planning.

What we need to be focusing on is a ‘new regionalism’, part of a growing global trend to look at planning for clusters of cities, towns and rural areas rather than taking them individually.

The programme looks at four ‘megaregions’: the North of England, the Midlands, the South East and the South West.

Each report gives a framework for assessing what is needed to level up a megaregion, and how the money should be best used.

This type of holistic strategy could solve problems that cannot be managed by one local area alone or through sporadic investment – such as flooding planning or wider infrastructure connectivity.

Levelling up and tackling

regional inequality requires this broader-minded, longerterm approach. Poor economic productivity, stark differences in educational attainment and health region to region, a fragmented system of transport infrastructure – these issues are too complex to be dealt with any other way.

But this is not a grand, top-down paternalist doctrine. Collaboration with communities is central to success. The megaregion framework puts a wide-angle lens on regional problems, but essential to this process is bringing people together and encouraging collaboration from the bottom up, spurring investment in often overlooked rural regions. The importance of strong spatial planning is that it stimulates targeted investment in communities while contributing to a larger, longer-term vision that goes beyond the boundaries of local planning areas.

We are seeing moves towards spatial planning in the other nations of the UK, and in our capital – Scotland and London were the first UK ‘megaregions’.

For the English regions, our aim with One Powerhouse is to work alongside national and local governments to guarantee that the right decisions and best investments are being made for every region, every time.

“WHAT WE NEED TO BE FOCUSING ON IS A ‘NEW REGIONALISM’”

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2 BLOG

BLOG

Jenny Divine is policy and networks adviser for the RTPI

Cities are diverse – we must plan for ALL their inhabitants

Diversity is a defining characteristic of city life, and central to what constitutes a successful city. This is not a new concept. For Jane Jacobs, diversity of land use, housing, transport and architectural style (to name but a few) were the building blocks for a vibrant and thriving city.

At the heart of Jacobs’s case is the people. As she states in The Death and Life of Great American Cities: “Diversity, of whatever kind, that is generated by cities rests on the fact that in cities so many people are so close together, and among them contain so many different tastes, skills, needs, supplies, and bees in their bonnets”.

With so many differences, how can we plan for everyone? Well, to put it simply – we haven’t, and this needs to change.

Historically, our cities have been designed predominantly by able-bodied, middle-aged men. Consequently, it is of little wonder that they continue to present many challenges for women, children, the elderly, disabled, neurodiverse and other minority groups.

It is precisely these types of challenges that we have sought to examine more closely in the RTPI’s forthcoming research paper: Women and Planning (Part II) Creating GenderSensitive Urban Environments

Post-Covid-19: Challenges and Opportunities. This study looks specifically at the barriers to women in the built environment and the challenges and opportunities that exist to address gender inequalities in the planning system.

One challenge is mindset – of men and women alike – and the normalisation of inequalities that results (for example) in women walking the long way home on a dark evening to avoid poorly lit streets that feel unsafe. Many of the barriers that women experience have persisted for generations such that they have become an accepted inconvenience, requiring women to adapt their behaviour.

It is vital that we create spaces and opportunities to discuss these issues openly so that we can expose the (often hidden) inequalities that exist in the built environment for women and other underrepresented groups. This is critical as we continue to respond to the pandemic and the climate emergency; to ensure that we embrace the diversity of our cities and plan the world we need.

Women and Planning (Part II) is due to be published by the RTPI on 8 March – International Women’s Day. bit.ly/planner0321-women

“HISTORICALLY, OUR CITIES HAVE BEEN DESIGNED PREDOMINANTLY

BY ABLE­BODIED, MIDDLE­AGED MEN”

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11/02/2021 15:39

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

3 BLOG

Owen Jarvis is chief executive of the UK Cohousing Network

How cohousing can help the housing secretary solve a planning problem

Robert Jenrick has announced that all new developments must meet local standards for beauty, quality and design.

Communities are to be placed at the heart of plans for beautiful, well-designed neighbourhoods. Many housing professionals and communities may be left wondering how we start turning aspirations into reality. For inspiration, there is the UK’s growing cohousing movement, where designing for quality of life is central.

Cohousing schemes are resident-led, intentional communities of private homes with shared facilities such as a common house, laundry, gardens and allotments.

Cohousing started in Denmark in the 1960s as a response to the isolation in modern city life.

Today, nearly 4 per cent of Denmark’s population lives in collaborative forms of housing.

In the US there are more than 165 schemes. We now have 60 at various stages of development across the UK. Cohousing has design principles but is a flexible idea as applicable to new-builds as it is to repurposed mansions, schools and hospitals.

Some communities feature downsizers seeking a better life in retirement, others are intergenerational. Some are being set up by vulnerable

4 BLOG

groups seeking collective support. Cohousing can include home ownership, renting, affordable or market housing.

Building social experiences into both the development process and neighbourhood life creates trust and social capital.

More formal activities include developing values statements, taking decisions on designs, finances, housing management.

A team from the London School of Economics, funded

by MHCLG, is measuring the benefits of community housing, especially cohousing, on promoting wellbeing and reducing loneliness.

The results are positive so far.

Local authorities can make land for custom and self-build projects open to collective community proposals and consider cohousing groups when public assets are available for development. Larger developers might make space for collaborative neighbourhoods or embrace social design processes from an early stage.

Policymakers concerned with better housing models for older age might enquire further.

With the government’s recent announcement that £4 million of revenue funding and access to affordable housing capital pots is available for communityled housing groups, 2021 feels like a good time to take action.

“COHOUSING SCHEMES ARE RESIDENT­LED, INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES OF 20 TO 40 PRIVATE HOMES”

Ben Kite is managing director and principal ecological consultant with EPR Ltd

Our environment is precious, so why are we delaying protections?

The Dasgupta Review, The Economics of Biodiversity, opens with the line that “Our economies, livelihoods and wellbeing all depend on our most precious asset: nature.”

This statement's importance cannot be underestimated, and governments around the world must act upon it with more than supportive words – the health of the natural world, and with it our economy, depends on supportive policy.

In addition to the essential ‘regulatory services’ provided by nature that keep our air breathable and water drinkable, our habitats and wildlife bring economic value through food production and agriculture, tourism and leisure.

Each year 1,500 resident species of pollinators deliver £400-£680 million in value to the UK economy. In 2017, 2.7 billion hours were spent on recreational trips in nature in the urban environment in England – generating £2.5 billion for the economy.

Everyone in our sector knows that biodiverse green spaces are valuable for individuals and communities, and generate a premium for house prices.

There has long been a strong business case for developers to invest in biodiversity. Even before Covid, 96 per cent of

homebuyers were looking to purchase property with access to quality green space.

There is so much to gain economically from a healthy environment, and the 25-year plan anticipated policies that would protect and enhance the country’s natural assets in line with Dasgupta Review. But how can the UK realise these gains when delivery of this environmental agenda keeps stalling? The environment bill was slated as the lodestar that would give environmental policy a direction but here we are, five years and another delay later, with no further certainty.

There are many ‘shovel-ready’ projects to boost environment and economy that hinge on the bill.

Local authorities are already putting its key actions into practice by embedding biodiversity net gain into local plans and planning local nature recovery strategies. But the landowners and housing developers poised to invest in these projects are again faced with the possibility that the goalposts will move.

Until the government commits to a common framework, the prospect for unified and focused action to protect and enhance the UK environment, and with it the economy, weakens.

“HOW CAN THE UK REALISE THESE ECONOMIC GAINS WHEN THE DELIVERY OF THIS ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA KEEPS STALLING?”

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11/02/2021 15:40

INTERVIEW: HELEN FADIPE

S T R ENGTH IN D IV ER SIT Y BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THE COVID­19 PANDEMIC HAVE RAISED AWARENESS OF THE DAMAGE THAT INEQUALITY DOES TO SOCIETY. PLANNING MUST TAKE NOTE, HELEN FADIPE TELLS SIMON WICKS

I M AG E S |

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PETER SEARLE

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“THERE’S BEEN MASSIVE SUPPORT FROM ALL SECTORS. I COULDN’T HAVE EXPECTED THIS WHEN I WAS PLANNING IT”

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INTERVIEW: HELEN FADIPE

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t’s not unfair to say that planning does not have the best track record of employing and developing planners from Britain’s BAME communities. Whereas the proportion of non-white British residents of the UK is around 15 per cent, the proportion of non-white RTPI members is around 5 to 7 per cent. The difference may be statistical, but it is not impersonal.

“This young lady sent a text and said ‘Can I call you?’,” recalls Helen Fadipe, planning consultant and founder of the BAME Planners Network. “She was close to tears, saying she didn’t know any other black planners, she didn’t think planning was for her and she was considering leaving the profession.”

This is not an isolated example. “I have a friend who’s from Asia and she’s of the opinion she’s the only planner from her ethnic group in the United Kingdom.”

Contacts often tell Fadipe about “issues” in the workplace and she goes on to tell me about the young black planner who, on starting a new job, found herself practically ignored by her colleagues. When a white planner subsequently joined the team, that person was immediately invited for lunch.

Then there is the BAME graduate planner turned down for a job because he had no driving licence who discovered later that the position had gone to a white graduate.

With no driving licence.

Nigerian-born Fadipe, who began her planning career in the UK 30 years ago, recalls being talked over her at meetings where she was often the only woman and only non-white person. She recalls the time a group of white men shouted racist comments and threw something at her when she was on a site visit (“Then you have to go back to your office, shaken up, and you’re expected to do your work.”).

Prejudice is rarely so obvious, however.

Fadipe relates how she once got down the last two for a senior position. She didn’t get the job but came away with a nagging feeling that it may well have been to do with ‘cultural fit’. How well would she mingle with elected members? Would they understand her accent? It’s subtle.

“It might be valid, but then it might be clouded by our own biases.” There is a repeating pattern that emerges that is all too evident. “BAME candidates might be

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Things have improved somewhat in looked at through a particular lens,” the past 30 years for planners with BAME she remarks, “and that is the lens of backgrounds, she concedes. But there structural racism. ‘How will this person be perceived by elected members and the rest is still that glass ceiling, still planners reporting feelings of separateness. In of the staff?’.”

March 2020, Fadipe’s “sense of duty” In Fadipe’s case, having grown up in overtook her and she took the first steps Nigeria, she arrived in Britain with no towards creating a network for planners experience of racism. This, she observes, from BAME backgrounds. means that she perhaps doesn’t see discrimination as clearly as someone who has grown up with it; and, being less Coming together shaped by prejudice, she perhaps has a “It had been something I wanted to start little more resilience too. for over a year. I would say the trigger was “Once I know something is happening, I hearing people telling me about their can sense where it’s going. If I need to put loneliness. I just felt I needed to create a it down, I put it down.” Even so, network,” Fadipe explains. there are times when “you just But a second trigger have to swallow it”. increased the sense of “THERE IS Fadipe is quick to credit those STRENGTH IN urgency: the killing of of her colleagues who have George Floyd in May 2020 DIVERSITY. taken her under their wing and IT’S NOT BEING and the explosion of made her feel part of the team.

