The Planner - September 2020

SEPTEMBER 2020 PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE ASSESSING THE GOVERNMENT’S WHITE PAPER // p.4 • THE RISE OF RENEWABLES // p.6 • MAKING THE CASE FOR A FEDERAL UK // p.22 • PLANNING FOR RAIL FREIGHT // p.26 • NEW LIFE FOR THE NEWT // p.35

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

The bare truth THE IED’S BEV HURLEY ON HOW INEQUALITY HURTS THE NATION AND WHY WE SHOULD ADDRESS IT

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RTPI Online Events 2020

Access our online events from wherever you are: rtpi.org.uk/onlineevents2020

In a series of FREE weekly online events we will help planners navigate the current crisis, keep up their CPD and explore planning in a post-pandemic world.

• Webinars • Online talks and discussions • Virtual conferences Members can also access free modules on a wide range of planning topics on RTPI Learn. #RTPIOnlineEvents

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CONTENTS

SEPTEMBER

06 NEWS 4 The government’s planning white paper was finally published – and reaction was swift

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6 Renewable energy is leading the charge towards transforming UK power generation

OPINION

8 Enhanced PDRs: raising the bar – or flooring building standards?

14 Louise BrookeSmith: Looking after the class of 2020

10 Cycling and walking plan on track in England

16 Malcolm Sharp: Grenfell shows we must fortify the link between planning and building regulations

11 Newsmakers: 10 top stories from The Planner online

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16 Flo Ralston: Will Covid-19 be the nail in the coffin for Bristol’s nightlife?

17 Helen Hemstock: Are we on the brink of a walking and cycling revolution?

17 Mark Wiseman: A fresh idea to relieve the housing shortage

“IF SOCIAL VALUE IS NOT RIGOROUSLY MONITORED AND EVALUATED, REPORTED AND SHARED, FOR ALL SORTS OF PROJECTS, HOW CAN WE ALL IMPROVE OUR GAME ACROSS THE UK?”

COV E R I M AG E |

PETER SEARLE

“OUR COMPLICIT AND SLOW PLANNING SYSTEM HAS BEEN A BARRIER TO BUILDING HOMES THAT ARE AFFORDABLE, WHERE FAMILIES WANT TO… BUILD THEIR LIVES” ROBERT JENRICK ANNOUNCES “RADICAL” PLANNING REFORM IN THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

INSIGHT

FEATURES

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

18 Bev Hurley is putting social value at the heart of the economy. The Institute of Economic Development chair tells Huw Morris why the UK must do better.

22 A federal system of government could heal regional divisions in the UK, says Malcolm Prowle 32 Better transport links are vital – we’re missing a trick by not investing in a strategic rail freight network, says Jack Osgerby 35 RTPI case study: Welcome to The Newt in Somerset

QUOTE UNQUOTE

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42 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning

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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 {

Keep up with The Planner’s Planning for the Future coverage - click here: bit.ly/planner0920-futureplanning

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

Future shock of PFTF’s proposals. Communities, said Jenrick, would be consulted from the beginning of the process, and The government’s long-promised every area would have a local plan in planning white paper finally saw the place, while a simpler way to secure light of day at the beginning of August. developer contributions would help Emphasising the importance placed to transform the currently “sluggish” by government on the proposals, planning system.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself The planning consultation process provided the foreword to Planning will be made more For The Future accessible through the (PFTF), pledging “I’D LIKE TO SEE harnessing of plantech, “radical reform MORE EMPHASIS ON local plans will be in unlike anything we OTHER BARRIERS place within 30 months have seen since the TO ENGAGEMENT, rather than seven years, Second World War”, PARTICULARLY THE and new homes will all in a system that will LANGUAGE, TONE AND be “zero-carbon ready”. be “simpler, clearer FORMAT OF CONTENT A “major boost” to and quicker to PUSHED OUT BY SME builders would navigate, delivering PLANNERS, DEVELOPERS see them become “key results in weeks and AND POLICYMAKERS” ­ players in getting the months rather than PAUL ERSKINE­FOX country building on years and decades”. the scale needed to Housing secretary drive our economic Robert Jenrick was recovery, while leading soon across national housebuilding that is media in support

By Laura Edgar

beautiful and builds on local heritage and character”.

Three-way split Proposals to “streamline the planning process” include: n Local plans should identify three types of land – growth areas suitable for substantial development; renewal areas suitable for development; and areas that are protected. An interactive web-based map will detail the administrative area, making data and policies easily searchable through a key and accompanying text. Areas and sites would be annotated and colour-coded in line with their designation. n Development management policies should be established at national scale with local plans subject to a single statutory “sustainable development” test, replacing the existing tests of soundness.

This would see the sustainability appraisal system abolished and the duty to cooperate removed. n Decision-making should be faster and more certain, with firm deadlines and greater use of technology. n The NPPF should be amended to target areas where a reformed planning system can most effectively play a role in mitigating and adapting to climate change and maximising environmental benefits. n The community infrastructure levy (CIL) should be charged as a fixed proportion of the development value above a threshold, with a mandatory nationally set rate or rates and the current system of planning obligations – section 106 – abolished. The current system should be consolidated under a reformed, extended “infrastructure levy”, which could be extended to capture changes of use through permitted development rights. It should deliver affordable housing provision. n A resources and skills strategy for the planning sector should be introduced to support implementation of the reforms.

The consultation closes on 29 October – click here: bit.ly/ planner0920-consult

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PLAN UPFRONT

Your response

Housing need – a fresh approach A “revised” standard method for calculating housing need is at the heart of interim reforms to the planning system in England proposed by the government ahead of the major changes outlined in PFTF. Changes to the Current Planning System suggests the introduction of a “new element” to the standard calculation for assessing housing need in an area – a consideration of the existing stock level.

This, the paper estimates, would lead to a 25 per cent or more increase in the housing requirement for 141 local authorities in England.

Other changes outlined in the consultation paper are: n Ensuring 25 per cent of affordable homes secured through section 106 agreements are First Homes n Removing the requirement for developers to provide affordable housing on sites of up to 40 or 50 homes. n Extending permission in principle from small sites only to “major developments”. n Collectively, these changes would “improve the effectiveness of the current planning system”.

The Changes to the Current Planning System consultation closes on 1 October – click here: bit.ly/planner0920-changes

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n RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills: “Many of these proposals will require not only serious time and financial resources, but in some cases primary legislation. There is a risk that development and housebuilding could stall while this is implemented.” n Craig Blatchford, head of planning at Montagu Evans: “Extending the levy to include affordable housing, potentially making it a requirement for delivery on site and to a particular form and tenure, should add a layer of certainty that will be welcomed. However, the infrastructure levy will need to be carefully considered to ensure it does not put off landowners, developers and strategic land promoters from bringing land and new development forward in locations by being set at unviable levels or failing to allow sufficient flexibility to reflect local circumstances. There will need to be a strong mechanism to ensure that the affordable housing elements of contributions follow through to actual provision, on or off site.” n Paul Erskine-Fox, founder of digital engagement platform Participatr: “The government seems to be acknowledging the relationship between under-representation of younger, busier, seldom-heard people in the planning system and the role it plays in holding things up (both local plans and planning applications). Even better is the emphasis on technology to overcome these barriers, both in terms of people having their say and digesting content of planning applications and local plans. However, I’d like to see more emphasis on other barriers to engagement, particularly the language, tone and format of content pushed out by planners, developers and policymakers.” n Pawda Tjoa, senior policy researcher and data analyst with the New Local Government Network (NLGN): “There is an opportunity for planning to… allow more resilience to

be built into it in the long term. This must be done through a more deliberative and participatory process involving the communities whose lives are affected by the shape of their town centres. The best approach is to strengthen local decision-making and capability by building a coalition of local authorities and communities.” n Stuart Irvine, senior director at Turley: “The move to a more centralised planning system will be welcome news for many. Local plans will be expected to do less, with national policy filling any gaps. The standard methodology for housing will also be fixed and not open to debate. Proposals to lift the affordable housing small site threshold will also be welcomed by SMEs, housebuilders and landowners, by supporting viability and delivery on sites with financial viability constraints. But the changes to plan making – in effect a complete rewrite of planning legislation – may not tackle as many challenges in the property sector as hoped.” n Claire Petricca-Riding and Nicola Gooch, both partners at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, said the proposal for an infrastructure levy would see s106 agreements scrapped and “places the burden of delivery of all new infrastructure squarely on the shoulders of local authorities – who under this iteration of the new system would no longer be able to require developers themselves to deliver road improvements or schools, as part of a s106 package”.

She said s106 goes beyond cash contributions. It also sets out that children’s play areas should be maintained, that open space should be provided, and it covers highways and transport works and land for schools. “There is not another mechanism to secure them.”

Follow our Planning For The Future response commentary - click here: bit.ly/planner0920-reaction

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NEWS

Report { RENEWABLE ENERGY

The rise of renewables Renewable energy is leading the charge towards transforming UK power generation. Huw Morris looks at how the winds of change are blowing of the UK’s electricity in the first quarter Not many industries have seen good – beating the previous record of 22.3 per times lately. But for one, 2019 was a fine cent set in the final months of 2019. year and 2020 is shaping up to be an BEIS figures also reveal that the even better vintage.

UK’s renewable generation has seen Renewable energy is in the vanguard the largest ever year-on-year increase, of meeting the UK’s net-zero emissions leaping by 30 per cent from 31.5 terawatt target. So how well has the sector hours (TWh) in the first quarter of 2019 performed recently? How much to 40.8TWh in the first three months of renewable power is in the planning 2020. New offshore wind installations pipeline? And can this help the UK contributed 1.6GW of that increased economy recover after Covid-19? capacity.

For the UK, 2019 marked a historic Offshore wind achieved the highest first with zero-carbon sources generating rate of growth of renewables at 19 per more power than fossil fuels, according cent, followed by energy from waste to the National Grid. Wind, solar and with 15 per cent, anaerobic digestion hydro combined generated 26.5 per at 14 per cent, and onshore wind with cent of the country’s electricity. This 2.5 per cent. The comparative stragglers contributed towards a total of 48.5 per were solar with 1.3 per cent and plant cent of power from zero-carbon sources biomass with an increase of less than 1 when added to nuclear and imports from per cent. interconnectors, compared with 43 per Industry analysts also point to cent from fossil fuels. renewables’ performance on “load The trend has continued into this year. factor”, the measure of actual electrical Renewable energy made up almost half energy use during a given period and of the UK’s electricity generation in the the maximum energy possible in that first quarter of 2020, with its contribution period. This achieved a significant of 47 per cent beating the previous record milestone. In the first quarter of 2020, of 39 per cent set last year. renewables hit the highest quarterly According to Department for Business, load factor since 2014. Onshore wind’s Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) load factor was 41.6 per cent, compared statistics, the significant rise in the UK’s with 33.8 per cent in the same quarter total renewable energy output was of 2019. mainly driven by a growth in generation Offshore wind’s load by solar panels and wind factor was 59.7 per cent, farms, which rose by more “RENEWABLE compared with 47.8 per than a third in the past year. ENERGY MADE cent in the same three Offshore wind farms UP ALMOST HALF months of 2019. generated the largest OF THE UK’S BEIS attributes this increase in renewable ELECTRICITY increase to average wind energy in the first three GENERATION speeds, which were the months of 2020, rising by IN THE FIRST 53 per cent compared with QUARTER OF 2020” highest since 2008.

The statistics complement the previous year, while an analysis by trade onshore wind generation body Regen of the UK’s grew by a fifth. In total, renewables and energy wind-powered 30 per cent

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UK ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2020 IN PERCENTAGES

31.4 47

3.8 2.7 15.1

Renewables Gas Nuclear Coal Oil and other Source: BEIS

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PLAN UPFRONT Renewable energy made up almost half of the UK’s electricity generation in the first quarter of 2020

Renewable energy’s rapid rise The rapidly rising number of planning applications shows the growing appetite among energy firms for launching renewable projects, says energy and industrial specialist px Group.

As the UK focuses on cutting emissions, planning applications for renewable energy projects in the UK hit a four-year high last year, rising to 269 in 2019. This is up from 204 in 2018,

storage project pipeline. This has grown to a whopping 61 gigawatts (GW) following a rush of new projects entering planning.

Just over half – 31.7GW – are offshore wind, indicating the size of offshore wind farms now entering the planning process. Around 8.6GW of utility-scale solar projects are at various stages of planning, with around 8.5GW of energy storage similarly in the system.

About 18GW of renewables and storage projects are “shovel-ready”, says Regen. The benefits are potentially huge. Regen estimates the number of jobs created by these projects at around 200,000 in project development, construction and operation with £125 billion added to the UK economy.

The trade body is calling on the government to introduce three key policies to ease the pipeline. Step one would be to publish the repeatedly delayed energy white paper, originally set for last summer.

A second step would be to commit to

annual Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions to boost investor confidence.

In March, BEIS announced that it was consulting on opening CfDs to solar and onshore wind again after blocking such a move for four years.

The third move would be to tackle what Regen states are “anti-onshore wind policies” in the planning system.

Under government policy, new onshore wind turbines cannot receive planning permission unless an area is identified as suitable for wind energy in a local or neighbourhood plan. Research by Friends of the Earth last year indicated that barely a quarter of plans in England do so.

Regen believes that significant falls in the cost of renewables and storage mean that the projects in the UK’s pipeline could be delivered by private sector investment.

At best, this would enable public funding to be focused on other green energy policies. But it is also an alluring prospect for ministers, who will soon consider how to rebuild the nation’s finances and the economy.

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185 in 2017 and 154 in 2016 – a 75 per cent increase in three years.

The schemes include solar farms, offshore and onshore wind generation, and anaerobic digestion facilities. Wind technology accounted for 90 of the applications in 2019, compared with 47 the year before. px Group CEO Geoff Holmes said: “To see the number of renewable projects in the pipeline

rise is encouraging.

“As more of these projects get off the ground, the faster the UK can get to a point where clean, green sources provide an even greater share of the UK’s energy.

“Of course, there is a lag time between submitting plans to councils and projects becoming fully operational, so more projects being in the pipeline is not a quick fix.”