AFRAID TO BRING outrage in its wake. Fadipe But she is very clear that “the SOMEONE IN WHO posted her own thoughts higher up you go”, the more on LinkedIn and the IS DIFFERENT discrimination plays a role in response was so strong that FROM YOU” progress. There is a distinct she realised she needed “glass ceiling”, an absence of to get the network up and BAME planners in senior, more running without delay. visible positions.

Its inaugural meeting

“If you don’t understand my needs, how can you plan for me?”

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INTERVIEW: HELEN FADIPE

in July was attended by 40 people.

By October BAME Planners Network had more than 100 members and a steering group of nine. In the midst of Black Lives Matter and a pandemic ruthlessly exposing the inequities in our built environment, interest from other organisations was immediate: how can planning as a profession and a practice address cultural and racial inequality?

Steering group members have met with the Planning Officers Society, the Greater London Authority, the RTPI and the chief planner. The network has responded to the Planning for the Future white paper and Fadipe herself was invited to give evidence to Parliament on its potential effects on BAME communities. Recruitment agency Gatenby Sanderson has given leadership coaching to network members.

“There’s been massive support from all sectors. I couldn’t have expected this when I was thinking it, planning it. No way,” she exclaims. But how do you convert such interest into change? Fadipe outlines the network’s five aims: To raise the profile and visibility of BAME planners.

From Benin to Bucks Fadipe was born the youngest of seven children in Benin City, Nigeria. Her father was an MP in the First Republic but her parents separated and Fadipe and three siblings were raised by her mother in Lagos, although she later attended a girls’ school in Benin City.

Fadipe’s first career ambition was to be a lawyer, but she had a stutter, which she felt too limiting for someone whose job would be to argue cases (“Little did I know that the profession I would end up in, I would probably do more of that than if I was a lawyer.”).

She considered architecture but was steered in the direction of planning by a teacher and took an HND at the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.

It was while holidaying in the UK (she has relatives in England and Ireland) that she decided to make a go of life in England at a time when Nigeria was in recession.

Despite a diversion into fashion design when she first came to England, she has remained in the profession.

Sixteen years in the public sector in London – initially with Islington Council, which supported her through a planning degree at South Bank University – culminated in a role as head of planning policy for Haringey, followed by private practice. It was going well, but Fadipe’s was one of many small businesses that suffered in the wake of the 2008 global crash.

She found herself drawn back to Nigeria, where she worked on the Alimosho Model City Plan, among other projects. In 2015 her husband became seriously

ill, necessitating a move back to England. She has since been working as a consultant in both the private and public sectors, notably for Harrow and, currently, Buckinghamshire Council.

She has a strong sense of calling. “My Christian faith was a decisive factor in becoming a planner. Understanding God’s nature as a master planner at that critical stage of my teenage years motivated me to study a course where I can use my creativity and talents to make a beautiful and better environment for everyone. I am not stating that planners are gods; however we are creative in making and shaping places. With political will and endorsement, planners can plan the world we need.”

Fadipe has also been giving back to the profession as best she can. She sits on Women in Planning’s advisory board and is a member of the RTPI’s General Assembly. “I’d never felt motivated to go for the GA. But there was a big call out in 2018 that more diversity was needed and at that point I decided to be the change I want to see,” she says.

“When I look back at the end of my career, I want to be able to reflect on the projects I was involved in, the people I met on the way, the good I achieved and the value I added doing what I was privileged to do. But most importantly are the young people I’ve been able to mentor Young planners that I have been able to help influence. I want to be able to look back and say ‘Yes, I was able to encourage and motivate that individual and help them on their journey to greatness’.”

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Brick Lane in London’ s East End exemplifies the cultural and ethnic diversity of Britain’s urban communities

Time to begin

To encourage people from BAME communities to enter the planning profession at all levels.

To support BAME planners in achieving their career goals.

To enable and support BAME communities to influence planning.

To collaborate with individuals and organisations as partners in achieving the network’s goals.

“Being in a network where there are BAME people who are directors, regulators, professors, in senior management – it gives those who have never seen anyone at that level the feeling that they can now aspire.

“The very first aim is raising the profile of BAME planners – letting people know that there are people like them within the profession.”

Planning for difference A profession that is socially and culturally homogenous can “fall into a bias trap”, says Fadipe. “Because if you do not understand my needs, how can you plan for me?”

She continues: “It’s important that planning acknowledges that society is diverse – that the UK is a multicultural society, and in each culture there are different needs and wants.. The culture, the belief systems are different so the ability to access places that have been planned for will also be limited, not only by socio-economic factors but also by

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physical attributes. You can’t assume it is a homogenous society.

“One of the strengths of the network is that we don’t see BAME as being one homogenous group.”

The language that planners use can also form a barrier.

“We speak technical jargon and we expect everyone to understand and get involved in planning. Race and culture affect the ability to engage with the planning system. This is compounded not only by language but by socio-economic factors; many people from BAME communities tend to work in low-paid jobs, have more than one job and work late shifts. Invariably, that affects their ability to engage.

“The profession has to reflect the society it serves and engage meaningfully with different sectors of the community.

We live in a multicultural and multidimensional society. Particular groups can become socially excluded.

Understanding the needs of the community is very important. That has to be reflected in our plan policies, as well as placemaking practices. It’s also important to reflect that in our recruitment and retention practices.”

We come full circle. What can the profession actually do? “I think it’s about how we sell it. It’s understanding what motivates a young black man. What motivates a young Asian female? Why would they want to come into planning?

“My decision to launch the network was indirectly a result of George Floyd’s death. Because of my post about his death on my LinkedIn profile, people called me to talk about their issues. I felt ‘You know what?

Planners need to know others who look like them so we can help each other’. That was the trigger for the timing and why I feel now is a good moment to start the network “Society at large is now more aware about racial issues and taking action. In the past, people might just say ‘Well, it doesn’t really affect me’. Now there is awareness that to be silent is to be complicit.

“It started from a place of help. It broke my heart, somebody telling me they’ve spent all these years studying but they want to leave the profession. They had no one else that they could relate to, to share what they were feeling or going through. So let’s start now, being there for one another. I think that the whole issue around George Floyd’s death and race relations in the UK and all over the world just makes it more pertinent.”

At a time of intense debate about inequalities, many of which are experienced disproportionately by BAME communities, planning has nothing to lose and everything to gain by broadening its outlook and its intake.

“There is strength in diversity. It’s not being afraid to bring someone in who is different from you. The starting point is not being afraid, it’s being able to welcome and embrace change.” n Simon Wicks is deputy editor of The Planner

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Culture shift

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P L A N N I N G FO R D I V E R S I T Y

THE UK IS A CULTURALLY AND ETHNICALLY DIVERSE NATION. BUT DO THE HOMES WE’RE BUILDING CATER APPROPRIATELY TO OUR DIFFERENCES AND IF NOT, WHY NOT? MATT MOODY CONSIDERS THE CASE FOR A SHIFT IN THINKING ABOUT HOUSING DESIGN

I L L U S T R AT I O N | N E I L W E B B

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in the UK, says Michaela Bygrave, a chartered n the 1970s, the layout of the home began to surveyor who set up her own consultancy firm, change as a new generation of homebuyers Point Michele, to promote socially responsible sought to break free of configurations they developments. Four-bedroom homes tend to be saw as rigid and restrictive. By the end of the marketed as luxury ‘executive’ properties, she says, 20th century, ‘open-plan living’ had become with a matching price tag that puts them out of mainstream, and housebuilders were increasingly reach for many families. incorporating it into their designs for new homes.

“I was speaking to a black lady recently who This arrangement doesn’t suit everybody, was saying how difficult it was for her to find however. In some cultures, food must be prepared somewhere to buy,” says Bygrave. “Lots of us have in a separate room, and the kitchen is considered relatives in places like the Caribbean and the a private place where guests are not received. For US, and you want to be able to offer them space these people, clear divisions between communal in your home, you don’t want to put them in a and private areas are important. hotel. But it’s so difficult to find More recently, the tide has begun somewhere with a spare bedroom to turn against open-plan living.

“IT’S SO and a separate kitchen, because Against the backdrop of a growing DIFFICULT TO open-plan living and extra space realisation throughout the 2010s FIND SOMEWHERE are both considered luxuries, so that open-plan offices might be WITH A SPARE they tend to go together.” hindering rather than helping BEDROOM AND Andrew Taylor, group productivity, similar thinking was A SEPARATE planning director at Countryside applied when the home was forced KITCHEN, Developments, says that volume to accommodate work, study BECAUSE OPEN­ housebuilders more often work and exercise during the Covid-19 PLAN LIVING towards more specific cultural pandemic. However, the open-plan AND EXTRA requirements when delivering trend is just one of several ways SPACE ARE BOTH affordable housing, where the that the built environment can CONSIDERED need has been identified by a local present extra challenges for cultural LUXURIES” authority or housing association. and ethnic minorities, and as has He cites Countryside’s estate been the case with many forms regeneration work at Tower Court of inequality, the pandemic has in Hackney, a council-owned site exacerbated them. home to Europe’s largest Haredi community. The parties worked Entrenched inequality together to ensure the delivery of balconies In the Bangladeshi community, two-thirds of suitable for sleeping on, required as part of over-70s live in multigenerational households Sukkot, the Jewish holiday. In these councilwith younger relatives. Last summer, researchers commissioned situations with an identified and found that those of Bangladeshi origin were often concentrated need, there’s less risk involved twice as likely to die of Covid-19, linking this in delivering more bespoke housing, he says. On finding to higher levels of housing deprivation the market side, however, Taylor acknowledges and overcrowding in those communities. High that housing mix is driven “primarily by what is property prices in the UK entrench these selling well in the area, looking at both historic inequalities, and as the pandemic has shown, this trends and projections of future demand”. has a damaging knock-on effect.

There is a business case for meeting some of Unfortunately, the needs of many cultural and this pent-up demand, says Bygrave. A hypothetical ethnic minorities are not being met by the volume business that focused on delivering affordable builders that deliver the lion’s share of new homes

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Multigenerational living by ethnicity Households where at least one person is aged over 70 and at least one person is aged under 50:

8% white households 67% Bangladeshi households 60% Pakistani households 27-36% black households (Source: ad hoc request to Office for National Statistics published by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), July 2020) bit.ly/planner0321-ons

(Source: NaCSBA and BSA Customer Survey 2020) bit.ly/planner0321-selfbuild

Nearly a third of GB adults (32%) are interested in designing and building their own home, and nearly half (48%) of those between 18 and 24 are interested.