ENERGY GENERATION ASSETS ‘ACCEPTED TO CONNECT’ ON DISTRIBUTION AND TRANSMISSION NETWORKS IN MW

n Offshore wind: 31,706 n Onshore wind: 1,930 n Solar PV: 8,614 n Battery storage: 8,590 Total:

60,841 SITES WITH PLANNING PERMISSION AND SHOVEL­READY

n Offshore wind: 7,164 n Onshore wind: 4,757 n Solar PV: 1,901 n Battery storage: 4,555 Total:

18,377 Source: Regen

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NEWS

Analysis { PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS

Enhanced PDRs: raising the bar – or flooring building standards?

By Laura Edgar

The extensions to permitted development rights came into force on 31 August.

The amendments to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 mean that buildings can be extended upwards and others that are unused can be demolished and rebuilt as homes.

Homeowners will be able to add up to two storeys to their home to create new homes or more living space through a fast-track approval process.

The rights are subject to a number of limitations and conditions, including a requirement for prior approval from the local planning authority on certain matters. The explanatory memorandum issued alongside the legislative changes states that the rights “could provide more space for growing families, or to accommodate elderly

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relatives, without having to move house”.

The government hopes that vacant commercial and retail properties can be quickly repurposed to help revive high streets and town centres.

An explanatory note states that class ZA allows for the demolition of a single detached building that must have existed on 12 March 2020. It must have been used for offices, research and development or industrial processes, or was a freestanding, purpose-built block of flats. The amendment allows for its replacement with an individual detached block of flats or a single detached dwelling house within the footprint of the old building.

Quality of life Legislation for these new rights was laid before Parliament on the same day (21 July) that government-

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Case studies The local authority areas, considered between April 2015 and March 2018, are: n n n n n n n n n n n

Bristol Crawley Derby Enfield Huntingdonshire Manchester Richmond Sandwell Sunderland Wakefield Waverley

commissioned research was published concluding that PDR conversions create “worse-quality” homes than those created after going through the full planning process. It also found that the local socio-economic situation appears to influence the

quality of the home created, as does the type of building available for change of use.

Research into the Quality Standard of Homes Delivered Through Change of Use Permitted Development Rights uses case studies to look at the quality of home conversions from offices, retail and light industrial uses.

These were compared with schemes consented to through full planning permission.

Eleven local authority areas were considered between April 2015 and March 2018.

For the report’s authors, the research painted a “nuanced picture” – more so than previous research and media coverage has shown.

It found there to be little difference between PDR granted through the prior approval process and planning permission schemes when considering the general level of deprivation within a

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PLAN UPFRONT

Built environment organisations respond

neighbourhood, but there was a “notable tendency” for PDR schemes to be located primarily in commercial and industrial areas. The authors also considered internal design and space standards, windows and natural light, and amenity space.

They concluded that PDR conversions “do seem to create worse-quality residential environments than planning permission conversions in relation to a number of factors widely linked to the health, wellbeing and quality of life of future occupiers.”

“These aspects are primarily related to the internal configuration and immediate neighbouring uses of schemes, as opposed to the exterior appearance, access to services or broader neighbourhood location. In office-to-residential conversions, the larger scale of many conversions can

amplify residential quality issues.”

The Planner asked the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government how it plans to ensure that homes delivered through PDR are of a good quality, subscribe to space standards and have access to the necessary amenities, such as local GP surgeries.

A spokesman responded: “Permitted development rights make an important contribution to building the homes our country needs and are crucial to helping our economy recover from the pandemic by supporting our high streets to adapt and encouraging the regeneration of disused buildings.

“This independent research shows on average there was little difference in the appearance, energy performance or access to services between schemes delivered through permitted development and those that were granted full planning permission.

“All developers should meet the highest possible design standards and the changes we are making will continue to improve the quality of these homes, including new requirements for natural light and checks to ensure changes are in keeping with the character of their local area.”

You can read The Planner’s full examination of the report here: bit.ly/planner0920-pdhomes New PDR – a breakdown: bit.ly/planner0920-pdrupdate

UK built environment professionals have written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick to express their concerns about the extension of permitted development rights.

In the open letter, the RTPI, RIBA, RICS and the CIOB explain that extended PDR “will lock in more unacceptable standard development, the consequences of which we will live with for generations or must rectify later at greater expense”.

Quantity and quality, it adds, are not mutually exclusive. “We stand ready to support ‘build, build, build’, while insisting that we must get this right by delivering safe, highquality and well-connected homes fit for the 21st century.”

The quality of housing and proximity to green space and essential facilities has “shaped the divergent ways” people have experienced the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Those in poor-quality, overcrowded and badly located homes have experienced a very different lockdown to those in well planned, designed and built communities.

“Early evidence suggests our built environment has had a significant impact on both physical and mental health outcomes, as well as on our ability to adapt to different ways of working.

We need to take a

holistic view of good design, placemaking and building, in recognition that development now will shape our communities into the future,” explain the organisations.

They insist that all PDRs must require minimum space and building and design standards and should also be “implemented in such a way as to ensure they contribute towards affordable housing and community infrastructure”.

“Having these safeguards does not mean delays in construction, it means that the homes built in the early 2020s will not become the social disasters of the 2030s.”

RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills said putting forward measures to extend PDR “is a serious error of judgement” by the government”.

“We strongly urge more proactive planning for the built environment.

Longer-term stewardship would be a more sustainable solution, looking at interventions earlier in the building process, rather than bluntly repurposing buildings that are fundamentally unsuitable as housing.”

Read more about the letter on page 45.

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NEWS

Analysis { Cycling and walking plan on track in England

Belfast film studio complex makes the grade

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has launched a cycling and walking plan that seeks to tackle the causes of ill health and build on increased numbers of people cycling during the Covid-19 pandemic. The £2 billion plans includes: n Cycle training for every child and adult accessed through schools, local authorities or cycle training schemes. n More cycle racks installed at transport hubs, town and city centres and public buildings, and funding for new bike hangars and on street storage for people who cannot keep a bike at home. n Thousands of miles of protected cycle routes in towns and cities will be built and higher standards for cycling infrastructure will set.

The second phase of the Belfast Film Studios complex at the capital’s Giant’s Park, overlooking Belfast Lough, has been given the green light by the city council. Phase one opened three years ago.

The latest proposals involve studio and sound stages with accompanying ancillary offices providing 20,439 square metres of floor space, some 9,631 square metres of workshops, flexible car parking and a so-called vendors’ village (1,1918 square metres).

The proposed buildings have been laid out to work alongside the first phase “as a large, coherent complex”.

The 10.5-hectare site was once part of a landfill facility that closed in March 2007.

The applicant is Belfast Harbour Commissioners. The development is expected to create about 250 construction jobs and support at least 1,000 creative industry roles.

This will be overseen by a new inspectorate. The National Cycle Network will also be improved. n A long-term cycling programme and budget to bolster a guaranteed pipeline of funding. n Improved air quality and reduced traffic through more low-traffic neighbourhoods to reduce rat-running, including consulting on communities’ right to close side streets; putting in place more “school streets” to reduce traffic by schools; intensive funding of 12 new areas to become more cycle friendly, known as ‘Mini Hollands’; and creating at least one zeroemission transport city centre.

Full story: bit.ly/2XNpuWb

Lincolnshire gas turbine power station gains approval Energy secretary Alok Sharma has granted a development consent order (DCO) for an open-cycle gas turbine power station at South Killingholme, North Lincolnshire.

The development will comprise an onshore gas-fired electricity generating station with a gross capacity of up to 299MW, together with associated development, including access works, open storage areas; staff welfare facilities, vehicle parking and roads. There will also be gas supply connection works for an underground and overground gas pipeline of approximately 800 metres in length.

Both inspector and energy secretary agreed that “substantial weight” should be attributed to the contribution of the development towards meeting the national need demonstrated by the Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy. It would “positively contribute towards a secure, flexible energy supply facilitating the roll-out of renewable energy”, and would be “assisting with the decarbonisation of the economy in line with the UK’s legal obligations in the Paris Agreement”.

To read the full statement visit: bit.ly/3h1rIsk

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CATCH UP WITH THE PLANNER

N Newsmakers Clean air plan stresses placemaking role The Welsh Government has published its first clean air plan, which emphasises the role of placemaking and the planning system. Ministers have promised new planning advice in the shape of an updated Technical Advice Note (TAN) 11: Noise, which will also incorporate guidance on air quality and soundscape to support local planning authorities and developers in designing and building sustainable places. bit.ly/planner0920-cleanair

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Report: Councils are unable to prevent corruption England’s planning system is open to corruption through lobbying and local authorities’ lack the necessary safeguards against it, according to a study by Transparency International UK. It says that individuals and companies seek to corrupt major planning decisions through gifts and hospitality, lobbying members in behind-closed-door meetings and hiring serving councillors with inside knowledge to secure planning consent. bit.ly/planner0920-corruption

Urban sprawl not under control ntrol Legislation agreed in Northern Ireland The assembly has agreed on legislation to clarify what decisions can be taken by the infrastructure minister and those that must be considered by the executive committee.

It was drawn up as a result of legal rulings over bids to approve an energy-from-waste project proposed at Hightown Quarry, Mallusk, by the so-called ARC 21 councils. bit.ly/planner0920-NIexec

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Ireland’s planners are failing to contain urban sprawl. The Office of the Planning ng Regulator’s annual report shows that in 2019, half of all houses in n the Eastern and Midland Regional al Assembly area were permitted in n four counties outside Dublin (Kildare, ldare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow). The watchdog says this challenges the government’s objective to tackle sprawl in urban areas. bit.ly/planner0920-sprawl

New Cardiff business district takes shape 2,750 homes approved in Lutterworth Harborough District Council has given consent for 2,750 homes, community facilities and employment space on a site east of Lutterworth and the M1. Lodged by Leicestershire County Council, the plans comprise two primary schools, 23 hectares of employment space, 100ha of green space, road improvements, a community hub, and foot and cycle paths to connect with the town centre. bit.ly/planner0920-lutterworth

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Latest designs for Cardiff Hendre Lakes, a proposed business district to the south of Cardiff’s St Mellons Business Park, are being consulted on. The scheme includes proposals for the multimillion-pound Cardiff Parkway rail station and for up to 90,000 square metres of new industrial and commercial development. bit.ly/planner0920-cardiff

Indie infrastructure body recommended Derry homes scheme rejected A major residential scheme proposed for farmland on the outskirts of Derry has been refused by the planning authority. Turley, acting on behalf of construction firm Hartlands (NI) Ltd and Apex Housing Association, had applied to build 258 houses on a 9.9-hectare site off Springtown Road. bit.ly/planner0920-derry

Waverley Station masterplan concept revealed Designs for transforming Waverley Station in Edinburgh have been unveiled by partners Network Rail, the Scottish Government and the city council. The masterplan ideas include a large new public space on Waverley Bridge providing views of the city skyline. bit.ly/planner0920-waverley

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Scotland needs a discrete body with a remit to prioritise infrastructure needed for a net-zero carbon economy as part of a 30-year strategy, says the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland. The body should sit outside the political system to enable it to operate at “arm’s-length”. bit.ly/planner0920-infrastructure

Agency improves Ireland’s appeals handling times 2019 saw a significant improvement in handling times for normal appeals, says An Bord Pleanála.

The agency met an overall compliance rate of 69 per cent in dealing with appeals within the statutory period of 18 weeks – a markedly better performance than in 2018. bit.ly/planner0920-appeals

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LEADER COMMENT

Event Is government making all the right connections?

Response to Planning For The Future, the government’s long-awaited white paper on the future of English planning, had yet to crystallise into the typical broadly based silos of acceptance and rejection at the time we were obliged to hit send on this digital edition of The Planner.

Sure, we’ve already seen initial comment on the paper’s radical reimagining of planning, much of it concerning what many see as the stripping out of democractic process.

But these are early days; Planning For The Future promises considerable change, so quite rightly there is much work going into more considered response.

What you see in this digital edition is just an opening salvo; our newsletters and web site will have plenty more on the topic by the time you get to see this.

My own view is that there

Martin Read is something fundamentally out of kilter with the idea of land being assigned to one of three categories; it feels too simplistic. More broadly, it’s difficult not to feel that centralisation can be a double-edged sword, offering the perception of efficiency yet inevitably disenfranchising local involvement. Ah yes, but the standard of local consultation before a local plan is locked down will be revolutionary, with the use of technology to the fore.

As is form for government reports of so many kinds, promises of technological solutions are followed by little definition as to what such solutions should be.

Doubtless the plan is to let ‘the market’ decide, but that’s often a dangerous game.

There’s also a curious gap between publication of this consultation document and the government’s fresh proposals for funding planning departments which, we are told, will follow several months down the line. The gap between the two is an unhelpul one.

Nevertheless, my reactions are of little consequence when put against those of the wider profession. To which end, we encourage you to click here to see our very latest Planning For The Future reporting.

At which point I should

“CENTRALISATION CAN BE A DOUBLE­EDGED SWORD”

explain why, in the middle of that last sentence, I encouraged you to click there. The Planner is to continue in digital-only mode until November, so as a result we are doing more to highlight links to additional or complementary sources.

So, please feel free to ‘mouse over’ the bit.ly links we typically deploy and you should, in most cases, find you can visit the link in question. Check out the appeal decision letters behind our appeals stories, for example. For this edition we’ve used some yellow highlighting – sparingly, I might add – to bring these links to your attention.

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

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

O Opinion

The Generation Game It’s years since I last took an exam but there is still a tinge of panic in early summer when the smell of the grass or an annoying wasp brings back memories of sitting in the local park and revising.

Of course, 2020 has been very different for many kids.

Whether it’s been home schooling by well-meaning but fractious parents who have gamely tried to balance the day job with ‘the three Rs’ and some semblance of sanity, or the removal of exams altogether for some.

For one year only, we hope, a cohort of students has missed out on the things that many of us recall with mixed feelings, whether the rite of passage that is saying goodbye to your classmates and ‘going up to big school’ or knowing you haven’t revised well enough but praying that a specific question comes up on the exam paper anyway.

And for those going to university, the decision this year hasn’t been where to go for the best student experience. No, it’s been more a question of ‘Why bother?’

The attraction of online lectures and seminars wears off when there is no upside of new horizons with new mates, away from home.

Living with Mum and Dad and zooming into lectures doesn’t really cut it even if the exam results did eventually come out all right.

So what’s the alternative?

A gap year travelling the world isn’t on the cards with lockdown being a lottery and some parts of the world still

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waiting for Covid-19 #1 let alone a second or third wave.

Going straight into work, particularly across the built environment sector, is also tricky. The implications of furloughed staff facing redundancy is very real. The recession that is starting to bite means that jobs for graduates are hit and miss.

The last 2008 recession was bad, but this time around we simply don’t know which will be the lucky firms securing the contracts, able to feed their teams and potentially looking for more staff.

We do have Boris’s ‘build, build, build’ edict to keep housebuilding and infrastructure projects moving, so those of us working across the planning, development and construction sectors are luckier than many.

Compared with the last

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“A GAP YEAR TRAVELLING THE WORLD ISN’T ON THE CARDS” pandemic just over a century ago, we have the benefits of digital systems and flexible working. So, in theory, despite the number of people looking for work, the options today are wider, whether it’s for graduates or those caught up in company restructures who find themselves looking for new pastures with a family and mortgage to look after.

Although September may be upon us and the shops, those that are still open, are already planning their Christmas campaigns, we need look out for those in our profession who need a break. It could be the student

who would benefit from a few days’ work experience or the graduate who desperately needs their first job so they don’t lose their enthusiasm for placemaking, or those with more experience who would welcome even a short contract.

Whether the government can pull off real changes to ‘make the planning system work’, at least it recognises that supporting the development industry is vital for the supply of homes that are needed. Its enthusiasm for infrastructure, whether it’s HS2 or the more mundane shovel-ready projects just down the road, will need people to ‘do the doing’.

We can’t afford to lose a generation. 2020 might have seen incredible challenges but let’s hope that our workforce of the next few years isn’t compromised to the point that we risk losing it. We need to look after both the class of 2020 as it moves into the working world, and the ‘freshers’ who will head to university and be able to sit in the park and revise next year and the year after.

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

12/08/2020 11:04

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“Our complicit and slow planning system has been a barrier to building homes that are affordable, where families want to raise children and build their lives”

“Unminuted, closed-door meetings with developers and excessive hospitality undoubtedly undermine confi dence in the c planning process” l

ROBERT JENRICK ANNOUNCES “RADICAL” PLANNING REFORM IN THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

“Last year in Greater Manchester as many journeys were made by bike as on the entire Metrolink tram system” CHRIS HEATON HARRIS MP, MINISTER OF STATE FOR CYCLING, INTRODUCES A NEW CYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

“Developing grand infrastructure projects must not become an end in itself” WILLIAM WRAGG, MP, CHAIR OF PARLIAMENT’S PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, SOUNDS A NOTE OF CAUTION

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL TURNS THE SCREW IN A REPORT ON CORRUPTION IN PLANNING

“The old feel threatened by the risks of degenerative disease and the lack of social care, the young by insecure employment and, in many places, high housing costs” THE 2070 COMMISSION OFFERS A BLEAK ASSESSMENT OF CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN

“The housing delivery system is broken, not the planning system” MARK CRANE OF THE DISTRICT COUNCILS NETWORK RESPONDS TO JENRICK’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF PLANNING REFORM

“This nuance is unlikely to be appreciated by a casual observer” PLANNING INSPECTOR KATIE PEERLESS ON A PROPOSED WRITING ROOM THAT CONVEYS ‘TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGE’

BY REFLECTING THE DESIGN OF AN AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER

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

O Opinion

1 BLOG

Malcolm Sharp MBE MRTPI is a planning and local government consultant and chair of Nottingham City Homes

Grenfell shows we must fortify the link between planning and building regs

At the Grenfell Inquiry, as reported by Inside Housing: “Whilst the planners did accept the switch to ACM (from the zinc) they did not accept a further change – using cheaper face-fixed panels… the aesthetics won out… this was a fateful decision: we know now that the cassette panels have a far worse fire performance than the cheaper riveted versions.”

On the basis of the above snippet, you would forgive the public for assuming that the planning system and planners bear a heavy responsibility for the Grenfell fire. But we know that planning permission is concerned with the aesthetics of those materials, leaving the crucial decisions about their performance to building regs.

Once, planning and building control were both the responsibility of local government and usually in the same department. At times in my professional life I had overall responsibility for both.

Then, before competition, and with planning coming before the detailed building control drawings and approval, it was common to go along the corridor to show applications to building colleagues and ask: “If approved, will it cause you a problem later?”. Indeed,

building colleagues had the time to comment on the weekly list for relevant applications.

It seems there has been a distinct lack of debate in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire about the need to get planning and building control working more together. And I see nothing in the recently published bill that would lead us in that direction.

As planners, we can‘t absolve ourselves from all responsibility for creating safe places. Grenfell has shone a light on our need to be vigilant about fire safety in writing briefs and determining applications. We need to ensure that there is adequate access for emergency vehicles and that hard and soft landscaping and street furniture do not obstruct access and egress, especially from high-risk buildings.

The RTPI is a member of the International Fire Safety Standards Coalition.

I sit on the Coalition’s Standards Setting Committee, which is preparing Common Principles, due for publication in September and to be adopted by the UN in October.

Planning is not front and centre in fire safety, but it has a role to play. Ours is a timely document to challenge current practice.

“THERE HAS BEEN A LACK OF DEBATE IN THE WAKE OF GRENFELL ABOUT THE NEED TO GET PLANNING AND BUILDING CONTROL WORKING MORE TOGETHER”

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2 BLOG

Flo Ralston is a campaigner on behalf of Bristol’s nightlife

Will Covid-19 be the nail in the coffin for Bristol’s nightlife?

A city’s culture is often disbanded at the cost of redevelopment. Do we want to lose the UK’s nightlife culture?

It’s disappearing fast: from 2008 to 2018, 4,802 clubs closed, with many more being threatened by the economic aftermath of Covid-19.

In Bristol, this industry is a big employer of young people and ethnic minorities. Thanks to its prominent Afro-Caribbean community, the city’s nightlife has deep roots in soundsystem culture. Over 50 years, reggae and dub reggae have become central to the city’s musical identity.

From them, drum & bass, dubstep, grime and jungle developed; music genres for which the city is now world-renowned.

Bristol’s music venues attract tourists from around the world, and was named by the National Geographic magazine as Europe’s Trendiest City in 2018.

Bristol is in desperate need of new housing, but the solution is not straightforward.

A supplementary planning document promotes denser inner-city living and, when coupled with recent planning reforms by the government, it is easier than ever to convert offices and non-residential town centre buildings into flats.

Clubs are typically situated away from residential areas to avoid noise complaints. But the

conversion of offices and industrial spaces into flats suddenly creates a clash between the new accommodation and preexisting clubs as new residents are irritated by the noise.

Potential for conflict between new development and established city centre venues recently threatened the major club Motion which, after a long battle with several developers and a petition receiving 12,500 signatories, finally secured the legal protection of a deed of easement earlier this year.

Smaller, yet still prominent, clubs have been less lucky: Lakota is closing to make way for more profitable flats (developed by the owners); Blue Mountain has been purchased by developers; Clockwork was demolished for student accommodation; and The Trinity Centre is being threatened by several proposed residential developments surrounding its building.

Covid-19 has only exacerbated this threat: from the start of lockdown clubs were the first to close and will be the last to reopen.

Loans offered by the government and the £1.5 million grant to save 150 music venues nationally will do little to keep them afloat. Could Covid-19 be the final nail in the coffin for Bristol’s nightlife?

“FROM THE START OF LOCKDOWN CLUBS WERE THE FIRST TO CLOSE AND WILL BE THE LAST TO REOPEN”

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Have your say Would you like to see yourself in these pages?

Get in touch by email – editorial@theplanner.co.uk Topical, inspirational, angry or amusing – we consider all relevant comment

3 BLOG

Helen Hemstock is chief executive RideWise, the community cycling charity

Are we on the brink of a walking and cycling revolution?

Yes. Well, possibly. Maybe – if local authorities, planners and communities embrace the opportunity.

The Department for Transport’s Gear Change plan, published in July, read like a wish list of active travel interventions. It set out commitments to improve infrastructure, wayfinding, the hierarchy of our roads – as well as to prioritise direct routes for pedestrians and cyclists, and even to end funding of thinly painted white line cycle paths that force cyclists to travel at the very edges of the road, contending with debris and drainage grates.

Brilliant.

But pedestrians didn’t feature as highly in the plan. They weren’t neglected: no more funding for shared cyclist/pedestrian routes; housing developers to consider walking as the priority mode of transport; ‘rat running’ to be curtailed. Again, great.

But there’s still nowhere near enough money to implement these big ideas. Local authorities will need to get creative about how to deliver this. The £2 billion of funding allocated pales in comparison with the £27 billion already committed to roadbuilding – and there are thousands of miles of substandard infrastructure that wasn’t addressed by this plan.

It’s likely there will be cities that show creative

4 BLOG

Mark Wiseman is a senior planner with Collective Planning

Meanwhile – a fresh idea to relieve the housing shortage

thinking, such as Nottingham, Birmingham, Cambridge and Manchester. But it’ll take the newly formed Active Travel England to encourage and support local authorities in moving this forward.

I’d have loved to see all local authorities being required to make their city centres zero-emission/little Holland exemplars, rather than just a dozen pilot projects. We need swift and significant change to make a big difference.

What’s become apparent over the past few months is a massive divergence in attitudes around the way we travel.

At RideWise, we’ve had unparalleled interest in adult cycle training across the country. We hear stories of bucket list wishes, desires to get rid of the car and commute by bike, people who have discovered the joys of cycling during lockdown and want to improve their confidence.

But our networks have been awash with examples of eyewatering close passes, abuse from other road users and new cyclists who have been scared off by the volume and proximity of road traffic.

Although the plan sets out the intention for infrastructure, there’s a massive piece of work needed to change everyone’s attitudes to travel. It’s down to each of us as road users – not just drivers and cyclists – to make this a travel revolution.

“THERE’S STILL NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH MONEY TO IMPLEMENT THESE BIG IDEAS”

‘Meanwhile uses’ have an increasingly important role to play in breathing life and activity into empty sites that await long-term redevelopment.

Such uses can often be deployed far quicker than conventional uses, quickly providing jobs, leisure and even homes on otherwise redundant sites, and meeting specific local needs.

Yet while there are clear advantages and successful examples, there is also a sense in planning policy and decisionmaking of nervousness about their application.

New national planning policy guidance (NPPG) and emerging policy in London is now recognising meanwhile uses.

But there is still a lack of acceptance at the decisionmaking level and a slow, complex planning process that hampers speed and spontaneity.

Vacant urban sites can wait for years to be developed because of cost, land ownership complications, the economy, planning itself or even just the phasing of large developments.

Swathes of land sitting redundant for long periods is not only inefficient when housing supply fails to keep up with demand and affordable workspace is hard to come by, but leaves areas devoid of life.

Meanwhile projects are now evolving from successful

commercial/social only spaces such as Pop Brixton, Bussey Building (Peckham), and Box Park (Shoreditch) into bolder mixed-use developments that support on-site communities, such as Place (Ladywell) and Modomo (various). Vacant sites can effectively act as blank slates for creative communities that ‘seed’ the area for permanent communities.

Until now there has been limited support for meanwhile residential projects. This is about to change with recognition for meanwhile uses in the ‘Effective use of land’ section of the NPPG and in London where a new draft policy supports the meanwhile use of sites for housing.

For the first time there is acknowledgement that sites awaiting longer-term development should be used more efficiently, and that meanwhile use as housing is an effective way of activating redundant land. The policy explains that “meanwhile housing should count towards meeting a borough’s housing target” – and with advances in modular construction, the quality of new homes can be high and a site can be developed quickly. The meanwhile use of sites can make an effective contribution to solving the national housing crisis.

“WITH ADVANCES IN MODULAR CONSTRUCTION, THE QUALITY OF NEW HOMES CAN BE HIGH AND A SITE CAN BE DEVELOPED QUICKLY”

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I N T E R V I E W : B E V H U R LE Y

A QUESTION OF VALUES BEV HURLEY IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF PUTTING SOCIAL VALUE AT THE HEART OF THE ECONOMY. THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHAIR TELLS HUW MORRIS WHY THE UK MUST DO BETTER

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ev Hurley has uncompromising views on the UK economy’s performance in the past 40 years. The historic focus on trickle-down benefits has simply failed, says the Institute of Economic Development’s (IED) chair. The figures shout, never mind speak, for themselves.

According to the Office for National Statistics, a third of the population lives in 10 per cent of the country’s most deprived areas where nearly one in four people suffer from long-term illnesses. Life expectancy on average is 16 years less than those in more prosperous areas. More than a third of people in ‘left-behind’ areas have no formal qualifications and there is on average half a job per working age person. The annual cost of poverty to the economy is up to £78 billion, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

“We have one of the most unequal economies in the developed world and it’s getting worse,” she says. “This inequality is at an individual level a massive waste of potential and at a macroeconomic level a significant brake on the economy.”

Hurley knows about potential. In her day job, she is chief executive of the YTKO Group, which helps start-ups, female entrepreneurs and businesses to expand. In 2006, it had a mission to support the growth of more 20,000 businesses by 2020, to contribute £2 billion a year to the UK economy and create more than 10,000 jobs.

PHOTOGRAPHY | PETER SEARLE

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The target was smashed last December. So why has the prevailing economic view failed so badly?

“It’s complex, but at its heart giving the rich more wealth through tax cuts or salary increases doesn’t work like that, and hasn’t led to greater investment, higher salaries or more jobs, and increased tax revenues,” she says. “Wealth is created and sheltered and used to accumulate more wealth through asset investment. It’s mostly saved, not spent, and therefore inequalities continue to grow. If you want to tackle inequality, you need to target those who are most affected by it.”

Value proposition The IED unveiled major research this summer on how to deliver social value – Cinderella to its economic and environmental sisters – through construction, a major driver of the economy. This highlighted a huge roadblock: there is no common, comprehensive definition of social value.

This absence of consensus reverberates through professionals’ understanding of the issue through to benchmarking and reporting it. It also affects how tenders “WE HAVE ONE are compared and best OF THE MOST practice is determined.

UNEQUAL The research ECONOMIES IN concluded that there THE DEVELOPED is “no requirement to WORLD AND IT’S focus on improving GETTING WORSE” the wellbeing of those who are most disadvantaged”.