5% of new homes are currently being built as custom and self-build annually in the UK, compared with 15% in the Netherlands.

(Source: NaCSBA) bit.ly/planner0321-netherlands

By 2019, however, only 45,084 individuals had been added to the self-build register in England.

(Source: UK government statistics) bit.ly/planner0321-register

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non-luxury four-bedroom homes in Look anywhere abroad, however, and diverse areas would thrive, she says, the self-build market is much more noting that a lot of property like this, mature, with a wide range of housing particularly in London, has been types and tenures available. converted into shared housing for “If you go somewhere like Canada or professionals, in order to maximise South Africa, their houses will often look profits. Lack of supply means quite different, whereas in England this investors and families are often left kind of Victorian red-brick pastiche is competing for the same stock, with still with us.” investors normally able to win the “One possible part of the solution is bidding war. However, Bygrave adds, for volume housebuilders to provide it is important to remember that serviced plots, says Bryony Harrington, “no minority group is homogenous, head of the Right To Build Task Force, and a one-size-fitsan independent advice all approach won’t service set up to provide work”. So if bespoke advice and guidance on “IN THE UK, market housing is bringing forward more ANYONE WITH not viable for volume self and custom-build NON­STANDARD housebuilders, what projects. “There are REQUIREMENTS is the solution for various factors that tend WHO WANTS TO those with more to put them off, such as OWN A HOME complex needs? wanting to maintain brand HAS HAD LITTLE consistency, to keep sites CHOICE BUT TO tidy and maintain their Barriers to ‘selfBUY AN EXISTING economies of scale… but actualisation’ PROPERTY AND there are things that can Through self and START ADAPTING be done, like design codes, custom-building, OR EXTENDING self-build zones on sites, Bygrave says, wouldIT” limiting build-out time, for be homeowners example. They can play a could design their role, but it requires some own home and “build thinking outside the box!” the way they want to There are still some live”, achieving selfproblems associated with self-build, actualisation instead of putting up however, particularly on awareness and with “the narrow view of perception. Shows like Grand Designs, family life” foisted upon them by while inspiring self-builders to push market forces. boundaries, have also led to a perception Duncan Hayes, of the National that self-building is the preserve of the Custom and Self Build Association rich (and is also prone to disaster). This (NaCSBA), agrees. “In the UK, creates a political problem in which anyone with non-standard councils, already under pressure, are requirements who wants to own a home has had little choice but to buy an existing property and start Self-build is largely seen as fraught with adapting or extending it – which problems and a preserve of the wealthy many people can’t afford,” he says. “Self and custom building allows those people to create for themselves what they’re unable to source on the open market.”

It hasn’t always been this way, Hayes explains. “Before the planning act of 1947, most houses were built by small speculative builders, but since then we have moved away from a model where people have any say in it, and now the difference in the level of choice the average person has between buying a new home and buying any other new product is massive.”

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Open-plan living can present challenges for cultural and ethnic minorities

reluctant to be seen as prioritising the needs of the well-off.

The ‘right to build’ has been enshrined in law since five years ago, when the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 set out a requirement for local authorities to keep a register of people interested in building their own home, followed a year later by the Housing and Planning Act 2016, which imposes a duty on local authorities to approve enough ‘shovel-ready plots’ to meet demand.

However, self-build levels in the UK remain low compared with the rest of the world, and some councils have employed extra rules such as financial solvency tests that are seen to deliberately exclude people interested in self-building from their register, while others have introduced a signing-up charge.

It’s understandable, says Harrington, because “it’s daunting for councils to have to deliver permissions in line with the numbers on the register”. There’s a view among some local authorities that people signing up to the register are sometimes only vaguely interested in self-building, but, as Harrington points out, awareness of the registers remains so low that this is unlikely.

Misconceptions about self-building have partly arisen as a side effect of attempting not to be too prescriptive in telling local authorities what to do, Harrington believes.

“When the task force was launched in 2017, we had more than 250 inquiries from local authorities, basically saying ‘Help! We don’t know what the new legislation is asking us to do’,” she says, with particular confusion around

the criteria for counting a permission as “suitable” for self-build. Guidance recently published by the task force aims to “work through some of the less clear parts” of the legislation with the help of its expert panel.

For Hayes, avoiding an overly prescriptive approach is crucial, particularly when seeking to meet cultural and ethnic diversity needs through self-building. Legislation and policy should be clear, he agrees, but “statutory duties in this respect could slow things down and be counterproductive”. Instead, planners should “broker change, not enforce it”.

There is also, of course, the perpetual problem of local authority underresourcing, he adds, noting that sometimes “the ambition is there, but the sheer volume of work to get done frustrates that”.

Looking to the future, housing secretary Robert Jenrick has promised a review of the ‘right to build’ legislation, to follow an update to the PPG published on 8th February. Across wider society, both the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement have drawn attention to racial inequality.

There is hope that these two factors will contribute towards better living conditions for minorities in the UK. The days of open-plan living, on the other hand, may be numbered.

Meeting BAME housing needs with CSB Solutions Michaela Bygrave is author of a practice advice note published by the Right To Build Task Force. Meeting BAME housing needs with CSB Solutions offers advice and information to planners and developers about how increasing the availability of custom and self-build housing in the new-build market would provide the opportunity for people to design homes to meet cultural needs and lifestyle choices that are currently underserved.

Download the advice note (registration required) bit.ly/planner0321righttobuild

n Matt Moody is section editor for The Planner

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CASE STUDY

CLOSER LOOK: TOWER COURT, HACKNEY ON THE SITE OF A DEMOLISHED FORMER COUNCIL HOUSING BLOCK, HACKNEY COUNCIL HAS CREATED AN AWARD­WINNING SCHEME CAREFULLY ADAPTED TO THE NEEDS OF THE AREA’S HAREDI COMMUNITY

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Tower Court, overlooking Clapton Common in Hackney, was previously home to two blocks of housing built in the 1950s. Deemed too costly to refurbish, they were demolished in 2014.

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Hackney Council decided to regenerate the site and offer existing council tenants the right to return under the same tenancy conditions, with the rest of the social housing offered to families on the council’s waiting list. The new scheme will provide 33 homes for social rent, 19 for shared ownership, and 80 offered at market rate to fund the scheme.

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CASE STUDY

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The scheme includes a higher proportion of large family homes, with balconies suitable for use during Sukkot, a Jewish festival that involves constructing a hut that must sit beneath open sky. The project will also provide a new depot for Hatzola North London, a Jewish volunteer-run ambulance service. Construction began in early 2019, and is set to be completed by the end of 2021.

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The area surrounding Tower Court is known for being home to Europe’s largest Haredi Jewish community. Haredi families have an average of 5.9 children, almost two-and-a-half times the average for England and Wales.

In the past, this has led to overcrowding and tensions with the council’s planning department.

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Andrew Taylor, group planning director at Countryside, said: “These generously sized and well-planned family homes include delicate balcony structures (Sukkah balconies), Shabbat lifts, unique duplex ‘scissor units’, and ‘tenureblind’ communal areas. We are aware that the Hatzola ambulance service is a key part of the community and are proud to have incorporated a new facility into the plans, along with architecture that is in keeping with the development’s historic surroundings. This project reflects our reputation for delivering high standards of accommodation that can be called home by all parts of the community.”

Working with Adam Khan Architects, art/ architecture practice muf and construction partner Countryside Properties, the council created a design that identified the community’s specific needs.

The project was one of 16 winners in the Project Award at the Housing Design Awards 2017.

I M A G E S | A L A M Y / A D A M K H A N A R C H I T E C T S, M U F A R C H I T E C T U R E /A R T & H A C K N E Y C O U N C I L / F 1 0 S T U D I O S LT D

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OF DIFFERENCE

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P L A N N I N G FO R D I V E R S I T Y

SLOWLY BUT SURELY, THE WORLD IS CATCHING ON TO NEURODIVERSITY. HUW MORRIS LOOKS AT HOW PLANNERS CAN HELP AND BE HELPED

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ooking back, Kim environment, our colleagues in Swallowe says all the adult social care tell us that episodes stress and strain was of challenging behaviour have worth it. An architect significantly reduced. in Cherwell District “Indeed, one family had noticed Council’s Build! Team, she such an improvement in their son’s worked on a joint project with wellbeing that they stated during a Oxfordshire County Council to recent interview that ‘This scheme deliver 12 homes in Banbury has given him his life back’. I and Bicester designed especially think this demonstrates how for adults with learning independence can come from good, disabilities and autism. human-centred design.”

The self-contained homes, Slowly but surely, the world with private rear gardens, is catching on to neurodiversity. look out on to The term, coined by secure communal Australian sociologist “THIS courtyards designed Judy Singer in the DEMONSTRATES HOW 1990s, is an umbrella to offer sensory INDEPENDENCE CAN for traits that can be areas for residents COME FROM GOOD, to play and relax. both strengths and HUMAN­CENTRED The schemes also challenges (see box).

DESIGN” include communal Attention deficit kitchens and lounges hyperactivity disorder alongside staff (ADHD), autistic offices and overnight spectrum, dyscalculia, accommodation. dyslexia, dyspraxia and The overall project Tourette syndrome was not without challenges (see are regularly cited but also acquired case study). However, the schemes neurological conditions such as have helped residents, who were dementia and brain injury. living with family or in unsuitable The consensus among charities is accommodation, lead more that neurodivergent people make up independent lifestyles. one in seven or 15 per cent of “While this touches on just the population. one small area of designing for neurodiversity, we have been Maximising talent able to deliver homes that feel Yet recognising neurodiversity is calm, safe and comfortable for our not just part of the drive to serve residents,” says Swallowe. “Without society and remove restrictions on the distractions of a conventional life choices. Maximising the talents of professionals who think differently and encouraging employee diversity are also crucial. Major initiatives are under way in the legal, engineering, finance and music sectors among others, while corporate giants such as Amazon, Google, JP Morgan and Microsoft promote neurodiversityat-work policies.

Within planning

Neurodiversity – strengths and weaknesses Dyslexia Dyslexics can have welldeveloped visual skills and higher creativity but face difficulties processing sounds and putting things in order.

Dyspraxia A brain-based motor disorder that affects movement and coordination but is also associated with high verbal abilities and adaptability but there are problems with movement.

Dyscalculia Sometimes known as ‘number dyslexia’ or ‘maths dyslexia’, people with the condition often have good reading and writing skills and long-term memory.

ADHD A condition usually associated with creativity, passion and hyper-focus but also affects the brain’s ability to control impulses and self-regulation.

Autism spectrum People on the autism scale can have strong long-term memories, are very detailoriented and think visually but may have difficulties with communication, social interaction, sensory processing and can experience overload.