Hurley points out other contributing reasons to the failure to deliver social value. Local authority budgets have been decimated, forcing councils to constantly make onerous decisions with ever-decreasing resources. A plethora of monitoring tools, frameworks and evaluation criteria is confusing the construction market amid a general lack of capacity and capability to deliver social value. Then there is the construction industry’s focus on social value during the building stage rather than the whole project from start to finish. Another factor is a lack of awareness of mobile and ambient digital technology to capture the views of residents, visitors and businesses alike.

“All of this, in many places but with some notable exceptions, is wrapped up in a lack of strategic leadership and vision about embedding social value,” says Hurley.

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CURRICULUM VITAE

“It is not so much a question of the actual definition. There has been a lot of progress in understanding that value goes beyond price, to include other realisable benefits such as social welfare and environmental. It’s more to do with what you define as a social value activity.”

She continues: “Doing good business, by which I mean minimising your environmental impact, paying staff a living wage, paying suppliers promptly, ensuring equality and diversity in your teams and their career progression and so on, is more important nowadays. It should be the norm.”

A key IED recommendation is for a construction social value centre of excellence.

Hurley sees it as pivotal to building capacity and capabilities on all sides but also as a repository and data centre that captures and shares good practice. It would also offer independent guidance and support to raise standards across the board: in short, a more joined-up strategic approach to maximising social value.

“If social value is not rigorously monitored and evaluated, reported and shared, for all sorts of projects, how can we all improve our game across the UK?” As part of this, the Treasury’s Green Book and Social Value Act 2012 must be updated, says the IED. Government guidance on monetising social value metrics should assign different financial values to social value activities in different areas. Social value must be considered early in a project’s life cycle and built into the business case.

No one left behind One school of thought, recently outlined by Paul Cheshire, emeritus professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics, is that 90 per cent of regional inequality is down to education and skills. The UK has not learned lessons from the past by focusing too much on places and not on the people in them.

Hurley thinks Cheshire “is absolutely right about an endemic problem of urban policy spending money on things which will not produce greater equality”. Policies to make housing more affordable and focus on education and skills will go a long way.

She argues that the UK made steady progress in reducing inequality through the welfare state, higher taxes on high earners, full employment and rising wages, plus universal education and healthcare until the late 1970s. “Since then, many production industries have been hollowed out with a large rise in service sector jobs, particularly in the financial sector, policies of privatisation and deregulation, and a growth

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B E V H U R LE Y Education: Bedford High School for Girls; Open University (BA Hons and MSc) Career highlights

Pre­2000: Hurley’s first job was at a London housing association, before she began her own business buying and converting rundown property. She moved to Canada and worked on developing a gold mine before returning to the UK, where she led the management buyout of an industrial design agency.

She then launched and sold an interior furnishings business and started a professional mediation company before moving to business support organisation YTKO.

2000­present Chief executive, YTKO Group

2003­13 Founder, Norfolk Network

2006­present Founder, Enterprising Women

2007­10 Board director, East of England Development Agency

2010 Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion

2010­11 Chair, East of England Tourism

2011­present Chair, Institute of Economic Development

2014­present Chief executive, The Outset Foundation

2014 CBE for services to enterprise

in house prices. All these factors of increased wealth, wage inequality and social exclusion have risen faster in the UK than anywhere else.

We ignored the lessons of the past.”

Hurley contends that all parties – central government, the public sector and the construction industry – should “step up to the plate and use social value as a tool to fundamentally start tackling left-behind places”, especially in a post-Covid, post-Brexit future.

“With an estimated £500 billion spending of public money by 2030, we have to deliver a tangible impact and move from a focus on tick-box outputs to outcomes. Planners, buyers, economic development and regeneration professionals – everyone involved in the buying side – can make an enormous difference to these outcomes through how they undertake needs assessments, plan and procure.”

Planners are among the professionals at the “sharp end” of social value, she suggests. They must start with a clear policy and ambitions, based on robust and inclusive needs analyses, and then align planning policies. “Referencing social value within the local plan policy, expanding supplementary planning guidance, and including social value within a planning application or land disposal as a planning condition are all ways of achieving greater benefits. Any place-based intervention must put improving the wellbeing of disadvantaged

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I N T E R V I E W : B E V H U R LE Y

THE VALUE OF SOCIETY

communities at its heart, and find ways for local people to be actively involved and empowered in their design and delivery.

“Planners and procurement teams need to work closely together to ensure clear and appropriate social value outcomes are contracted. The way places are planned, built and maintained can positively affect the strength, health and resilience of communities, as well as create jobs and economic growth.”

Hurley acknowledges the research’s timing is “particularly fortuitous” post-Covid-19, amid the very real possibility of a global recession and a hard Brexit.

“Many of the country’s best brains, not least those involved in the IED’s Commission for Economic Renewal, are trying to figure out what needs to be done to ensure the damage to the UK economy is not just mitigated as much as possible, but fundamentally changed.

“We can’t just aim to go back to how it was before, with rising inequality on almost every metric you care to think about, and falling behind our European counterparts. We must do better.”

“ANY PLACE­ BASED INTERVENTION MUST PUT IMPROVING THE WELLBEING OF DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES AT ITS HEART”

“Covid-19 has shown us how normal citizens come together in times of crises, actively caring for and supporting those who have suffered the most,” says Hurley. It has been a silver lining to see how the concepts of society and community are very much alive and kicking, especially in the first months of lockdown.

“Fortunately, most of the population has not experienced the deprivations of war or the Great Depression, but Covid-19 must surely serve as a wake-up call to everyone that the more prosperous, skilled, productive and healthy our country is, the more resilient we will be.

“If we do not use all means at our disposal, and by we, I mean the government, local authorities and suppliers, our nation will become more and more divided as inequality increases. Poverty is not only a massive drag on our economy but an utter waste of human potential.”

From the Ground Up - Improving the Delivery of Social Value in Construction is available at bit.ly/planner0920-socialvalue n Huw Morris is consultant editor of The Planner

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BRITISH ISLES REGIONS 11. Sco otla t nd d 2. Nor N the t rn Ire elan a d 3. Wal W es 4. North Eastt 5 Yor 5.

Y ksh Yo k ire ire an a d the h Humber 6. North h Wes We t 7 Eas 7.

E t Midl id and an s 8 Wes 8.

W t Midland M ds 9 Eas 9.

E t of Englan la d 10. South h Ea ast 11. So outh th We West s 12.. Lo Londo ndo on

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P O LI T I C A L R E FO R M

PICKING UP THE BREXIT AND THE COVID­19 PANDEMIC HAVE RUTHLESSLY EXPOSED DEEP REGIONAL INEQUALITIES THAT ARE PULLING THE UK APART. A FEDERAL SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT COULD HEAL THE DIVISIONS, ARGUES MALCOLM PROWLE

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fter a turbulent political year, the scale of regional inequalities in the UK remains an immense political problem.

Voluminous evidence shows the extent of economic and social inequality between North and South on almost any indicator available. Office for National Statistics data, for example, shows that disposable household income is 50 per cent higher in London than in the north-east of England (see map over the page).

Unsurprisingly, this disparity in income is consistent across all the major sources of household wealth, including property and pension (see graph over the page).

There is also no shortage of indicators showing similar inequality across other areas of UK life, including life expectancy and educational attainment. Regional inequality runs broad and deep in the UK,

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and early evidence suggests that this already bad situation is likely to worsen because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

with the political elites of all parties that have presided over this situation for decades.

There were many superficial explanations put forward to explain the shock result, Political impacts but over time the reality Such regional inequality in the dawned that the underlying UK has existed for centuries, problems were but has never much deeper. been very “UK PUBLIC Essentially, the high on the POLICY vote in favour of agenda of any FORMULATION AND Brexit came as of the political IMPLEMENTATION a consequence parties. But IS STEEPED IN of deep-seated chickens FAILURE” economic come home and societal to roost: in concerns that recent months have been left and years, unresolved. issues related Unless someto inequality thing changes, they will have fuelled a political probably remain so. upheaval.

Brexit can be seen as a They came to the fore conduit for bringing to the following the EU referendum in surface anger that previously which inequalities resulted in existed but which was not fully large parts of the UK – mainly recognised by politicians. It non-affluent parts of the North, provided a mechanism for older Midlands and Wales – voting to working-class communities leave the EU out of frustration

in the North to take out their anger at being ‘left behind’ by a political elite and the processes of economic globalisation.

In the 2019 general election there was yet another political upheaval: the Conservative government won a crushing victory by taking more than 40 seats in the Midlands and the North held by Labour for decades and which were home to many of these ‘left-behind’ communities.

The reasons for this crumbling ‘red wall’ are complex and will be debated by politicians for many years.

However, it clearly represents a loss of confidence in the Labour Party that these communities had traditionally supported.

A legacy of neglect The causes of the regional inequalities in the UK are many and long standing. There are four key causes to consider: n Political neglect. All political parties, in opposition or

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it fails to understand the needs of societies outside of the capital city. government, have failed to get to grips with the social and economic consequences of the running down of basic industries in the North and Midlands. Measures that have been tried have been half-hearted and met with only limited success. The issue was just not seen as a priority. n Over-centralised government. In 2002, the late Robin Cook claimed that Britain was the most centralised state in the EU. Others have argued that the UK is one of the most centralised states in the developed world. Many countries have some form of state, regional or provincial government but in the UK political power is centralised in London.

In writing about the failures of the UK Government in managing the Covid-19 pandemic, The Economist stated that “in a federal system, like America’s, the central government’s failings can be mitigated by state and local authorities. In a centralised system, they cannot”.

Local authorities do not have the powers or resources to compensate for the failings of central government.

Centralisation leads to slow decisionmaking and decisions not relevant to the situation on the ground. n An unbalanced economy. The combination of free-market economics and the development of the Internet and communications

Regions vs nations COUNTRY/ REGION

24

POPULATION (MILLIONS)

UK North West

7.3

UK West Midlands

5.9

UK East Midlands

4.8

UK North East

2.7

Singapore

5.9

Denmark

5.8

Ireland

4.9

Cyprus

1.2

The future is federal It will take a political earthquake to narrow inequalities in the UK. There are three areas in which reform could technology has driven the evolution create the first tremors. of a global economy. Though seen to First, the UK would need to move be beneficial for the UK as a whole, away from its centralised, Londonglobalisation has led to an unbalanced dominated government structure. economy focused on financial This implies a federal model involving services in the South to the detriment a federal tier of government and of other sectors elsewhere. five of six regional governments in Added to this are concerns about a England, plus the governments of ‘one-size-fits-all’ monetary policy that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. has often appeared set to deal with The federal government would perceived issues affecting the London retain responsibility for matters economy with little consideration for such as defence, foreign affairs, trade the UK’s other regional economies. policy and monetary policy, and n Failures of public policy. UK should preferably be based outside public policy formulation and the South East. A second chamber, implementation is steeped in if retained, must contain substantial failure. For evidence, we need look regional representation. no further than Crossrail, HS2, Elected regional governments repeated reorganisations of the NHS, would take the development of responsibility for independent school “UK REGIONAL all activities other trusts, the 1992 INEQUALITY IS NOT than those reserved GMS contract for NEW. IT HAS EXISTED for the federal primary healthcare FOR CENTURIES, BUT government. They and, most recently, HAS NEVER BEEN would need to be mismanagement of the VERY HIGH ON THE constitutionally Covid-19 epidemic.

AGENDA OF ANY protected to stop A recent blog on OF THE POLITICAL future attempts at the London School of PARTIES” emasculation by the Economics website federal government. concluded: “It has This would require always been the case the UK to have a that the likelihood written constitution. of policy failure is at Regional least as high as policy governments would success. However, the need to give consideration to the currency of modern politics seems to structures, roles and responsibilities be squarely that of failure – indeed of local government in their region major failure.” and not just replicate a centralised There are probably many causes of model of government. Regions such policy failure, including: have many towns and villages, as n Over-centralisation of government well as cities, and it is robust local n Separation of policy development government that engages closely with from policy implementation citizens in these. n A civil service that lacks diversity of Second, regional economic outlook and experience planning and spatial planning needs n A flawed policy development model to be perhaps the n Excessive secrecy/ lack of major function transparency of regional n Lack of data and evidence on governments. which to base policy Regional n The malign influence of external economies lobbyists should Collectively, these lead to be selfpolicymaking so London-centric that

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P O LI T I C A L R E FO R M

Wealth by region

Financial (net)

Private Pension

Property (net)

Physical

2,750,000 2,500,000 2,250,000 2,000,000

£ million

1,750,000 1,500,000 1,250,000 1,000,000 750,000 500,000 250,000

N or Yo th rk E sh N ire or ast & th W th e H est E a um st be M r W idl es a t M nd s Ea i st dlan of ds En gl an Lo d nd o So ut n h So Ea ut st h W es t W ale s Sc ot lan d

0

Income inequality in the UK

sufficient and not reliant on handouts from London.

This would require regional legislative powers, including the power to create planning legislation. Regional planning approaches are more suitable than the Londoncentric approach to spatial planning that is currently forced upon the rest of the UK. Likewise, there would need to be transparent and equitable distribution of infrastructure resources between the parts of the UK, as opposed to current arrangements, which strongly favour London and the South. Just imagine the economic impact of spending just part of the projected £100 billion cost of a third Heathrow runway on infrastructure projects in the North and Midlands.

Regions would also need some involvement in UK trade and monetary policy and be consulted about any changes.

Third – and last – the federal tier of government would have an important role in coordinating the economic policies and approaches of different regions. However, the key term is coordinating [itals], not controlling.

Within this federal UK, policymaking will take place at regional government level – with the exception of areas reserved for the federal tier. What is really involved here is for regional governments to design policymaking processes without the shortcomings of existing approaches found in central government.

This would likely include: a robust policy making process based on evidence with limits on the role of lobbying, linking policymakers with policy implementers; regional cadres of professional policymaking staff who combine diversity of backgrounds with local knowledge and technical skills such as data science and project management;; partnerships between cities and towns in a region that will have an involvement in policymaking.

A political fantasy? £ per head 19,000 to 21,000 17,000 to 18,999 16,000 to 16,999 15,000 to 15,999 14,500 to 14,999 14,000 to 14,499 13,000 to 13,999

No doubt these changes will be greeted with reflex cries of “Fantasies!”

“Impossible!” and “Too small!”. Yet there are many successful countries with populations smaller than UK regions (see table, left)..

What is certain is that the regions can never achieve prosperity while being micromanaged from London. With a degree of regional autonomy, they have a chance.

However, I do not see any chance of the changes ever taking place. The absolute power of London and the vested interests make this inconceivable.

In the absence of such changes, I foresee the dissolution of the UK as a unified nation state and the creation of a nationalistic and insular English state beset with major social problems caused by ongoing inequalities.

This article is drawn from a longer paper that can be downloaded at bit.ly/planner0920-reform, or by request to Malcolm.prowle@ntu.ac.uk n Malcolm Prowle is professor of performance management at Gloucestershire Business School. He was financial adviser to two House of Commons select committees and a consultant to the World Health Organisation.

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P L A N N I N G FO R R A I L F R EI G H T

TWISTS OF

FREIGHT FIFTY PROPOSALS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED TO NETWORK RAIL TO REOPEN LINES CLOSED BY DR BEECHING – BUT IF IMPROVING TRANSPORT LINKS IS VITAL FOR PEOPLE TO ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS THE UK, WE’RE MISSING A TRICK BY NOT INVESTING IN A STRATEGIC RAIL FREIGHT NETWORK, SAYS JACK OSGERBY

F

reight is a forgotten element of spatial planning” – so said the National Infrastructure Commission in its Better Delivery: The Challenge For Freight report advising the government on the rail freight system in 2019.

What’s more, the NIC asserted that “gaps in current planning policy and guidance give planners little understanding of why and how to plan for freight”.

These are significant omissions – especially at a time when, squeezed by the twin forces of Covid-19 and Brexit – the UK is under extreme pressure to reconfigure its trading relationships, ‘level up’ regionally, set a ‘green recovery’ in motion and create a platform for future prosperity.

On what should that platform be founded? Rail freight could – and should – be integral to these ambitions for its strategically essential role in providing a fast, reliable and efficient method of transporting goods around the UK. In fact, in carrying £30 billion worth of goods each year, according to the Rail Delivery Group, rail freight is vital for the delivery of commodities ranging from

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everyday consumer products to the construction materials required for new infrastructure and housing.

It has a host of secondary benefits, too, from reduced carbon emissions to productivity gains for businesses (see box It’s better by rail).

Indeed, the government recognises rail freight’s benefits. As set out in the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Rail Freight Strategy and the National Policy Statement for National Networks, it is the government’s ambition to promote a modal shift of freight from road to rail to limit road congestion and reduce carbon emissions.

This includes the DfT Mode Shift Revenue Support grant scheme, which financially incentivises industry to transport freight by rail rather than road by grant funding the additional operating costs incurred by companies where rail is more expensive than road.

So if the government acknowledges its importance, in what sense is rail freight “forgotten”?

Where’s the obstacle to creating an effective strategic rail freight network that can carry the UK into the future?

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P L A N N I N G FO R R A I L F R EI G H T

Rail freight transports £30 billion of goods a year in the UK

It’s better by rail

The space race In short, the problem can be summed up as competition for space in areas of high and competing demand. Often, the places that are most suitable for rail freight depots are also good places to put housing – and that invites conflict.

To facilitate the movement of goods, the rail freight industry relies on a network of depots and interchanges where goods can be loaded and unloaded along the supply chain.

This includes sites where goods can be taken from rail wagons and loaded onto road vehicles to be transported to their final destination. Sites are also required next to railways where materials such as aggregate and cement can be unloaded then processed or stored for use on nearby construction sites.

It is clear that new interchanges and depots will be required to meet the forecast demand in the growing rail freight sectors throughout the UK. But as goods and materials are often required within urban centres where demand is greatest, planning for rail freight infrastructure and sites can present several land use challenges.

In particular, competition for land and pressure to build more houses within urban areas has meant the delivery of new terminals is often difficult.

Furthermore, existing rail freight sites are also increasingly threatened by new sensitive development located on or next to terminals and depots. ‘Sensitive’ in this context is development frequented by people in an everyday way – homes,

THE STATE OF FREIGHT

Goods moved by rail freight have changed in recent years from traditional commodities, such as coal, iron and steel, to accommodate growing markets in containerised goods, biomass and construction materials. Through this growth, rail freight is now being extensively used to transport imported containerised goods from UK ports, such as Felixstowe, Southampton and Liverpool, to major inland distribution centres. Other growth sectors for the industry include transporting biomass to power stations, such as Drax Power Station, and raw materials to towns and cities across the UK to be used in construction of new houses and infrastructure.

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According to the Rail Delivery Group, rail freight contributes up to £1.7 billion a year to the UK economy through £1.2 billion worth of productivity gains for businesses and £0.5 billion by reducing congestion, cutting carbon emissions and improving air quality.

The industry is able to generate such benefits because each freight train removes up to 76 heavy good vehicles from the roads. This is estimated by a Network Rail Freight Network Study to amount to 9.9 million HGV journeys and 1.66 billion HGV kilometres on UK roads annually. Rail is also the more efficient form of transport – one gallon of fuel can move a tonne of goods 246 miles on the railway on average, compared with just 88 miles by road.

This brings significant environmental benefits as each tonne of freight transported by rail produces up to 76 per cent less carbon dioxide, according to the Department for Transport’s Rail Freight Strategy, up to 90 per cent fewer particulates of less than 10 micrometers (PM10) – and as much as 15 times less nitrogen oxide than road haulage, according to the National Policy Statement for National Networks.

Shifting freight from road to rail, therefore, reduces carbon emissions, improves air quality and can help the UK meet its carbon emission and air quality targets, not to mention allaying health concerns associated with pollution by particulates and nitrogen oxides.

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Visualisations for a positive outcome

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P L A N N I N G FO R R A I L F R EI G H T

The role of rail freight and its significant environmental and economic benefits should be considered by planners as a huge plus

Freight capital

offices, public open spaces, shops and cafés, sports facilities, schools and so on.

With common environmental considerations surrounding air quality, noise, light and HGV movements, new sensitive development adjacent to rail freight sites without carefully designed mitigation can generate conflict with other users of the space.

This, in turn, can lead to restrictions being put on site operations, such as limiting operational hours and capacity.

As it is a competitive industry that may rely on operations and rail paths throughout the day and night, restrictions to operations and capacity can be a severe hindrance.

Once these strategically important sites or their capacity are lost, they won’t be easily replaced – so protection of these vital supply lines is critical to not only continue but also to expand rail freight use within the UK.

Freight lifting There are a number of ways in which these challenges can be addressed.

First, and most urgently, existing rail freight sites must be adequately safeguarded from new development.

Doing so within national and local policy and through the ‘agent of change’ principle (paragraph 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework) will go some way to addressing these challenges.

But many feel such principles and policies need to be effectively and consistently implemented throughout the UK – and this is not always the case.

Second, new development must be

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Every year, London needs 10 million tonnes of aggregates (such as sand, gravel and crushed rock) to build houses, other buildings and infrastructure.

Most of this material is sourced beyond London, from quarries in places such as Somerset and the Midlands. As one train carries enough material to build 30 houses, rail freight is crucial to deliver this material into the capital and, according to the Mayor of London’s Freight and Servicing Action Plan, carries 50 per cent of all aggregates used by the capital’s construction industry.

Rail freight is also used to export large volumes of bulk materials, such as spoil, generated by construction and excavation projects in the city such as Crossrail. Spoil is carried to sites around the UK where it is typically used to restore old quarries.

Network Rail identifies 25 rail freight terminals within London that process an average of 62 heavy freight rail movements a day. Through these 62 movements, the rail freight industry in London removes approximately 4,000 HGV movements across the city every day.

In a city where road safety, congestion and air quality are high on the planning agenda, rail freight plays an important role in addressing these issues. A further modal shift from road to rail would only remove more HGVs from London’s roads and increase the positive economic and environmental outcomes.

To achieve this, rail freight infrastructure and terminals must be adequately safeguarded from the significant pressures on land use, and from the need to build more housing within the capital, through active plan-making and careful decision-taking. This is essential to deliver the London mayor’s transport, air quality and environmental strategies.

fully assessed to ensure that it can be integrated effectively alongside existing rail freight sites to guarantee that no unreasonable restrictions to operations are imposed.

There is also a need for new rail freight sites to be built in suitably located areas to serve the growing sectors of intermodal containerised goods and construction materials.

So, third, local planning authorities and the industry itself must encourage and plan for rail-linked industrial development, particularly within the logistics, mineral, waste and energy sectors.

Finally, rail freight should also be considered during the construction of major infrastructure projects, such as HS2, large road schemes and new power stations where rail links are available.

Rail-fed construction projects have already proved successful within the UK – construction of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Crossrail were reliant on rail freight to supply construction materials and to remove excavated spoil.

As the planning system aims to improve air quality, build a strong economy and minimise carbon emissions, the planning industry must fully recognise and consider the role of rail freight and its significant environmental and economic benefits during the plan-making and decisionmaking process. n Jack Osgerby is a graduate planner with Fairhurst. This article is written in a personal capacity

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CLOSER LOOK: RAIL FREIGHT AT FELIXSTOWE RAIL SHIFTS MORE THAN A MILLION CONTAINERS OF FREIGHT FROM THE PORT OF FELIXSTOWE TO DISTRIBUTION CENTRES AROUND THE UK EACH YEAR. IT’S INTEGRAL TO THE NATION’S TRADING CAPABILITY – AND ITS ROLE IS EXPANDING

1

Rail has always been at the heart of the Port of Felixstowe – the venture started life as the Felixstowe Rail and Pier Company in 1875. Four years later the company was permitted to build a dock and changed its name to the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company. The dock opened to shipping in April 1886.

2

More than a century of expansion followed. In 1967, New South Quay, the UK's first purpose-built container terminal, opened. In 1980, with 252,802 containers handled, Felixstowe became the largest container port in the UK.

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5

The port has nine shipping berths, three dedicated rail terminals, 11 kilometres of track across 20 tracks and nine rail-mounted gantry cranes for loading and unloading. Until early 2020, 66 trains served the Port of Felixstowe daily, reputedly saving more than 100 million HGV miles a year.

3

Find out more about the operations at Felixstowe in the port’s promotional video here: bit.ly/planner0920-port

6

Nowadays, the port handles more than four million containers annually and welcomes 3,000 ships, among them the largest container vessels afloat. Seventeen shipping lines operate from Felixstowe and traffic flows to and from 700 ports worldwide. Up to a third of the goods coming into the UK come through Felixstowe.

In late 2019, work finished on a railway dualling project just outside Felixstowe that has enabled rail capacity to increase to 90 trains a day. In January 2020, trains started running to the newly opened East Midlands Gateway, a rail freight interchange at Castle Donington capable of handling trains up to 775 metres long.

The expansion in rail operations is part of the port’s ongoing modal shift from road to rail.

Rail carries more than a million containers from Felixstowe to 14 destinations nationwide, from Glasgow to Cardiff. Around 70 per cent of the freight is delivered to the ‘Golden Triangle’ – the region in the middle of Britain where many of the country’s biggest retailers have national distribution centres.

I M AG E S | P O RT O F F E L I X S T OW E / G E T T Y / I S T O C K

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RTPI AWARDS CASE STUDY

NEW LIFE FOR THE NEWT HADSPEN HOUSE IN SOMERSET AND ITS ESTATE HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED FROM A TRADITIONAL PRIVATE ESTATE INTO A HIGH­GRADE HOTEL, LANDSCAPED GARDEN AND SUSTAINABLE TOURIST DESTINATION. GOOD PLANNING – WITH PLENTY OF NEWT­ COUNTING – WAS INTEGRAL, AS MATT MOODY DISCOVERS CATEGORY: Excellence in planning for heritage and culture PROJECT NAME: The Newt in Somerset SUBMITTED BY: AZ Urban Studio and South Somerset District Council In 2013, South African billionaire Koos Bekker became the latest owner of the 17th century Hadspen House and estate, spending £13 million to see off prospective buyers including actor Johnny Depp.

Over the next six years, Bekker undertook what has been called the most ambitious rural diversification project the UK has ever seen, focusing on sustainability, heritage and public access.

In 2019, the grade II* listed house

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Design details reference the estate’s newt population, which challenged planners throughout the project and ultimately gave the new hotel its name

people had visited, and in 2020, the project won the RTPI Award for Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture.

BALANCING ACT reopened as The Newt, a 23-bedroom luxury hotel set in nearly 1,000 acres of landscaped park and woodland, with 30 acres of carefully curated formal gardens tended by eight full-time gardeners open for exploration.

One area, the parabola garden, has 460 apple trees of 276 different varieties – England’s largest collection. Much of the food served at the on-site restaurant is grown at the estate, with a cider press providing homemade refreshment. By the end of the year, more than 65,000

The project’s scale and complexity gave rise to some unique challenges, says Martin Harradine, who worked on the scheme from start to finish as director of the planning consultancy AZ Urban Studio, based in London.

“A big part of the challenge was trying to plan how to accommodate new buildings and new infrastructure to enable public access to the site, while at the same time bearing in mind its sensitive landscape setting, its heritage assets and its ecological value,” he explains.

“The Hadspen estate obviously has

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RTPI AWARDS CASE STUDY

a long history, but it has always had a quiet, domestic quality to it, and now it has been fundamentally transformed – it has been referred to as a transformation of the rural environment not seen since Victorian times. Managing that scale of change in such a delicate environment was challenging.”

One of the most unusual aspects of the project was the way it evolved over time – and at such a rapid pace. “When the owners took over the estate, they spent a lot of time learning about its cul-

tural heritage, its place in the landscape, things like that. They’re incredibly creative people, and that creative process was continually evolving – working on one project sparked an interest in something else, and so the next project was already brewing.”

It was “a really organic process”, says Harradine, which might have been frustrating for planners, who “like to have certainty and know what they’re working towards”. As it happened, it was the flexibility and agility of planners – both

Eight full-time gardeners tend to the estate’s 30 acres of formal gardens, set in nearly 1,000 acres of landscaped park and woodland

W H A T T H E R T P I AWA R D S JUDGES SAID “The Newt in Somerset was regarded extremely highly by the judges. They said it is magnificent in its scale, ambition and delivery. It’s a model of good practice and transformation that could be replicated elsewhere with similar tangible outcomes. The judges particularly liked the sheer depth of community engagement involved in the project. It was not only outstanding, but lifted their spirits too.”

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RTPI AWARDS CASE STUDY

received delegated decisions, with none referred to committee and very few objections.

It was the ecological challenges the planners faced that ultimately lent the hotel its new name, as Harradine explains.