Tourette Syndrome The condition is characterised by involuntary movements or sounds but people with Tourette Syndrome also have an ability to hyper-focus and show a great deal of empathy.

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Case study: Designing homes for neurodiversity Offering an alternative to residential care or inappropriate accommodation were key drivers behind the Cherwell and Oxfordshire County Council’s schemes homes for adults with learning disabilities and autism in Banbury and Bicester.

Both local authorities recognised that the schemes, developed on surplus county council sites, would be more costly to build than typical homes owing to their higher specifications.

Homes England provided £440,000 of grant funding, without which the project may not have been otherwise viable.

The sites were chosen for their suitability for access to nearby amenities, surrounding noise levels, privacy and sense of community, a crucial factor if residents were to integrate. A design specification was produced after consulting occupational therapists, industry experts, care providers, clients and their families.

“Learning about the daily challenges they faced and how the built environment was shaping their experiences allowed us to identify where we could add most value,” explains Swallowe. “Through these ongoing conversations, we were able to devise a blueprint that meticulously looked into every aspect of home design from a sensory perspective.

“We were able to ‘design out’ potential issues, reduce the likelihood of sensory overload and provide environments that supported cognitive and social development, rather than hindering it. By using finishes that were virtually joint-free, matt, non-reflective, absorb sound and warm to touch we were able to create a calming yet ‘homely’ environment.

“And by giving each property their own front door and private rear garden, we were able to promote a sense of independence, delivering homes that were more akin to that of a typical domestic setting rather than of an institution.”

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So what did the councils learn from the schemes?

“There is no one-sizefits-all when it comes to autism,” Swallowe adds.

“Autism is considered a spectrum because it’s different for every autistic person. Every individual has completely different needs and will process their surroundings differently – one person may have sensitivity to certain lighting conditions and smells, while another may find discomfort with spatial proximity and noise.

“All this needed to be reflected when developing our blueprint. What we are talking about here are homes designed to be low-stimulus from day one but that are ‘super adaptable’ and can be altered according to an individual’s unique set of needs. This requires a very different mindset to that of conventional housing where the focus is for standardisation across the board. That approach just doesn’t work when it comes to providing homes for neurodiversity.”

There were other challenges. Chief among them was appointing external design consultants with a suitable level of experience in supported housing. The lack of consultant knowledge put a huge strain on in-house specialists to produce the specifications and design proposals.

“While neurodivergency is now a growing field, at the time there were few organisations that we could reach out to with experience in delivering such schemes,” says Swallowe.

Cherwell and Oxfordshire County Council designed homes for adults with learning disabilities and autism in Banbury and Bicester

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and development, the approach is multi-pronged. Homes England is championing neurodiversity through an equality, diversity and inclusion action plan with five objectives encompassing culture, systems, leadership, external procurement and delivery, particularly design and engagement.

In April, the British Standards Institute is set to unveil the first guidance for designing the built environment to meet the needs of people with sensory and neurological difficulties. Aimed at planners, designers and decision-makers, this will focus on design features that

reduce the potential for sensory overload, anxiety or distress. Lighting, acoustics, flooring and décor will feature as sensory design considerations.

The RTPI has pledged to promote neurodiversity through its regional committees while last October saw the launch of the Neurodiversity in Planning network, which has 234 members.

Jennifer Offord, Homes England enabling and planning manager and a network co-founder, says many strengths associated with neurodiversity align with abilities outlined in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020.

These include analytical thinking, active learning, complex problem-solving, critical thinking and analysis, as well as creativity, originality and initiative. “It is increasingly understood that diverse teams perform better,” she adds. “Part of the reason for setting up Neurodiversity in Planning is to support planners that might not have such a network in their workplace.

“We all think, learn and communicate differently. This network champions diverse minds in the planning industry.”

Indeed, the network was a joint winner of the RTPI’s President Award for 2020.

“If you have people sitting round a table from similar backgrounds, who think and talk the same way, you are in an echo chamber,” says immediate past president Sue Manns, who spoke to The Planner about her dyslexia in January 2020. “This is all about different ways of thinking.”

Planning for people Why is this important for planners? At root is the medical versus social model of disability. Under the medical model, the diagnosis of a condition is a person’s problem. The social model sees society as disabling or restricting people.

“It’s important to remember that we all have unique brains, there is no one who is normal and we are all part of this wider spectrum of neurodiversity,” Keeley Mitchell, trainee planning officer at Dacorum Borough Council and co-founder of the Neurodiversity in Planning network, told an RTPI webinar.

“Labels like autistic and dyspraxic bring about the danger of putting people in boxes and of drawing lines between who is typical and who is a minority. However, these terms remain in common usage.

We need to avoid labelling but these are important reference points for people and their sense of self.

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“We know neurodiversity can cause issues but we are not saying the person is the problem but society and what’s around us,” she says, pointing out that planners can significantly influence such factors as the environment, their procedures and wider attitudes.

In particular, she says, they should consider the impact on different types of minds when they design schemes and engage the public.

“Planners should be automatically interested in neurodiversity because we are concerned with people and all people are neurodiverse,” Mitchell adds. “Planning does not have a neutral impact.” n Huw Morris is consultant editor for The Planner

What can planning organisations do for staff?

The Neurodiversity in Planning network, which aims to increase understanding among planners of neurodiversity and its importance to planning decisions, research, policy and practice, suggests seven areas for employers to consider: Rethink recruitment and assessment Notice individual strengths and challenges Talk about different working styles and be open about conflict Communicate directly Design multisensory environments Use technology Share strategies The network will also support wider initiatives to promote equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the planning profession.

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

Water abstraction licensing in the Norfolk Broads has become a contentious issue

WATER WORLD ANGLIAN WATER WON THE 2020 RTPI AWARDS FOR IN­HOUSE PLANNING TEAM OF THE YEAR. SIMON WICKS FINDS OUT WHY IT’S GREAT TO WORK IN WATER Award: In-house planning team of the year Winner: Anglian Water

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It’s easy to take water for granted. After all, we in the UK live at the mercy of maritime weather systems that dump large volumes of rain onto our verdant landscape. There are rivers, lakes, lochs, chalk streams, ponds, brooks – watercourses everywhere.

Yet for a good part of the nation water is a fragile resource and one that must be carefully managed, particularly in a warming world of growing populations and declining natural resources.

“Part of our patch has less rainfall than pressure on resources will be acute.

Jerusalem,” observes Allan Simpson Add to this the water industry’s comMRTPI, strategic growth manager for mitment to carbon neutrality by 2031, Anglian Water. “It all pours on the west of the challenges of biodiversity net gain, the country and by the time it gets to us the need to provide a coherent operation we’ve run out.” across 64 planning authorities – and sudThe East of England presents other denly the simple act of providing water challenges, too, to a water planner. Aside to homes and businesses is not so simple from being one of England’s largest after all. It takes a lot of planning. regions, it is also the It is a tall order for Allan flattest, and swathes are Simpson and his team. Their sparsely populated.

RTPI Awards entry tells the “WE’RE HELPING Simply moving water story of how Anglian Water AUTHORITIES TO to where it’s needed is a has risen to these challenges UNDERSTAND HOW significant challenge. Then to – as the company puts THEY SIT WITHIN there is the forthcoming it – “put water at the heart THE BIGGER Oxford-Cambridge Arc, of a new way of delivering PICTURE AROUND much of it in the Anglian environmental and social WATER RESOURCE Water region, where prosperity”.

PLANNING”

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

W H AT T H E Y S A I D “The judges applauded their silo-breaking and co-creation approach. They showed a commitment to development and inclusivity and showed good examples of VR used in engagement, which received good feedback from councils” – RTPI Awards judges

“Our experience of working with Anglian Water has been very positive. Both within and outside of formal consultation periods Anglian Water have engaged fully in the plan preparation process and have helped to shape an approach that will deliver sustainable growth and infrastructure improvements” – Bedford Borough Council “This has allowed our working relationship to grow, for communication between us to be better and faster, and has broadened planning officers’ awareness and general understanding of water-related issues” – Chelmsford Borough Council

WORKING TOGETHER Anglian Water is a statutory consultee on local and neighbourhood plans across 64 authorities, feeding back on “growth proposals to inform infrastructure requirements and encourage watersmart communities”.

Which is fine, but for the historic absence of joined-up thinking in the delivery of utilities and an accompanying lack of understanding among local planners of the work of water and sewage companies.

“To help address this gap, and maximise the impact of our small team, we have moved from a ‘consult and respond’ way of working to ‘co-creation’, working directly with the local authorities in our region on I M AG E | I STO C K

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plan preparation,” states the award submission. There are, for example, advice notes for local planners, through which the company seeks to influence approaches to policymaking at local and neighbourhood-plan level, where water may be a factor. Guidance jointly produced with the Environment Agency looks at how water consumption can be reduced through the planning system.

The Anglian Water team is part of multiple ‘multi-agency groups’ across the region, charged with supporting the strategic delivery of water to communities. Team members are also ‘embedded’ in local authority planning teams, providing mutual learning. It is a pan-regional, pan-sectoral approach designed to dissolve boundaries and

develop a coherent way of thinking about water in the region.

“We’re helping authorities to understand how they sit within the bigger picture around water resource planning,” explains Simpson. “It’s to say, ‘This is how you sit within the context of water and infrastructure planning more broadly, and these are the tools that you’ve got to help influence that’.”

“We’ve 5,000 employees who work in water in one way or another, and there’s a lot of expertise. How about we draw on that to create policy that actually meets the common objective?

He continues: “Rather than one or two companies trying to grapple with how they might be doing it, speaking to local authorities independently, can we create a set of principles between us that we can take to authorities and others and say, ‘This is what works for us’?”

THE APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE The team has embraced technology to improve its work in three core areas: applications, engagement and operations. For example, the company has developed its own software – Grosight – which alerts the team to new planning applications so they can assess

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

any that may be pertinent to them.

“Water companies are not statutory consultees for planning applications, which means that we are not obliged and may not even see or comment on individual proposals,” Simpson explains. “Nevertheless, we actively seek to inform planning applications on material considerations such as water and flood risk.”

To support applications for its own capital projects, the Anglian Water team uses 3D modelling and virtual reality software in pre-planning to engage with communities as applications are shaped. For alterations at the Pitsford Water Treatment Works in Northamptonshire, VR technology was taken to public drop-in sessions.

“Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with communities better able to understand the need for the project, the scope for positioning the works and how landscaping could be used to mitigate its impacts,” the awards submissions notes. Permission was subsequently granted.

Finally, the firm is considering how technology can reduce its carbon footprint in the context of the industry’s carbon-neutral pledge. “Because it’s a flat area, we’ve got these pumping stations moving water around the whole region and we’re one of the biggest energy users in the East,” says Simpson.