“The reason the place is called The Newt is a nod to the amount of money and time that’s been invested in dealing with great crested newts across the estate.

“One of my first projects for the new owners was to move a lake in the grounds of the estate, and it was full of newts – they’re everywhere down there. It was an important consideration throughout the project, and the name is an acknowledgement of that.”

REACHING OUT

client-side and for the with both council plan“THAT CREATIVE local authority – that ners and Historic England.

PROCESS WAS ensured the success of Tight delivery timescales CONTINUALLY the project. meant there was “no room EVOLVING – “The planners for protracted debates or WORKING ON ONE involved with the appeals”.

PROJECT SPARKED scheme from South “Delivering this level of AN INTEREST IN Somerset [District complex change requires SOMETHING ELSE, Council] really an investment of time AND SO THE NEXT embraced that journey from all sides,” says HarraPROJECT WAS of discovery that the ALREADY BREWING” dine. “Without pre-appliowners have been on. cation discussions, none “At the end of one of the projects would look project, they’d expect like they do, and many of us to go away and enjoy them may not have mateit and maybe get on rialised at all.” with something else…

There were difficult and then of course, we were back a few moments along the way. One of the proweeks later saying ‘Actually we’d really ject’s biggest new standalone buildings like to talk to you about this new thing – the Story of Gardening Museum – was initially envisaged for part of the site that we’ve discovered’, and the process would council planners could not support. start again.”

However, their input at the pre-application stage meant the plans were ADVANCE PLANNING approved. In fact, all the applications to It was agreed early on that the scale of the the council that the project involved – of project meant that “extensive pre-appliwhich there were more than a dozen – cation engagement would be necessary”,

One of the biggest concerns raised by local people was the impact the target of 100,000 annual visitors to the estate would have on traffic.

As well as undertaking junction safety works, Bekker took a proactive approach, acquiring a Victorian building adjacent to the nearest train station at Castle Cary.

Permission has been secured to refurbish the building and repurpose it to provide a minibus transfer hub for visitors to the estate, as well as rentable office space, a public café and a cheesemaking facility.

A partnership with Great Western Railway secured a dedicated carriage for visitors travelling from London on summer weekends.

Community engagement was also central to the project, as the RTPI awards judges noted, with employment and training for local people one of Bekker’s “core objectives”.

A jobs fair organised by the hotel in 2019 ensured that of the 250 people employed by the estate, three-quarters live locally. Employees also benefit from a staff restaurant offering a free meal each day.

“Our clients have invested a huge amount of money in this project,” says Harradine, “just as the council and other stakeholders like Historic England have invested a huge amount of officer time and effort in shaping the project. It’s an investment that has led to what I hope everyone agrees is a fantastic outcome”

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LANDSCAPE

C&D { C

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

Inspector rejects deed of easement for housing near music venue A condition requiring future occupants of proposed flats near a Milton Keynes music venue to enter a legal agreement accepting a certain level of noise has been deleted by an inspector, who said revised plans meant the venue was not at risk.

The appeal concerned Abbey Developments’ plans to build housing on land adjacent to The Stables, a popular Milton Keynes music venue. The developer's initial application sought outline permission to build up to 134 homes across the entire site. The venue lobbied the council to grant permission only if subject to a condition requiring a deed of easement to be agreed.

A deed of easement is a legal mechanism that allows residents near venues to agree to certain levels of noise, protecting a venue from future complaints, in line with the agent of change principle. It was pioneered in 2014, by an agreement brokered between the South London nightclub Ministry of Sound and a nearby 331home scheme.

In granting outline permission, the council refused calls to include a requirement for a deed of easement, deciding that the relationship between the site and the venue could be addressed at reserved matters stage. When the developer sought full permission for the 134-home scheme, this time the council did require a deed of easement.

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EXPERT COMMENT Tim Taylor, partner at Foot Anstey and deed of easement specialist, said:

( “The inspector’s decision does not change the lawfulness of deeds of easement of noise, nor their fundamental importance to music venues. The decision turned on a technical planning law point; derogation from the outline planning permission.

LOCATION: Milton Keynes AUTHORITY: Milton Keynes Council INSPECTOR: Philip Major PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ Y0435/W/20/3246822

The appellant then submitted a second reserved matters application, this time seeking permission for only 79 homes, which it planned to build on the portion of the site farthest away from The Stables. But this application

was again approved subject to a requirement for a deed of easement to be agreed, a decision taken by the council against the advice of its planning officers. The appellant then sought to have the condition deleted, saying it was not necessary for the smaller scheme.

Inspector Philip Major said the deed was likely to “significantly affect” the developer’s prospects of being able to sell homes built on the site, and should therefore have been “fundamental to the original grant of outline permission”, so that the developer would be aware of the constraints “at the outset”.

Major noted that the development would be more than 200 metres from the venue under the downscaled scheme – “so far distant”

( “He concluded that the condition did derogate, so the reserved matters condition for the deed of easement was not appropriate. Importantly, the inspector agreed that a deed of easement of noise is a material planning consideration, which is correct. Where he went wrong was in saying that such a deed would nullify the permission, as it would be in the gift of a third party. That is wrong in law; a Grampian condition can require a developer to address a private law matter… The inspector also concluded that the houses were too far from The Stables to cause a nuisance. That was his judgment but The Stables disagrees, as the acoustic report concluded. ( “Deeds of easement are lawful and should be the first port of call for any LPA when considering a residential scheme near such a venue.” from it that any noise nuisance would be small.

Although he applauded local people for their “genuinely held concerns” over the future of their “valued community facility”, he ruled that there was “simply no basis to conclude, as feared by many local residents, that the lack of a deed would place the future operation of The Stables in jeopardy”.

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These are just a few of the 40 or so appeal reports that we post each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions

Golf course go-ahead rides on Ryder Cup venue decision A championship golf course and linked 1,000 home development in listed parkland in Bolton can go ahead, communities secretary Robert Jenrick has ruled – but only if the venue is awarded the Ryder Cup.

Paragraph 79 home rejected despite design panel support

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

An inspector has rejected plans for a three-storey home near Gatwick Airport submitted under NPPF paragraph 79 despite a design review panel’s views.

The appellant planned to build a three-storey home on land south-west of Gatwick Airport under NPPF paragraph 79, which allows isolated homes in the countryside if they are of outstanding or innovative design.

The ground floor of the house would be brick-clad, while the first floor would be clad in prefabricated thatched panels. A smaller second-floor tower would form a glazed “writing room” offering sweeping views. A wildlife corridor would also run along the ground-floor roof.

Inspector Katie Peerless agreed that using prefabricated cladding panels would be “innovative”, and that the proposed wildlife corridor was “a novel concept”. But she was concerned about the design concept of the second-floor writing room as a “beacon in the landscape’, saying it would appear “somewhat strange and out of place”.

The appellant said the writing room was intended to reference a disused test transmission antennae at the site, as well as the Gatwick’s air traffic control tower a few miles away, suggesting that it would carry on the use of the site for “the transmission of message”. Peerless considered this “unlikely to be appreciated by the casual observer”.

She was also vexed by the proximity of the new LOCATION: Ifield home to a dog breeding business, as there would AUTHORITY: Horsham District Council be only a metre between the house’s boundary and INSPECTOR: Katie Peerless the dogs’ exercise area.

She acknowledged PROCEDURE: Hearing that “much effort” had gone into responding DECISION: Dismissed to the comments of the independent review REFERENCE: APP/ panel Design South East, Z3825/W/19/3243352 which had subsequently supported the plan, but Peerless was unconvinced that its design met the bar set by paragraph 79.

This recovered appeal concerned Hulton Park, a 400-hectare, grade-II listed estate in green belt land at Newbrook Road, Westhoughton, that had fallen into disrepair.

Peel Land and Property’s three linked applications are aimed at restoring the park and building a championship golf course, along with an academy and a hotel, spa and conference venue. The proposal’s idea is to build 1,036 homes to subsidise all the other works.

All parties agreed that development was contingent on the course being awarded the Ryder Cup in 2030 or 2034, a decision that was due in summer 2020.

As security, Jenrick and his inspector upheld a section 106 agreement preventing work from starting ahead of this decision.

In making his determination, Jenrick acknowledged that the proposal contravened Bolton core strategy policies relating to housing allocations, green belt and heritage protection.

He discovered, however, that Bolton’s housing supply

LOCATION: Hulton Park AUTHORITY: Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

INSPECTOR: Karen Ridge PROCEDURE: Recovered appeal DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ N4205/V/18/3208426

was only enough for between 3.5 and 3.7 years.

Moreover, Jenrick concurred with the applicant’s assessment that the development would generate £1.1 billion of gross value added – a considerable benefit in an area that “lags behind economically and evidences higher levels of deprivation and economic inactivity”.

Concluding that special circumstances existed for the scheme, the secretary of state agreed with his inspector and consequently allowed the appeal.

SEPTEMBER 2020 / THE PLANNER

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C&D { C WHS mine works are not ‘structurally compromised’

LOCATION: St Agnes AUTHORITY: Cornwall Council INSPECTOR: Thomas Bristow PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ D0840/W/19/3238982

The appeal concerned a mineworker’s smallholding at the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, which fell into disuse after the First World War. The site contained the remains of a stone crusher stand, a stamp mill, and a calciner, each constructed of rubblestone and other local materials.

The appellant sought to resurface the structures with waterproof plaster to protect them from weather erosion, vowing that the finish would

Inspector dubs Romford scheme an ‘overdevelopment’ A plan to build 110 homes next to an office block in Romford already being converted into 109 flats under permitted development could not be justified because of its ‘range of issues and their extent’, says inspector.

The appeal concerned a six-storey office block in Romford, East London, situated between a recently completed 10-storey development of 93 affordable homes and a large B&Q. At the time of the appeal, the office building was being converted into 109 flats under permitted development rules.

The appellant subsequently applied to build three new blocks of up to eight storeys next to the office building to provide 104 more flats. In the same application, it proposed adding an additional floor to the office building, to create

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another six homes.

All development considered, the site would have a housing density of 320 units per hectare.

Inspector Stephen Wilkinson noted that this was considerably higher than that suggested by the density matrix in the London Plan – which sets out density guidelines relative to public transport accessibility – given the site’s middling

have “the same appearance” as the original materials used.

The parties agreed that the listed structures contributed to the site’s significance.

Inspector Thomas Bristow said the ruins were not only representative of the landscape’s economic history, but were “intertwined with it in terms of construction from local materials”.

But he found the proposed “externally applied coatings or membranes” represented “modern standardised interventions without any

connection to local materials or context”. There was “little indication as to the texture or colour that would result, or how the proposal would weather over time”.

The appellant warned that “in the absence of remedial works, the stone crusher stand may totally collapse”, or that adverse weather could cause “some form of catastrophic failure”. But Bristow found no evidence that the stone crusher was structurally compromised, as it had “survived for over a century”.

public transport accessibility level score of 3.

He said two of the proposed blocks would be too close to the site’s eastern boundary, “borrowing space” from the neighbouring site and “sterilising” its development potential. There was also a shortfall of public amenity space proposed, he noted, as well as “poor relationships between windows” – causing privacy issues – and a number of single-aspect flats planned, which he deemed “symptomatic of the site’s overdevelopment”.

In the planning balance, he acknowledged that the appellant’s offer of 50 per cent affordable housing was

more then is required by local policy, but noted that “a range of issues”, weighed against the scheme. “Whilst regeneration schemes can sometimes be justified even when they offend policy”, he concluded, “it is the number of failures and their extent which is unacceptable in this scheme.”

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

Plans to resurface historic mining ruins in Cornwall to save them from weather erosion would harm the wider World Heritage Site, ruled an inspector, despite the appellant’s warning that they face ‘total collapse’.

LOCATION: Romford AUTHORITY: Havering Borough Council INSPECTOR: Stephen Wilkinson PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ B5480/W/19/3243182

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUB SUBSCRIBE a to our appeals digest:

https://ssubs.theplanner. https://subs.theplanner. co.uk/re egister co.uk/register

Landscape­led rethink of Bolton housing scheme wins approval Developer Bellway Homes has won permission to build 167 homes on protected land near Bolton, after persuading an inspector that the plans were “materially different” from an application it made to develop the site in 2018, which was rejected at appeal. bit.ly/planner0920-bolton

Lockdown highlights 65­home scheme’s outdoor space failings

Jenrick backs inspector to allow 600­home scheme in King’s Lynn

Inadequate amenity space proposed under plans for 65 flats in Sutton, South London, was indicative of ‘poor design and overdevelopment’, an inspector has ruled, noting that the Covid-19 lockdown had highlighted the importance of outdoor space. bit.ly/planner0920-sutton

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has backed an inspector’s recommendation to allow an appeal for a 600-home and mixed-use development in Norfolk. bit.ly/planner0920-kingslynn

Fencing off of valued land ‘no worse’ than plans to develop it

Blood bank redevelopment approved despite local objections

A developer’s argument that it could only afford to remediate a contaminated public space if it was given permission to build housing on it has been rejected by an inspector, who considered the scheme a worse outcome than the space being fenced off. bit.ly/planner0920-contaminated

A developer’s unpopular plans to build 86 flats at the site of a former NHS blood centre in Essex have been approved following a weeklong inquiry, after an inspector deemed the density of the scheme acceptable. bit.ly/planner0920-bloodbank

Jenrick backs inspector to approve major Nantwich housing scheme A planning inspector’s recommendation to grant permission to a major scheme and a new highway access road in Nantwich has been backed by the secretary of state. bit.ly/planner0920-Nantwich

Contrasting rulings from Jenrick over World Heritage Site buffer­zone housing schemes The housing secretary approved plans for 118 homes in the buffer zone of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, while on the same day rejecting another developer’s plans to build 185 homes on land also y. within the buffer zone a few miles away. bit.ly/planner0920-buffer

Poultry panic from RAF helicopters justifies on­site home

Major solar farm would harm Dorset ‘valued landscape’

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Despite criticising the “blunderbuss ed approach” employed by some interested parties in opposing a major solar farm in n Dorset, an inspector sided with them in refusing permission, after agreeing thatt the appeal site was a valued landscape. bit.ly/planner0920-solar

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An essential need existed for a temporary worker’s dwelling at a poultry farm in Shropshire, an inspector found, after he was persuaded that the window of opportunity to prevent the loss of stock can be as little as five minutes. bit.ly/planner0920-poultry

SEPTEMBER 2020 / THE PLANNER

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LLegal landscape OPINION

On beauty The government has indicated that ‘beauty’ will become a formal requirement for new development. Simon Ricketts highlights some flaws in the plan

I hope it doesn’t take a services. One might assume lawyer to point out the that the government’s main potential tension between concern beyond whether the the government’s current particular change delivers on measures to deregulate the the numbers – homes, jobs planning system and the – is “What does it look like prime minister’s assurance from the outside?” that “we” will “build a more The PDR developer will beautiful Britain”. require prior approval for At time of writing we were “design” and “external awaiting the government’s appearance” but not for the response to the Building size of rooms in the building.

Better Building Changes of use Beautiful that may be utterly Commission’s transformative “IN OUR January 2020 of areas are PLANNING report Living achievable under WORLD, BEAUTY with Beauty. The the new class E, IS NOT IN THE response is going and yet minor EYE OF THE to have to be good, BEHOLDER. IT IS external works because I have to facilitate IN THE EYE OF some questions.

THE DECISION­ those changes Why beauty? will still require MAKER” Homes can be a full planning created by way application! of a wider range The greater the of permitted policy emphasis development on ‘beauty’, the rights (PDR) without greater the discrepancy. Isn’t any control by the local this upside-down thinking? planning authority as to And whose beauty? The minimum room sizes. The methodology for assessing new “commercial, business beauty also needs better and service” use class also definition. In our planning brings unprecedented and world, beauty is not in the eye welcome flexibility. These of the beholder. It is in the eye are fundamental changes. of the decision-maker.

And yet ‘beauty’ is to be put The NPPF already puts on a pedestal – no matter emphasis on achieving “wellabout sustainability, the living designed places” and advises conditions of those within that planning permission the building or of those in an should be refused for “poor area dependent on a range of design”. There is already

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subjectivity and principles of good design are embodied in local design standards.

Since October 2019 we have had MHCLG’s national design guide and await a national model design code.

But the commission has recommended that policies should be ratcheted up, to refer to beauty, to require decision-makers to refuse proposals that are not well designed, to introduce a “fast track for beauty”.

The commission asserts that there is a “powerful consensus… concerning what people prize in the design of new developments, and about how beauty in human settlement is generally understood”, that what “beauty means” and “the local ‘spirit of place’ should be discovered and defined empirically”.

But we each ‘read’ a building in a different way.

Some may just see a familiar form of architecture; others may see the underlying message of those who built it, perhaps to inspire awe and/or subjugation of the individual to an institution, in a way that nowadays would be regarded as wholly inappropriate.

Beauty is not about “spirit of place” – surely it is about how a space functions, within a particular society, and about emotions: comfort, nostalgia,

aspiration, fear?

While the commission’s report is careful not to promote particular building styles, it rails against tall, “iconic” or “innovative” buildings in a way that is inherently conservative.

It lavishes praise on local vernacular styles of building and building materials, when continued use of such styles and materials is nowadays just an artifice.

Are these not some of the dangers of going beyond seeking to control “poor design” and of seeking to regulate to achieve “beauty”? I, too, want us to achieve a more beautiful Britain. But when it comes to what is ‘beautiful’, our tastes and emotional reactions may differ.

Simon Ricketts is a partner with Town Legal LLP. This piece reflects his personal views. Simon comments routinely on planning law at https://simonicity.com/

In brief In planning law, beauty is in the eye of the decision-maker– not in the eye of the beholder Beauty is inherent in the way a space functions Maintaining vernacular styles of building and building materials can nowadays be just an artifice

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS Supreme Court trashes Irish Government’s climate change plan The Irish Republic’s Supreme Court has torpedoed the government’s ‘excessively vague and aspirational’ strategy to combat climate change.

A seven-judge court ruled that the National Mitigation Plan (20172022) lacked specificity and should be quashed.

The court also found the plan did not comply with Ireland’s obligations under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 to give sufficient detail about achieving the national transition objective of a low carbon economy by the end of 2050.

The government was obliged to give “some realistic level of detail” about how it intended to meet the objective and the plan fell “a long way short” of the sort of specificity the 2015 act required, insisted the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke. It must now devise a new plan taking into account the court’s findings, made following an appeal by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE).

LEGAL BRIEFS Housing need standard method changes revised A ‘revised’ standard method for calculating housing need was announced by the government as part of the Planning for the Future white paper. bit.ly/planner0920-revision

Campaigners crowdfund for legal challenge over Liverpool zip wire Campaigners are seeking to crowdfund a judicial review challenge over the decision of the planning committee at Liverpool City Council to approve the creation of an adventure zip wire in the city centre, reports Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner0920-zipwire

Hillingon wins HS2 Court of Appeal case The only way is up Hillingdon Council’s appeal over a High Court ruling concerning the submission of planning applications by HS2 Ltd under the HS2 Act has been allowed by the Court of Appeal.

In March 2018, the council refused to grant approval for HS2 Ltd’s plans and specifications for proposed works associated with the creation of the Colne Valley Viaduct South Embankment wetland habitat ecological mitigation as the firm did not submit sufficient information in support of it.

HS2 Ltd appealed to the government saying that it was not required to provide the information which the council required as it could instead rely upon a suite of non-statutory documents, known as Environmental Minimum Requirements. The housing and transport secretaries rejected recommendations by their planning inspector who recommended that the council’s decision be upheld.

In December 2019, a judicial review of the government’s decision to allow HS2 Ltd’s appeal was upheld by Mrs Justice Lang.

The Court of Appeal however ruled that HS2 Ltd could not rely on the Environmental Minimum Requirements and should provide sufficient information to the council in support of its planning applications. Until then, Hillingdon did not have to determine them.

The secretaries of state’s determination was quashed. They must now reconsider the matter in the light of this judgment.

The government was ordered to pay the council’s legal costs of both the High Court and Court of Appeal cases. .

This webinar will consider the raft of changes proposed by the government concerning permitted development rights, changes of use and upward development. bit.ly/planner0920-upwards

High Court to consider wind farm category

Judicial review granted over Surrey oil wells

An Bord Pleanála’s (ABP) categorisation of an application seeking planning permission for a wind farm development is to be considered by the High Court. The challenge is against ABP and State while Innogy Renewables Ireland Ltd, the proposed developer, is a notice party.

ABP has not decided the application yet. The case will consider its decision to categorise it as a strategic infrastructural development.

The challenge was instigated by Paddy Massey, chair of a local residents’ group which opposes the development. Massey says the proposed development is on two sites: 11 turbines on land in Lyrenacarriga, County Waterford, and six on land including Lyre mountain, County Cork, to be linked by an underground electricity conductor.

Once a planning application is considered to involve strategic infrastructure, it is eligible for fast-track consideration by ABP. Massey alleges the proposed development is not strategic infrastructure.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald said he was satisfied that the applicant had raised the necessary substantial grounds for judicial review.

Haringey £500k confiscation order upheld A defendant who turned a house into 12 flats without planning permission from the London Borough of Haringey has lost an appeal over the subsequent imposition of a confiscation order for more than £500,000, Local Government Lawyer reports. bit.ly/planner0920-confiscate

For the future Planning lawyers Simon Ricketts and Duncan Field share their thoughts on the government’s Planning for the Future white paper. bit.ly/planner0920-future

A campaigner has been given permission by a Court of Appeal judge for a judicial review of Surrey County Council’s decision to allow the drilling of four new oil wells and 20 years of oil production near Gatwick, says Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner0920-oil

Race to the bottom The government’s dramatic building reforms are likely to cut democratic input into the planning process by half, writes Guardian architecture editor Oliver Wainwright. bit.ly/planner0920-wainwright

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NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

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

Planners must be enabled to create healthy communities, says RTPI report Town planners should be ‘visionaries’ to address the converging public health, climate emergency and economic recovery challenges to create healthy communities post-Covid, according to a new RTPI report.

Enabling Healthy Placemaking calls for greater levels of cooperation and collaboration between health, social care and planning professionals to ensure that people’s health needs are integrated into the conceptualisation, design and planning stages of new developments in the future.

It highlights seven ways to enable planners to lead the way in creating healthy and sustainable communities, including public participation in the design of post Covid-19 cities, increased investment in the planning service, and more use of digital tools.

Professor Aude Bicquelet-Lock, the RTPI’s Deputy Head of Policy and

Research (pictured below), is the author of the report. She said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a bright light on much that is wrong with our communities and laid bare the fact that many people’s health has suffered as a result of substandard living conditions.

“This is largely due to the fact that over the years the health needs of communities have often been forgotten in the race to meet housing targets and appease developers.

“The links between town planning and good health have long been established and there is a plethora of evidence proving that healthy places create healthy people who in turn are able to contribute to and build a healthy economy.

“Healthy placemaking is critical to address health challenges and reduce inequality, so it is now vital that we overcome some of the barriers to creating healthy places, turn the

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n More information at bit.ly/ planner0920-healthyplacemaking

SEVEN WAYS TO ENABLE HEALTHY PLACEMAKING 1. Move the debate forward 2. Make collaboration work 3. Formalise health principles in planning decisions 4. Equip planners with the right skills 5. Resource planning adequately 6. Engage the public in planning decisions 7. Shape the future

Co-housing scheme Marmalade Lane, submitted by Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service and development company TOWN, won in the Health and Wellbeing category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2020

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evidence into policy and the policy into action to create the healthy, resilient and inclusive places necessary for people to thrive.”

This latest report adds weight to the RTPI’s ‘Plan the World We Need’ campaign, which calls on governments across the UK and Ireland to capitalise on the expertise of planners to achieve a sustainable, resilient and inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The RTPI also plans to create an online ‘Health Evidence Repository’ later in the year as well as publish a set of practice notes describing key skills and delivery strategies necessary to implement healthy placemaking principles.

I M A G E S | D AV I D B U T L E R

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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… THE IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC As working from home becomes the new normal, the issue of housing quality is brought into focus, says chief planner Jennifer Peters Since lockdown began, the issue of decent housing that people can actually afford has become even more important. In recent years, the government – and planners to an extent – has got quite fixated on numbers but we must remember that quality of stock is just as important.

A lot of my staff don’t have the luxury of a home office; if they’re lucky they’re sitting a kitchen table or a makeshift desk; if they’re less lucky they’ll be in the bedroom of a shared house or in their parents’ house. Often people are trying to work with children who have no separate place to do their school work.

Private amenity space and local parks have never been more important – not just a patch of green space but actual parks where people can exercise and

have a nice time.

To an extent, we knew these issues before, but the pandemic has brought them into focus as we see its impact on people who are squeezed into places that just aren’t big enough for them.

If you don’t have the space that you need, that can have such an impact on mental health.

What I have learned from the past few months is that our role as planners is more crucial that it has ever been as we work to ensure that we deliver the right development, of the right sizes and at the right prices.

n Jennifer is Divisional Director of Planning and Building Control at London Borough of Tower Hamlets. She was speaking at the inaugural meeting of Heads of Planning Everywhere (HOPE). See the profession’s response to Covid-19 at bit.ly/planner0920-hope

POSITION POINTS

ZONING MAX TOLLEY, RTPI ENGLAND POLICY OFFICER In recent weeks much has been made of the possible introduction into England of ‘zoning’, a land use planning practice that focuses on ‘dividing’ a local authority’s area into different parts where some uses are permitted while others are forbidden by right.

The RTPI believes that now is not the time for a major overhaul of England's planning system. In our Priorities for Planning Reform in England we set out sensible alternatives to zoning, including a refocusing on 21st century challenges, a clear direction for strategic planning, and technological innovation. Proper investment in place, including public sector planning, can deliver the government’s objectives while avoiding major disruption.

If some type of zoning is to be introduced into the English planning system, the system must provide a clear direction on meeting net-zero carbon targets and should only be introduced in tandem with a vision-led strategic planning framework. Community consultation and involvement and locally agreed design codes must also be ‘baked into’ the system. bit.ly/planner0920-zoning

PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS VICTORIA HILLS, RTPI CHIEF EXECUTIVE Plans to extend the use of permitted development rights (PDRs) risk adding to the country’s already prevalent health and societal inequalities. It is a serious error of judgement from the government and a move that will have a negative impact on the quality of life of communities already hit hard by Covid-19.

We’ve long campaigned against the increased use of PDRs, and agree with the latest independent research funded by the government itself, which confirms that extending the use of PDRs will have a negative impact on health and wellbeing. Automatic permissions already implemented by the government – without requirements relating to quality, size, sustainability and design – have led to spaces detrimental to the wellbeing of residents.

The RTPI calls for more active planning for the built environment. Longer-term stewardship would be a more sustainable solution, looking at interventions earlier in the building process, rather than repurposing buildings that are fundamentally unsuitable for housing. bit.ly/planner0920-pdrs

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NEWS

RTPI N E W S

Walking for a green recovery

RTPI ELECTIONS:

RTPI Scotland has joined with some of Scotland’s most influential public and third sector organisations to call for the country to ‘walk back better’ as society reshapes following Covid-19.

In an open letter, the 27 organisations, which also include Public Health Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the University of Edinburgh, say that they are working to ensure that people and walking are put first in national and local planning developments.

The organisations involved in the letter comprise the National Walking Strategy Delivery Forum, which has been tasked with implementing the Scottish Government’s ambitious National Walking Strategy.

Director of RTPI Scotland Craig

The launch of the Institute’s 10-year corporate strategy heralded the start of a busy year with new initiatives on diversity and climate change at the top of the agenda. The Covid-19 pandemic meant we quickly had to adapt our business practices to enable digital working while at the same time lobbying the government to support the profession in its endeavours to keep the planning system functioning effectively. In June, we launched ‘Plan The World We Need’, putting planners at the forefront of the debate in imagining and creating a better, fairer, greener and more inclusive world.

You can help the RTPI continue its leading role in addressing these challenges by voting in leaders who can bring new ideas to the table. This year, to achieve an effective governance process, we advertised vacancies in the Nations and Regions alongside vacancies for the General Assembly and Board of Trustees.

We are delighted with the diverse range of nominations received for all roles.

McLaren is Chair of the Delivery Forum.

He said: "Following hot on the heels of the launch of ‘Plan the World We Need’, the RTPI’s campaign calling for a greener, place-based recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re delighted to be a signatory to this letter.