Greater use of renewables attached to infrastructure is in the pipeline, both to power Anglian Water facilities and to provide energy to the communities where its infrastructure is located. But the team is also trying to understand how better use of natural processes can change the carbon equation.

Simpson says the company is looking into how it can use gravity better to reduce reliance on mechanical pumping; and it is exploring wider use of water recycling strategies and natural water treatments in the form of wetlands that reduce and capture carbon, and increase biodiversity.

There is a growing awareness, says Simpson, that for the “nuts and bolts” of the water industry to work properly

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The water industry is committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2031

“There’s an awful lot of CPD for people to get aware of how a water company works, the priorities, the challenges, and how the different disciplines come together, but also making sure that the planning team is still connected to spatial planning, the changes in planning, so we’re very supportive of CPD events, speaking at webinars, and that sort of thing.”

Having come from local government, Simpson admits that he was surprised at the breadth of the work of a water company. It is a message that he is keen to communicate to other planners and one that has been bolstered by winning STAFF DEVELOPMENT the RTPI award.

Although there is a reservoir of exper“I will admit that back when I made tise within the business as a whole, my career change into water, I felt that Anglian Water’s planning team consists initially it might be a bit narrow, but the of just “six or seven” planners. joke’s on me,” he laughs.

This small team works across three “That’s been helped main areas: strategic policy by water really going (the Oxford-Cambridge Arc up the agenda. There is a major project); review“WHEN I MADE MY is an awful lot of ing planning applications; CAREER CHANGE scope to use planning and the company’s own INTO WATER, expertise to create better capital projects. Education I FELT THAT environments and better – of in-house planners INITIALLY IT places, which is what and partners – is the corMIGHT BE A BIT most planners get into the nerstone of a successful NARROW, BUT THE profession for.” operation.

JOKE'S ON ME” in a 21st century context “we need to understand our impression on natural capital and the environment”.

He explains: “It’s much broader than putting in a pumping station through planning permission or building a new reservoir. It’s about how what we do and the decisions we make impact on the environment.

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5.5 MILLION SQUARE FEET To put that into context, that equates to the creation of approximately 6,700 new jobs*.

In 2020 we secured planning consents for more sq ft than ever before.

So, to you; the consultants, the local authorities, the landowners and the countless others that gave us their support, helping us secure consents for over 5.5 million sq ft, we would like to say, ‘thank you’. *HCA Employment Density Guide November 2015, 3rd Edition

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CASES &DECISIONS

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

Demolition of mining community allowed despite social harm An investment firm’s plans to replace 70 prefabricated ‘Airey houses’ near Leeds built to house miners can go ahead – despite an inspector’s acknowledgement that the scheme would harm the ‘vibrant and strong’ community.

The appeal concerned an estate of 70 ‘Airey houses’ in Oulton, near Leeds.

Named after the industrialist Sir Edward Airey, Airey houses were built after the Second World War from prefabricated concrete and salvaged military trucks to respond to the post-war housing shortage.

The National Coal Board built 200 Airey houses in Oulton to house miners working at the nearby Rothwell Colliery, but only 70 remain standing. The estate was sold by the NCB in 1986, changing hands a number of times before it was acquired by investment firm Pemberstone.

In 2017, Pemberstone applied for permission to demolish the houses and build 71 new homes, arguing that the structural condition of the houses, which were declared “defective” under the 1985 Housing Act, meant repairing them was not viable. However, only 11 of the 70 tenants at the estate benefited from protected tenancies binding the developer by law to

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rehouse them. The remaining residents insisted that they could be asked to leave with only two months’ notice if permission was granted, destroying their "close-knit community”.

After the council refused permission, an inquiry convened by inspector Richard Clegg was held last in October. A local campaign group, Save Our Homes LS26 (SOH) attended as a rule six party. The 20th Century Society also objected to the scheme on heritage grounds.

Clegg noted that aside from the 11 households with protected tenancies, none of the other homes was designated affordable, and were low-cost due to their poor condition. They could therefore legally be replaced with market-rate housing, which would make it difficult for existing tenants to afford to stay on the estate, he noted, leading to the “dissipation of the community”.

This was likely to have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable residents, he added, noting that 33 of the households included people with one or more protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, and 17 had at least one disabled tenant. Overall, he found, the scheme would have a “damaging impact” on the “strong, vibrant and healthy community” at the estate.

Turning to the heritage impact of the scheme, Clegg

noted that the houses had “evidential historic value” as an example of post-war housing for mineworkers, as well as “some aesthetic value”. However, he considered, the condition of the houses was poor, with structural intervention required in all but two houses

by March 2022. These works would also “considerably erode” the historic value of the homes through the loss of their prefabricated elements.

The parties disagreed on the cost of refurbishing the existing homes. The appellant contended that the cost would be around £120,000 for each property, “significantly higher” than SOH’s estimate of around £28,000 each.

In his conclusion, Clegg noted that the scheme represented “the most realistic response to the deteriorating condition

LOCATION: Oulton AUTHORITY: Leeds City Council INSPECTOR: Richard Clegg PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ N4720/W/20/3250249

of the Airey houses”.

Refurbishment had not been proven to be commercially viable, and would in any case lead to “a higher cost of accommodation in most cases”, he noted.

He allowed the appeal, ruling that the harm to the community, while “undesirable”, was likely to occur “irrespective of the decision on this appeal”.

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40 or so appeal reports are posted each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions. Our Decisions Digest newsletter, sponsored by Landmark Chambers, is sent out every Monday. Sign up: bit.ly/planner-newsletters

29-storey tower rejected in low-rise Kennington A developer’s plans to deliver 258 homes in Kennington, South London, have been blocked after a public inquiry as an inspector labelled the proposal an ‘alien and incongruous’ development for the area.

Lack of affordable housing gets 400-home scheme rejected

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

An inspector cited developer’s Redrow’s zero per cent affordable housing offer in refusing plans for 400 homes near Partington, Greater Manchester, saying that it would have reduced the risk to the developer ‘at the expense of the public purse’.

The key issue at the inquiry was that of affordable housing, with considerable disagreement between the parties: the council believed that the scheme could meet the full policy requirement of 45 per cent, but the appellant argued that none at all could be viable.

Inspector Christina Downes decided that the appellant’s building cost estimates were too high, while its valuation of the proposed homes was too low because, among other factors, the appellant had placed too much emphasis on the “negative influence” of a nearby social housing estate on house prices.

As a result, she commented, “effectively the risk to the developer is reduced at the expense of the public purse”.

In her view, there appeared to be “sufficient residual value” to fund the 45 per cent of affordable housing sought by the council, “or at the very least a significant portion” of it.

In the planning balance, Downes noted that the council could only demonstrate an available housing supply of 2.4 years, calling this “a very serious” shortfall.

The scheme would contribute towards LOCATION: Partington addressing this deficit, she AUTHORITY: Trafford Borough Council noted, yielding around 150 homes within the five-year period and more INSPECTOR: Christina Downes in the future. However, PROCEDURE: Inquiry she ruled, its conflict with the council’s spatial plan, DECISION: Dismissed poor integration with the nearest settlement, REFERENCE: APP/ “significant harm” to a Q4245/W/19/3243720 landscape deemed to be of local value, and, above all, failure to provide any affordable housing, carried decisive weight

Developer Anthology planned to build a 29-storey tower and adjacent fourstorey block, offering a total of 258 new homes on the 0.7-hectare site. The scheme included 50 per cent affordable housing, but only 9 per cent of the homes were offered at social rent level.

The GLA had controversially agreed to loan the developer £22 million to help fund the scheme, of which £11.6 million was paid out before an application was submitted, although the full amount was described as “recoverable” if consent were refused.

Inspector John Braithwaite noted that the 29-storey tower’s design was inspired by the nearby Cinema Museum, and had been “conceptually influenced by the imagery of hanging film strips, variations in film format, and film gauge”.

Although this imagery had “largely been lost through the design process”, he said, the tower would nonetheless be “an attractive building”.

But overall, the inspector found harm to the character of the area, saying the tower would appear “alien

LOCATION: Kennington AUTHORITY: Lambeth Borough Council

INSPECTOR: John Braithwaite PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ N5660/W/20/3248960

and incongruous” in the context of nearby low-rise development. It would “stand apart” from the emerging cluster of tall buildings at Elephant and Castle, he added, and its density would “far exceed” the level appropriate for the area.

He was also dissatisfied with the scheme’s effect on light levels and local heritage assets. In dismissing the appeal, he noted that the council intended to allocate the site for housing, and that a smaller scheme could “secure public benefit without causing unacceptable harm”.

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LOCATION: Kingsford, Kidderminster AUTHORITY: Wyre Forest District Council

INSPECTOR: Adrian Hunter PROCEDURE: Virtual hearing DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ R1845/W/19/3243291

Drakelow Tunnels is a 285,000-square-metre underground complex with 3.5 miles of tunnels, near Kidderminster. It was built as a Second World War shadow factory and was a nuclear bunker during the Cold War. When the complex was sold in 1993, a preservation trust was set up, and it has since been used for ghost walks, airsoft competitions, and as a filming location.

In 2019, drinks logistics firm London City Bond applied to convert the

Flats to adjoin theatre violate ‘agent of change’ principle Plans for eight flats that would adjoin a community-run listed theatre in Wallingford would put it at ‘significant risk’ of noise complaints that could compromise its operation – and cause heritage harm, said an inspector.

The appeal concerned a listed former townhouse in central Wallingford, next to the town’s Corn Exchange, a charity-run theatre and music venue that is gradeII listed. The appellant planned to demolish the bank’s “poor-quality” rear extension to make way for a new “rear wing” with eight homes. The flats would abut the Corn Exchange’s southern boundary.

The appeal turned on the scheme’s impact on the site’s heritage, and its effect on the free operation of the Corn

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Exchange. It was the first time the ‘agent of change’ principle enshrined in the NPPF – stating that anyone

complex into a wine warehouse and distribution centre, as well as creating a museum area and a bat habitat in a disused substation. The council refused permission on green belt grounds, leading to a virtual appeal hearing.

As well as the tunnels, inspector Adrian Hunter noted, the site included single-storey buildings, storage containers and opensided covered structures, all of which would be removed. But the development proposed on

the ground, an office formed of two portable buildings and a reception canopy, would have a “more permanent appearance”, he said.

Hunter noted that the scheme would create 40 jobs, and the museum, with its dedicated public entrance, would give “ready and convenient access” to the tunnels and “a lasting memory of their past uses”.

The bat roost would also improve local biodiversity.

He allowed the appeal, citing “very special circumstances”.

introducing a development is responsible for its effect on existing uses – has been applied to a theatre, following various cases involving music venues. The Corn Exchange was represented at the inquiry as a rule 6 party.

Inspector Claire Searson noted that the Corn Exchange had won awards since it opened in 1978, as a voluntary organisation and the town’s only entertainment venue.

It is licensed for cinema and amplified music until midnight Sunday to Thursday, and 1am at weekends.

Searson was vexed about the effect on future occupants from “structure-borne noise” and found “serious question marks over a number of assumptions made” as part of the appellant’s proposed mitigation strategy, which involved designing the scheme to be physically

LOCATION: Wallingford

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

Plans have been approved to convert Drakelow Tunnels into a warehouse for 10,000 tonnes of wine, a bespoke bat roost and a museum, as an inspector decided that the scheme satisfied ‘very. special circumstances’.

AUTHORITY: South Oxfordshire District Council

INSPECTOR: Claire Searson PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ Q3115/W/20/3249052

separate from the Corn Exchange. There was a risk both of noise complaints that could “compromise the Corn Exchange as an established entertainment venue”, and “less than substantial” heritage harm to the listed buildings.

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE to our appeals digest:

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

60­year­old planning condition upheld at caravan park An inspector has upheld a 1962 planning condition limiting the number of caravans at a Surrey park to 150 in refusing permission for an extra six caravans, ruling that the condition remained relevant for the purposes of protecting the green belt. bit.ly/planner0321-condition

Reserve power plant allowed despite renewable ruling An inspector has approved plans for a reserve power plant in Devon despite ruling that it could not be considered a renewable energy scheme, after deciding that it would still help towards “meeting the challenge of climate change”. bit.ly/planner0321-power

Council defeated in abandonment hearing Despite acknowledging the “very poor” physical condition of a building in Yorkshire and the appellant's failure to make it watertight, an inspector decided that a “reasonable onlooker” would not consider it abandoned and that it had retained its lawful use. bit.ly/planner0321-abandon

‘Alien’ appearance means craft is not a houseboat A structure on the River Thames was deemed not to be a houseboat despite displaying various characteristics of one, after an inspector decided that its harm to the character of the area was contrary to the aims of a 1992 planning condition. bit.ly/planner0321houseboat

AONB barn could not be less intrusive An inspector has quashed enforcement action against a building in the Malvern Hills AONB and approved its use for storing tree surgery equipment, questioning “how a barn can be criticised for looking like a barn”. bit.ly/planner0321-barn

Harrods flower kiosk would not hinder social distancing Alterations to a pedestrianised area outside the grade II* London department store Harrods that included anti-terror bollards and a flower kiosk would not prevent social distancing, an inspector found, describing the kiosk as a “visually intriguing focal point”. bit.ly/planner0321-harrods

Enforcement quashed despite listed building’s musical history An inspector has quashed enforcement action against works to alter a double-height concert room installed in the listed coach house of a Nottinghamshire estate, ruling that its musical significance had died with the composer who had lived there. bit.ly/planner0321-music

UK's first ‘hangar homes’ scheme dismissed

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After a two-day public inquiry, an inspector has upheld enforcement action against a developer who converted The Antelope, a 19th-century pub in Leyton, into flats, criticising the “cramped” flats and the appellant’s flawed viability assessment. bit.ly/planner0321-pub

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Plans to build six mixeduse ‘hangar homes’ with accommodation above a working aircraft hangar on an airfield near Portsmouth have been blocked by an inspector, who ruled that occupants would suffer unacceptable living conditions. bit.ly/planner0321-hangar

Developer criticised over historic East London pub conversion

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LLegal landscape OPINION

Major Dill’s urns and the government’s war on the woke Robert Jenrick’s proposed new measures to prevent removal of any historic unlisted statue, plaque, memorial or monument without planning permission don’t stand up too well to scrutiny, finds John Hunter On 18 January, Robert to ensure that “removal Jenrick announced in The of any historic unlisted Sunday Telegraph that he statue, plaque, memorial was “changing the law to or monument” is subject to protect historic monuments” planning permission – in from the threat of removal addition to extending the by “baying mob[s]”, “town requirement for planning hall militants” and “woke authorities to notify Historic worthies” bent on imposing England of applications a “negative narrative” that involving removal of statues “seeks to erase” part of “our or plaques, forming part of national story”. grade II listed Any decisions and unlisted “THE CHANGES to remove these buildings. This ARE DESIGNED heritage assets, he currently applies TO ENSURE said, “will require only to grade THAT CONTROL, permission and 1 and II* listed PARTICULARLY councils will buildings.

BY CENTRAL need to do so in The statement GOVERNMENT, accordance with dropped the CAN BE their constitution, proposal EXERCISED OVER original after consultation to “set out in THE LAWFUL with their local law” the “retain REMOVAL OF community”. and explain” SUCH ITEMS” Failing this, approach in he would “not favour of treating hesitate to use it as “part of [his] powers as national planning secretary of state policy” to which in relation to applications local authorities “should and appeals”. have regard” (now reflected Then he proposed to “set in paragraph 197 of the draft out in law” the government’s revisions to the NPPF). view that “such monuments What’s the purpose of are almost always best these proposals? Although explained and contextualised, Jenrick’s references to “mobs” not taken and hidden away”. evoke the memory of Edward In a written statement to Colston’s statue being pulled Parliament, he said he would into Bristol Harbour, such acts make changes to “directions… are already covered by the and secondary legislation” law of criminal damage, and

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none of his proposed changes will make a difference where someone is determined to dispose of a monument in that way. Instead, they are designed to ensure that control, particularly by central government, can be exercised over the lawful removal of such items.

How effective are the proposed changes likely to be? Only partly, I think. The assumption that removal of “any” unlisted statue, plaque, memorial or monument can be brought within the scope of planning control solely through directions and secondary legislation is almost certainly unsound.

As the Supreme Court noted in Dill v SSHCLG last year (concerning a pair of listed lead urns at Idlicote House) not all statues fall within the definition of a ‘building’ in the planning acts. For example, it is debatable, following Dill, whether the ‘blackamoor’ sundial at Dunham Massey, which the National Trust removed last year, is properly classed a ‘building’ notwithstanding the fact that it is listed as such. If not, its removal would be unlikely to constitute ‘development’ requiring permission, even with the minister’s proposed

changes; and there is nothing else he can do, without new primary legislation, to bring such items within the scope of planning control because, although he has power to exclude particular works from the definition of ‘development’, he has no power to expand the scope of that definition.

Similarly, removal of modest plaques celebrating historic figures is no more likely to constitute ‘development’ than would the removal of house numbers. Finally, the fact that the government’s policy of “retain and explain” is only something to which “regard” will need to be had means that, even where a memorial clearly can be regarded as a ‘building’, local authorities will retain discretion to sanction its removal.

Although the secretary of state will still have power to intervene, it would be arguably inappropriate and anomalous for him to do so unless the asset has sufficient historic or aesthetic interest to make it of more than merely local importance, even if it is not listed.

John Hunter is a barrister with Kings Chambers, with expertise in planning, local government and environment law

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS Legal challenge launched against South Oxfordshire local plan Residents in South Oxfordshire have issued a legal claim against the council’s decision to adopt its local plan, which covers the period to 2035.

The plan had a rocky road to adoption. In October 2019, the council’s cabinet recommended that councillors should vote to withdraw the emerging local plan to 2034 and begin work on a new “ambitious” plan.

The plan was initially submitted for examination by the then-Conservative administration in March 2019, but the council is now held by a coalition of Liberal Democrats and Green Party councillors.

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick issued a holding direction on the local plan to stop it being withdrawn in October 2019. In March 2020, he removed the direction but considered there to be a “clear case” for him to intervene. He directed the council to progress the plan and adopt it by December 2020. Subsequently, a planning inspector backed the housing targets and green belt allocations in the plan. The council voted to adopt the local plan as directed in December, but nine councillors abstained on the basis that Jenrick’s intervention meant the vote was not a free vote.

The Bioabundance Community Interest Company, which is crowdfunding the legal action, has named Jenrick as an interested party in its application to have the plan quashed by the planning court under section 113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

Bioabundance states that Jenrick threatened to withhold promised infrastructure funding for projects including the Didcot Science Bridge and the Milton Interchange dual carriageway if the local plan was not adopted.

Its grounds for a legal challenge include the conduct of the adoption vote: the way that it unlawfully took into consideration the threatened consequences of government intervention and was dictated by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Read the full story here: bit.ly/planner0321-SOLPchallenge

An Bord Pleanála faces rise in court cases Third-party challenges in the High Court to planning decisions made by An Bord Pleanála have more than doubled in the past three years.

Its spending on legal services rose by 38.5 per cent in 2020, as it dealt with an increase in the number of challenges to fast-track planning permission in the courts. Published figures show that the volume of all decisions subject to High Court judicial reviews (JRs) in 2020 rose from 55 in 2019 to 83, a 51 per cent rise. In 2018, only 41 decisions were subject to JRs.

National park wins injunction on tree damage The High Court has granted the New Forest National Park Authority an injunction to stop damage to protected woodland in the national park.

The injunction was sought after 12 oak trees were illegally felled in a protected conservation area, south of the A336 at Bartley. There is a longstanding tree preservation order (TPO) in place in the conservation area. It is classified as a priority habitat of broadleaved deciduous woodland with badgers, hedgehogs, six types of bat, and 25 protected bird species.

The authority said the tree felling in December left large fractures and splits in the remaining tree trunks. It appears likely, it added, that the trees were felled to provide access to adjoining land within ‘Terry’s Patch’, which includes a larger open field. The authority recently raised concerns about this land being divided into separate plots with different ownership, issuing an article 4 direction to remove permitted development rights to put up fencing, which has not yet been confirmed by the planning committee.

Leo Randall, planning committee chair, said: “The developers… ignored or were unaware of the TPO in place. Unless restrained by an injunction order they could well have caused significant irreversible environmental damage.”

LEGAL BRIEFS Implementing the Northern Ireland Planning Framework This online masterclass, hosted by RTPI Training on 26th May, will focus on law, guidance and best practice on implementation of the new planning framework in Northern Ireland. bit.ly/planner0321-ni

BBC fined for contempt of court The BBC has been fined £28,000 after it committed contempt of court by making a video and audio recording of a half day’s hearing in the Planning Court, part of which was then shown on regional TV news programme BBC South East Today, says Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner0321-bbc

Protection for cultural assets Lucy McDonnell of Dentons considers government action to provide planning protection for cultural venues and statues. bit.ly/planner0321-statues

Taxi drivers win High Court battle The taxi trade welcomed High Court rulings that quashed a ‘streetspace’ plan and traffic order closing part of the A10 in the City to most vehicles, says Local Government Lawyer. The scheme was run

by Mayor Sadiq Khan and Transport for London, both of whom will appeal. bit.ly/planner0321-taxi

Beautiful Day Simon Ricketts analyses government plans to give effect to the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission’s advice through the introduction of new policy. bit.ly/planner0321-day

Court of Appeal ratifies Drax ruling The Court of Appeal has dismissed ClientEarth’s challenge to a DCO for two carbon capture-ready gas-fired generating units at the Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire. Analysis by Richard Griffiths and Tom Edwards of Pinsent Masons. bit.ly/planner0321-drax

Case notes on tilted balances In this article, Zack Simons, planning barrister at Landmark Chambers, considers three recent Court of Appeal rulings on the NPPF’s operation. bit.ly/planner0321-tilt

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NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

by Will Finch at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

RTPI urges action on transport to meet net-zero emission targets A place-based approach that prioritisess measures to reduce the need to travel and encourages people to shift to more e active, public and shared modes of transport must be urgently adopted, concludes a new RTPI report.