“As we look towards a post Covid-19 world, we want to see a commitment to walking and cycling embedded into how we design our towns and cities with walking environments placed at the heart of the recovery.

“There are a number of real opportunities to do this through the new National Planning Framework, the National Transport Strategy and any post Covid-19 approaches used to stimulate a green recovery.”

Read the letter in full at bit.ly/planner0920-nwsdf

n A new cycling and walking vision published by the Department for Transport has been welcomed by the RTPI. Policy Manager James Harris said Gear Change could provide a “real boost” to walking and cycling, but warned that the government’s expansion of permitted development rights would work against these ambitions by reducing developer contributions to local transport infrastructure.

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Members should look out for a letter or email from Mi Voice, this year’s election provider and ensure they have voted by 5pm on 23 September. See the list of candidates and the election timetable at: bit.ly/planner0920-elections2020

Investing in volunteers

A strategy to celebrate the support and involvement of the Institute’s volunteers has been launched by the RTPI. Investing in Volunteers: Collaboration for a Sustainable Future aims to ensure that RTPI volunteers have a clear framework for their activities and can make the most of volunteering opportunities as part of their personal development while also inspiring more members to get involved.

RTPI President Sue Manns FRTPI said: “Volunteering is part of the DNA of the Institute and is a vital ingredient of RTPI membership with nearly 10 per cent of our members volunteering their time

to support the delivery of activities for the benefit of the wider membership, our members’ communities and the organisation itself. In the case of Planning Aid England, they even directly deliver services to the public.

“Building on that clear, collective sense of community and the shared willingness to contribute to the success of the RTPI, we have developed our firstever strategy for volunteer engagement to maximise the opportunities for volunteering and ensure that every RTPI

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How to vote

volunteer has a positive experience, that their contributions are recognised, their achievements are celebrated and the impact they have is valued.’

Read the new strategy: bit.ly/planner0920-volunteer

n Watch Sue Manns and RTPI volunteers Ryan Walker, Kim Cooper and Chris Jesson discuss the importance of volunteering with the Institute: bit.ly/planner0920-volunteertalk

12/08/2020 11:45

G PLANNIN AHEAD MEMBER NEWS

SOCIAL JUSTICE PRIZE

Key dates for 2020 Join us for Northern Ireland Planner Live, which this year focuses on the theme of ‘Seize 14­SEP18 the Chance for Change – Integrated Land Use and Infrastructure Planning in a PostPandemic World’. The integration of planning and infrastructure in Northern Ireland is weak and these webinars will look at the effect of Covid-19 and how we can encourage a shift to more integration as well as consideration of climate action. Special guests will include Northern Ireland’s Minister for Infrastructure Nichola Mallon MLA.

For the very latest news, follow us on Twitter @RTPIPlanners

n For more, visit bit.ly/planner0920-NIPlannerLive The title of Wales Planner Live for 2020 is ‘Planners Taking Climate Action’. This week-long 21­SEP25 series of events will raise awareness of the need to take climate action and investigate the ways in which planners can mitigate climate change. Special events will include the launch of the Placemaking Wales Charter by Julie James, Welsh Minister for Housing and Local Government. n More details at bit.ly/planner0920-WelshPlannerLive This year’s RTPI Scotland Annual Conference will be transformed into The Scottish Planner Live comprising a series of short online events over 28 ­ 2 SEP OCT the week. The programme will be themed on planning for healthy places. Sessions will ask how to embed health in placemaking; if we can develop 15-minute neighbourhoods; what evidence we need to support interventions to tackle health inequalities; and how to prioritise active travel and tackle air quality. It will end with a session asking what can be learned from work across the UK. n For the latest information, visit bit.ly/planner0920-scottishplannerlive

Online masterclasses The RTPI Training team successfully piloted four online masterclasses earlier in the year – 71 members took part, including one from Ireland and one from Guyana. The masterclasses included additional reflective activities on a dedicated RTPI Learn course page, before and after the live event.

We’ve taken on board feedback from those who took part, and there will be a number of changes to the autumn programme to make our masterclasses even better than before, including a more staggered release of additional activities in the three months after the live masterclass.

All masterclasses are aligned to the RTPI’s Core CPD Framework so those who take part will have guaranteed quality training to report to the Institute when submitting. Prices start from £99 per person. n More information at bit.ly/planner1219-Training

Congratulations to Chloe Young, one of four recipients of this year’s RTPI Trust Bursary, who has also been awarded the University of Sheffield’s ADH Crook Prize for Contributions towards Social Justice in Planning.

Professor Tony Crook founded this annual prize in 2011 upon his retirement from the university.

Chloe was awarded the prize for her thoughtful contributions to social justice in planning during her Urban Studies and Planning (MPlan) degree.

Chloe said: “It’s been an absolute privilege to receive these two incredible prizes for my work. This period is such an uncertain one in our lives, and so it is heart-warming to be singled out by receiving these prizes and such kind words from such a high-performing university and such a prestigious institution.”

Professor Crook said: “I endowed this prize so that the university could celebrate the achievements of graduates who have shown how planning can be a force for good and help to create and nurture more socially just societies, ones that foster environmentally sustainable, economically resilient and socially inclusive communities.

“It is also important in our work that planners come from all sections of our community so I was absolutely delighted when Chloe won not only the Crook prize but also one of the RTPI Trust Bursaries that celebrates and supports diversity in our discipline and profession.”

NEW MEMBERS Congratulations to the following planners who were elected to RTPI Chartered membership of the RTPI on 23 June.

Samuel Edward Flood London William Clutton Aoife Connaughton Pan Hu Sinead Kelly Amber Morley Calvin Coxsidge Richard Ellison Bethan Haynes Benjamin Clifford Robert Nairn Gualitiero Bonvino South East Alex Edge Robyn Kelly Megan Hodges South West Hannah Gillett Christina Makariou Lloyd Collins

Deborah Bryson Grant Jackson West Midlands Neil Glover James Lloyd Linzi Melrose Helena Obremski Laura Reid Yorkshire Kate Goodwin Naomi Warrenberg Emma Wells East of England Emma Griffiths International Nga Sum Clarice Ho Charlotte Mohn Petr Navrat Scotland Laura Johnston

Mackeddie Stephanie McMillan North West Emilly Kitching Faiyaz Laly Lauren Neary Katie Parfett Alexander James Rowe Ilja Anosovs Paul Nekabari Visigah North East Joe Smith East Midlands Thomas Weighton Edward Stacey Georgina McCrae Edward Norris

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Reach out to our audience of membership professionals There’s never been a more important time to reassure the planning community that their skills are in need.

The Plannerr job board board offers offfers you an opportunity it to t attract tt t the th attention tt ti of a guaranteed, dedicated audience of membership professionals, and reassure them that you are still looking to recruit.

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 p48-49_PLN.SEPT20.indd 48 2 BLEED.indd 1 The Planner full page ad2 option p49_PLN.MAY20.indd

10/08/2020 09/04/2020 11:14 16:16 09/04/2020 16:19

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.

Planning Of·cer Development Management

Principal Planner MRTPI

Salary: Up to £60k pa Location: Chicester, West Sussex

Salary: Scale 6 SO1 (£22,999 £27,229), Location: Worcester

Senior Planning Of·cer (Dev Plans HG) Salary: £39,782 £43,662 pa Location: Milton Keynes

Lead Specialist Built Environment (Planning) Salary: £44,632 – £48,826 pa Location: Somerset

Major Projects Team Leader

Salary: Starting at £52k p.a. increasing to £55k p.a. following 12 months satisfactory performance Location: Dartford

Planning Of·cer – Enforcement and Compliance Salary: Up to £33,799 pa 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 6232

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theplanner.co.uk/jobs 10/08/2020 12:17 12:19

ACTIVITIES Mouse around for more details As with the rest of this September 2020 edition of The Planner, you’ll note that mousing over most links in these pages allows you to directly connect to the events discussed. While we continue to function as an an entirely digital operation, we’re keen to offer you as many ways of interacting with the title and its contents as possible. Happy exploring!

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING...

Vishaan Chakrabarti: How we can design timeless cities for our collective future?

Architect Vishaan Chakrabarti was a colourful addition to the 2019 RTPI conference bill and this TED talk is presented in the same ebullient fashion. Topically, he discusses the ‘creeping sameness’ he sees in urban buildings and streetscapes - a ‘physical homogeneity’ that results from regulations, mass production, safety issues and cost considerations, among other factors. Chakrabarti calls for a return to designing magnetic, lyrical cities that embody their local cultures and adapt to the needs of our changing world and climate. Sample quote: “If you don’t want processed food, why would you want processed cities? (also featured - the hovercraft wheelchair and the city of Ulan Bator, Mongolia…) bit.ly/planner0920-chakrabarti y p

The Secret World of Your Rubbish This documentary series about people working in the front line of waste

50

Manning from the London Borough of Camden and Vitaka Consulting, and James Stewart of Biffa Waste Management. bit.ly/planner0920-wasteplanning

Are High Streets History?

management may not, on the face of it, appeal. But Channel 5’s lockdown offering is one that can make you gasp at the sheer volume of waste we generate. bit.ly/planner0920-rubbish

It’s one to perhaps be watched in conjunction with…

Waste Planning Pla for Non Waste Wa Planners Pla Thiis RTPI South East Sou webinar look web waste at w planning, pla considering con how it is the only area not covered by tthe NPPF, instead having its own stand-alone policy. The three speakers demystify waste planning spe for non-waste planners covering policy, plan-making, applications, pol safeguarding, duty to cooperate, safe circular economy and impacts of Covid-19. Jeffrey Ng of West Berkshire Council chairs, joined by Ian Blake of BPP Consulting, Victoria

Can high streets adapt to meet their many challenges? Or are out-of-town locations about to see a resurgence?

See our last month’s edition, or try this video from WYG, in which the firm’s planning director Gary Morris and principal planner Rebecca Randall share their thoughts on the impact of the pandemic on the high street, and what the future holds for retailing in an increasingly multichannel world and for the food and beverage market as it seeks to meet the challenges of social distancing.

(Sainsbury’s town planning, policy and transport manager Bruno Moore joins in with the discussion.) bit.ly/planner0920-highstreets

Planning For The Future – The Planner's coverage Elsewhere in this edition we’ve been at pains to link you to our continuing coverage of breaking planning news. For all the comment, opinion, analysis, enthusiasm and anger resulting from the government’s Planning For The Future planning white paper. Click below to be brought right up to speed on developments as the ramifications of its proposals begin to sink in... bit.ly/planner0920-futureplanning

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LANDSCAPE

WHAT WE’RE READING...

Designing Future Cities for Wellbeing

by Nick Dunn ASIN: B08FBK9DHZ

Academic and author Nick Dunn draws on original research that brings together the elements of cities we know have a bearing on our health and wellbeing – transport, housing, energy – and discusses the role of design in delivering future cities to enhance these elements.

The book, published this month, aims to demonstrate that cities are “a complex interplay of these various dimensions that both shape and are shaped by existing and emerging city structures, governance, design, and planning”. Considering these interconnecting dimensions is, therefore, key. Chapters draw on UK case and research examples, making comparison to international cities.

Citizens in the ‘Smart City’

by Paolo Cardullo ISBN 9781138343948

Another new book for September, this one examines ‘smart city’ discourse “in terms of governance initiatives, citizen participation, and policies which place emphasis on the ‘citizen’ as an active recipient and co-producer of technological solutions to urban problems”.

Why the need? Because all the hype around ‘smart cities’ and digital technologies has sparked debates in the fields of citizenship, urban studies, and planning surrounding the rights and ethics of participation.

It has also sparked debates on the forms of governance these technologies actively foster. In the book, author Paolo Cardullo presents suggested ‘sociotechnological’ systems of governance that monitor citizen power, trust-building strategies, and social capital.

The Power of Neighbourhood Planning

by Peter Edwards ISBN 9781916431546

The government’s new Planning for the Future structure suggests neighbourhood planning is set to remain as the ‘first tier’ of the planning system in England. But how does a neighbourhood plan get off the ground? How do communities make sure that it comes into force?

And what are the essential features of an effective plan; one that can withstand the often intense pressures for new development?

This book seeks to answer these and other questions faced by neighbourhood planners in sufficient depth to arm both lay readers and planning professionals with the knowledge they need to operate effectively within this novel planning regime. bit.ly/planner0920-neighbourhood

WHAT WE'RE PLANNING...

As the ramifications of the government’s Planning For The Future document sink in, we’ll be reporting in our October edition on the sector’s considered analysis of the proposals. Elsewhere we report on planning for a culture-led recovery and run the rule over a proposed framework for the future design of local railway stations.

For our November edition we plan to showcase the young people changing the world as part of our young planners’ edition for 2020. As ever, contact us through editorial@ theplanner.co.uk with your own thoughts on our future features – and check out our regular online reporting at any time by visiting www.theplanner.co.uk

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Training calendar September – December 2020

Boost your CPD with our online masterclasses We provide high-quality training for all professionals in the planning environment. Our online masterclasses offer a fullyblended learning experience with sequenced activities before, during and after a half-day webinar. Led by an expert trainer each masterclass is aligned to the RTPI Core CPD Framework to prioritise your learning and to fulfil your annual CPD requirement.

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

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Day

Time

Challenges in Sustainability Appraisal / Strategic Environmental Assessment

09

09:30-12:30

Developers and viability: introduction

10

13:30-16:30

Heritage and conservation: making better places

15

09:30-12:30

Flooding, sustainable drainage systems and climate change

16

13:30-16:30

Planning for resilient town centres

23

09:30-12:30

06

13:30-16:30

Gaining insight into NSIP and PINS

07

09:30-12:30

Environmental Impact Assessments

08

13:30-16:30

Developers and viability: advanced

14

09:30-12:30

Communication skills for planners

15

13:30-16:30

Writing skills for planners

03

09:30-12:30

Planning and design: making better places

05

13:30-16:30

Online masterclasses September

October Planning and community engagement

NEW for 2020

November

Personal wellbeing and resilience for planners

NEW for 2020

12

09:30-12:30

Planning for health and inclusivity

NEW for 2020

18

13:30-16:30

24

09:30-12:30

Giving evidence at inquiries

01

13:30-16:30

Leadership for planners

02

09:30-12:30

Negotiation and inuencing for planners

03

13:30-16:30

Business skills for planners

08

09:30-12:30

Planning for non-planners

10

13:30-16:30

Project management for planners December

07/08/2020 10:27