Net Zero Transport: the Role of Spatial Planning and Place-based Solutions warns that unless action is taken now to integrate transport and land use planning, the UK is unlikely to reach its 2050 net-zero targets.

The research, carried out by LDA Design with City Science and transport planner Vectos, sets out a pathway to achieving an 80 per cent reduction in surface transport emissions by 2030, adapted for different types of place.

This reflects the ambitious net-zero targets set by many local authorities.

James Harris, RTPI policy manager, said: “Transport is the largest contributor to the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and responsible for 35.5 per cent of all emissions in an average local authority. Compared with other sectors, very little progress has been made over the past 30 years with transport emissions having fallen by less than 3 per cent.

“Transport decarbonisation will require a transformation of how we plan, design and use space, and how we live and move around.

“Switching to alternative fuels like electric vehicles is important, but this alone does little to tackle problems of car dependency or help places to recover from Covid-19.

“Decarbonising transport should be a catalyst for a radical change in planning. We must ensure that growth generates no new transport emissions, enabling local authorities to deliver

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comprehensive measures which cut carbon while creating better places.

This will be challenging, but will ultimately create healthier, safer and more equitable communities.”

To show what a place-based approach might look like, the report contains ‘spatial visions’ for four fictional areas in England – a major city-region, a growing city in a largely rural area, a post-industrial regeneration town, and a rural village.

These examplars demonstrate the key steps for reducing transport emissions around the country, including planning for networks of ‘15-minute neighbourhoods’ where most people can meet their daily needs by walking and cycling, leading to vital carbon savings and an improvement in public health. n Read the report in full at bit.ly/planner0321-netzerotransport

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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

MY VIEW ON…

T H E G R E E N B E LT

Academic Charles Goode considers the effect that granting planning powers to combined authorities would have on green belt management How can the green belt can be managed in a more strategic way?

I believe that reviewing the green belt over a broader spatial area and for a longer time frame could give more certainty to both housebuilders and campaigners. Such a review could take place as part of a strategic regional or sub-regional plan that explores broader trends surrounding transport infrastructure, economic growth, and housing development, evaluates the various spatial blueprints for growth, and allocates broad areas of growth and restraint.

In my research, I develop the ideal of a green belt ‘council’, formed of planning experts and local politicians, to review the whole green belt for a longer-term time frame, perhaps 15-20 years.

However, there are challenges associated with territoriality and governance. Stemming back to the threat of encroachment by industrial cities through suburban sprawl, the counties often take a defensive approach to ‘their’ green belt. There is also arguably a tension between the need to plan strategically, both in a temporal and geographical sense, and democratic accountability, especially given the short time frame of electoral cycles and lack of political representation at a regional level.

The revival of structure planning through local government reorganisation could allow a more strategic approach than the current locally led system.

Likewise, if planning powers were granted to all combined authorities, this

would also be a positive step towards rebuilding strategic planning. n Charles is a Licentiate member of the RTPI and an ESRC-funded Doctoral Researcher in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Birmingham. This is an edited version of an article which first appeared on the RTPI blog: bit.ly/planner0321-green

POSITION POINTS

SHORT TERM LETS IN SCOTLAND BARBARA CUMMINS, RTPI SCOTLAND CONVENOR RTPI Scotland cautiously welcomes proposals for a mandatory licensing scheme in Scotland to ensure that all short-term lets are safe and to address issues faced by neighbours. There are also plans to give councils powers to manage pressures created by the use of whole properties as short-term lets.

As in many countries, problems posed by short-term lets in Scotland can often be difficult to manage. Planners have been at the forefront of this issue for some time and the new regulations, which have been thoroughly researched and undergone extensive consultation, provide a better framework to allow them to take this forward in a balanced way.

However, we are concerned that the new proposals will place a significant burden on planning departments. There is a need to recognise the cumulative impact of the resource implications which comes on top of other costs expected from implementing new duties of the recent Planning Act. Read RTPI Scotland’s response in full at bit.ly/planner0321-shortterm

WALES TRANSPORT STRATEGY ROISIN WILLMOTT FRTPI, DIRECTOR OF RTPI CYMRU RTPI Cymru has responded to the Welsh Government’s consultation on its new Wales Transport Strategy (‘Llwybr Newydd’). It is 13 years since the strategy was last published and it is well overdue for a review. The new strategy sets out strong priorities to support important issues including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality.

A key difference in the 2021 document is an absence of spatial priorities, although the strategy does point to a National Transport Delivery Plan (NTDP), which is intended to identify specific projects and programmes based on the priorities in Llwybr Newydd.

The Welsh Government’s forthcoming Future Wales, the new National Development Framework, will provide the spatial framework for high-level Welsh Government policy and importantly forms part of the development plan for Wales. To keep policy aligned and effective in Wales, the specifics contained in the NTDP will need to integrate Future Wales’ spatially defined growth areas.

Read more from Roisin at bit.ly/planner0321-newpath I M AG E S | RT P I / S H U T T E R S T O C K

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NEWS

NURTURE, the RTPI’s mentoring programme designed exclusively to support the professional development of Chartered RTPI members in the UK and Ireland, has opened for applicants.

The pilot programme will provide structured, professional mentoring for 25 of the RTPI’s members who are midcareer and looking to progress.

NURTURE delivers on the Institute’s commitment to develop and launch a comprehensive mentoring and global exchange programme across borders and sectors for members, as set out in the 2020-2030 Corporate Strategy.

RTPI President Wei Yang FRTPI said: “The launch of this mentoring programme is one further exciting development for the RTPI. It is a great opportunity for those looking for help with their professional development, as well as for those looking to contribute to our profession as a mentor.

“The RTPI recognises the positive

value of diversity, promotes equality and inclusivity, and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage applications from RTPI members of all backgrounds and particularly from women, disabled, ethnic minority, and LGBT members who are currently under-represented at senior positions in the planning profession.”

The pilot of the NURTURE mentoring programme has been designed and delivered specifically for the RTPI by Sonya Byers, CEO of Women in Transport, and independent consultant Angela Gainsford of Gainsford Elliot Associates.

Applications for mentees and mentors are open until Monday, 8 March 2021.

The commitment is six onehour sessions between June 2021 and February 2022. Evaluation and feedback from the pilot will inform the future development of NURTURE. n bit.ly/planner0321-nurture

Past President Hazel McKay Hazel Irene McKay, who died from cancer on 28 December at the age of 72, will be remembered as the second female president of the RTPI (1994-1995). Hazel used her presidency as a platform to inspire and encourage women members to have the confidence to believe in themselves and their abilities.

Born in Sheffield, she studied mathematics at Sussex University and won a Wien International Scholarship to study at Brandeis University in the USA. In 1972, she was awarded an M. Phil in Town Planning at University College London.

After working on a number of consultancy projects, Hazel joined Wokingham District Council as a Senior Planner, before moving to Adur District Council, London Borough of Bexley and Thurrock Borough Council.

During her year as RTPI President, Hazel called for planning to strike a better balance between the interests of people and the protection of the built and natural environments, and in 2013 she was awarded an honorary affiliate membership of the Construction Industry Council.

From 1982, Hazel lived in Hove. She will be remembered locally for her part in preserving the historic townscape of Brighton and Hove and the South Downs as a trustee of both the Regency and South Downs Societies.

Economist Kate Barker awarded honorary membership The RTPI is delighted to announce that it has awarded honorary membership to Dame Kate Barker CBE. Honorary membership of the RTPI is only awarded to distinguished individuals who have made an immense impact on the planning profession but who are not usually eligible for Chartered membership.

Dame Kate is one of the UK’s leading economists and a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. In 2003, she was commissioned by the government to conduct an independent review of the UK housing supply, leading to a final report in March 2004. She was then asked to conduct a similar review of land use planning. Both reviews have had a major impact.

She was awarded a CBE for services to social housing in 2006 and was made a dame in 2014 for services to the economy.

RTPI Immediate Past President Sue Manns FRTPI said: “There can be no doubt that the contributions that Dame Kate has made to planning policy and to our understanding of the interaction between state and market in the operation of land and property markets are much valued by planners.”

Dame Kate said: “It is a privilege to accept this invitation. I have admired the Institute’s work since its former chief executive, Robert Upton, convinced me in the early 2000s of the importance of good planning – although the RTPI did not always agree with my conclusions!” n bit.ly/planner0321-barker

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I M AG E | M IC H A E L BA I L I E

Mentoring course open for applications

I M AG E S | RT P I

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New Chartered members The RTPI would like to congratulate the following newly elected Chartered members. All are now able to use the designation MRTPI after their names.

ELECTED ON 5 NOVEMBER 2020 East Midlands n Kerrie Ginns n Fiona Grocock n Joel Jessup East of England n Sarah Ashurst n Joanna Burton n Anthony Child n James Fitzpatrick n Yole Milani Medeiros n Audrey O'Mahony International n Kei Yee Chan n Faris Hussain n Chuk Han Kwan n Yuk Law

Ireland n Jordan Baxter n James Griffin

n Kerri-Ann Bland n Simon Cater n Alexandra Higgin n Michelle Wai San Kwok n Robyn Tobutt

ELECTED ON 18 DECEMBER 2020 East Midlands n Georgina Blackburn n Samantha Brooman n Karen Sheridan

Northern Ireland

South West

East of England

n Alicia Leathem n Nick Salt

n Rebecca Boyde n Helen Govier

n Bethan Haigh n Richard Ketelle n Rebecca Neil n Lucy Smith n Harriet Wooler

Wales n Ben Phillips n Lindsay Christian n Llinos Hallett

International

Victoria Madden MRTPI

Scotland n Zachary Claudino n Katie McGill n Chloe Porter n Martin Gillespie n Helen Skimming

n Chun Wong

West Midlands n Miriam Alvi n Kerry Challoner n Harvé Dhillon n James Hills n Ben Lawless n Kayser Ljaz

London

Yorkshire

n Joseph Duggan n Mary Clare Manuel n Luis Roja Bonilla n Holly Templeton-Belli n Anna Woodward

n Rosie Allsopp n Mubeen Patel

North East n Elizabeth Sinnamon

North West n Lauren Butterworth-Taylor n Jacques Carboni n Neil Gates n Jordan Guy

South East London n Motunrayo Bello n Rosanna Cole n Dena Dabbas n Brienne Foster n Nathan Hall n Alice Hawkins n Abigail Heraty n Liam Lawson-Jones n James Leuenberger n Miles Lloyd n Jamie Loxley n Richard Mosinghi n Ellen Pearce n Nasrin Sayyed n Jai Sidhu n Chloe Staddon n Anna Sutherland-Bamber n Lauren Whiteley

n Joanna Beech n Shannon Fenlon n Rosemary Lister n Rukaiya Umaru U-K

North East n Adam Burn n Lauren Hunter n Jack Osgerby

n Katie Fell n James Herd n Victoria Madden n Alice Moore n Bartholomew Shirm

South West n Ben Chesters n Laura Eimermann n Victoria Gee n Frances Lennon n Jack Lorraine n Claire Scott n Amy Jane Thompson

Wales n Nia Borsey n Kate Coventry n Alexandra Egge

West Midlands

Elizabeth Sinnamon MRTPI

Northern Ireland n Anthony Sloan

North West Scotland n Roy Brown n Alison Ewing n Claire Johnston South East n Laura Black

James Griffin MRTPI

n Louise Chadwick n Hannah Graham n Rachel Hiorns n Samantha Lee n Thomas Lord n Kate Salter n Nicholas Scott

Yorkshire n Sally Garford n Joseph Perkins n Andrew Simpson n Rachael Wade

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Throughout the pandemic, organisations are still actively and successfully recruiting for planning professionals.

Here is a selection of the most recent opportunities from a few of those organisations working with The Planner to recruit the best quality candidates in the marketplace.

Principal Planning Of cer

Assistant Planner/ Planner/Senior Planner

Salary: £44,790.00 £48,819.00 pa Location: Hillingdon

Salary: Competitive Location: Hampshire

Principal Planning Of cer Salary £43,160 £50,230 Location: Isle of Man

Senior Planning Enforcement & Compliance Of cer

Salary: £32,234.00 to £34,728.00, grade 9. Based on 37 hours per week Location: Wake eld

Planning Of cer – Enforcement and Compliance Salary: £32,910 to £34,728 pa (37 hours) Plus Payment Of Professional Fee Location: Nottingham

To a dve r ti s e pl ease em ai l : t he pl a n n e r jobs@redact ive. co. uk or ca l l 0 2 0 7 880 623 2

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Senior Planner

Salary: Grade H2, SCP 37 41: £34,728.00 £38,890.00 pa Location: Blackpool

theplanner.co.uk/jobs 09/02/2021 12:43

Recruitment {

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENTS To advertise please email: theplannerjobs@redactive.co.uk or call 020 7880 6232

The City of Landscape-Shapers Director of Planning and Development c. £100k

Guildhall, London EC2

About us The City of London Corporation works at the heart of the world’s leading financial and business centre, but also celebrates over 800 years of history and tradition that no ordinary local authority can offer.

Combining centuries of tradition with a truly innovative approach to local government, the City Corporation offers a unique setting for your expertise.

The City of London has been a centre for settlement, trade, commerce and ceremony since the Roman period, producing an historic environment of exceptional richness and significance.

The City and its place in the UK and the World is changing in unprecedented times. As the governing body of the Square Mile, a global business hub, the City Corporation must plan for the future as well as preserve the past. Our economic dynamism means there is a high rate of change and development.

Demand for new office developments competes with the need for increased housing, social and community facilities, and improved transport. The City’s infrastructure also needs to respond positively to shifts caused by the global pandemic and Brexit, in line with our importance to the wider UK economy.

Reach out to our audience of membership professionals

At the City of London Corporation a programme of transformation has been set in motion to ensure pace, enterprise, agility and inclusivity for our diverse clients in the years ahead. A new target operating model marks an unprecedented moment of cultural transformation for the City of London Corporation and its leadership ambitions ahead. These world class ambitions require world class leadership.

We’re looking for exceptionally talented individuals who will embody the change and transformation ahead and will be exemplars at this historic time for the City of London Corporation, leaving a lasting legacy for a centuries-old organisation and the City it serves.

There’s never been a more important time to reassure the planning in need.

This is a great time to join us at the City of London Corporation, as we continue to work hard to promote the City not just as a great place to do business, but one that offers world leading cultural attractions, educational facilities, and open spaces. We hope you find the possibility of joining us at this time exciting and challenging. If so, we would encourage you to apply, should you feel you meet the person specification. We strongly welcome the best and brightest candidates from all backgrounds.

The Planner job board offers you an opportunity to attract the attention of a guaranteed, dedicated audience of membership professionals, and reassure them that you are still looking to recruit.

The role Your urban planning expertise will be integral to meeting these challenges.

At the same time, your excellent leadership skills will come to the fore in contributing to the continued success of the City of London Corporation as we progress through a period of organisational renewal and change.

Whether you have vacancies now, or will be looking to recruit at a later time, remind our readers what sets your organisation apart,and let them know your plans.

You might also consider advertising in The Planner magazine, and ensure you are seen by the profession’s top-calibre candidates and kept at the forefront of their minds.

Show them that you are here, your brand is strong, and your organisation needs them.

For more information and rates, contact us now on: T: 020 7880 6232 E: jobs@theplanner.co.uk

S ea rc h t h ep l a nn e r.co .u k / j o b fo r t h e b e s t v a canci e s

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As our most senior planner, your influence on the future of the City of London and its environment will be immense. You will provide strategic direction for continuing development and enhancement within the wider context of Greater London and national development policies. You will also advise senior officers and elected Members on complex planning matters. Meanwhile as a member of the directorate’s leadership team, you’ll be a key contributor to cross-cutting corporate projects and initiatives. At every step you’ll help to foster a culture of innovation, collaboration and commercial focus.

About you An innovative thinker, an experienced strategist and an energetic enabler of change, you’ll be ready for the challenge of shaping the City’s future.

Substantial experience of dealing with very large scale, highly complex commercial development proposals is, of course, essential – as is in-depth knowledge of the statutory planning process. You’ll be well-practised in negotiating at a senior level with developers and in influencing key decision-makers. We’ll value your exceptional business and financial acumen, your capacity for inspiring and developing others, and your ability to build productive relationships across the public and private sectors.

Apply For a confidential discussion, please contact our retained partners at Penna, Rob Naylor on 07922 417550 or Ben Cox on 07809 374692. For more information and to apply please visit https://execroles.penna.com/?type=1 Closing date: Friday 26th February 2021.

The City of London is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

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Activities

Click where you see this icon

CONTENT THAT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT

A digest of planning-related material. Each month our work takes us around the internet in search of additional detail for our stories, meaning we invariably come across links to items we think you’ll find educational, entertaining, useful or simply amusing. Here’s our latest batch – mouse over each item for more.

What’s caught our eye Planning Aid for London information hub

Planning for Justice – seeking more equal, healthy and sustainable places Planning for Justice is a coalition of graduate students, alumni and faculty in regional and urban planning studies that has introduced a resource platform and global research initiative on the relationship between urban planning and systemic inequality. Its digital library is a useful resource. bit.ly/planner0321-justice

PAL’s new information hub on planning is designed to help communities to understand how their neighbourhoods change and what they can do about it.

The library has more than 150 resources that explain how planning works. It is hosted on PAL’s new website. bit.ly/planner0321-pal bit.ly/planner03210-library yp y

Dementia-Friendly Communities: RTPI Cymru Young Planners webinar (1hr 30 min) Chaired by Thom Simnett (undertaking a master’s dissertation in Dementia-Friendly Communities) with Sarah Lewis of the RTPI, Ian Sherriff of the University of Plymouth and Claire Puckey, dementia-friendly coordinator at Plymouth City Council. bit.ly/planner0321-dementia

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Civilising Cities by David Williams The author, a former planner with experience in economic development and regeneration, has written an easily digestible book on a far-from-simple subject: how cities function and grow, how they are susceptible to the loss of all forms of diversity, and what an agenda for city revival should look like.

ISBN: 978-1911593-79-9

Get Birding podcast (30 min) To celebrate World Wildlife Day (3 March) you could do worse than tune in to ‘bird girl’, aka ornithologist and conservationist Dr Mya-Rose Craig, as she talks about birds and to bird lovers. Chris Packham and Jason Singh guest in episode one. bit.ly/planner0321-bird

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LANDSCAPE

Have We got Planning News For You (58 min) It’s about time we plugged this entertaining and informative show.

Delivered most weeks, a team of regulars analyses court judgments, explaining, commenting on and contextualising the issues arising. Charlie Banner QC, Mary Cook, Paul Tucker QC, Sasha White QC & Chris Young QC are your hosts, often joined by celebrity guests (in this case, Wei Yang). bit.ly/planner0321-hwgpnfy

Design in Planning: Preparing the North East for potential futures

Map Men (2 to 8 min) The brilliant Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones have clearly spent time crafting these comedic yet contentrich takes on the world of mapping. Short, hugely entertaining and razor sharp, you’re bound to come away having learned something. bit.ly/planner0321-map

This RTPI North East webinar sees chair Jan Bessell, strategic planning adviser for Pinsent Masons LLP is joined by Andy von Bradsky, head of architecture at MHCLG, Peter Studdert, adviser to the Building Better, Building Beauty Commission, and John Devlin, chair of DesignNE. bit.ly/planner0321-rtpi

Local Plans and Climate Change (1hr 30 min) This RTPI South West webinar focuses on embedding climate change into local plans, using case studies to explain the principles.

Sam Hunter Jones (from environmental law charity Client Earth), RTPI policy officer Isabella Krabbe, the Devon Net Zero Task Force’s James Shorten, and Greater Cambridge’s Emma Davies take part.

RTPI Presidential Inauguration 2021: Dr Wei Yang FRTPI (42 min) The new RTPI president took over the mantel from Sue Manns with this rallying cry: “As the 107th president of the RTPI, I want to call for a revival of spirit and for a modernised planning profession to proactively address the challenges in the 21st century.” bit.ly/planner0321-weiyang

What we’re p planning g Our April edition considers the link between planning and nature. We interview Rebecca Wrigley, chief executive of Rewilding Britain, about the potential and practicalities of rewilding, and the effect on planning of allowing nature free reign. We also look at how planning affects the Gypsy/Traveller community. In May, we talk to the head of planning at HS2 and consider the impact thus far of the agent of change principle.

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

View our brand new 2021 list of online masterclasses: rtpi.org.uk/training

Boost your CPD with interactive online masterclasses

40+ courses: • 8 new courses • Brand new How to succeed in your new job series for recently qualified planners

High-quality expert training for planning professionals PLN.MAR21.052.indd 2

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