The local authority role in ‘shaping places’

2. The local authority role in ‘shaping places’ Tim Williams 30 November 2007

3. Housing Green Paper • 2 million homes to be delivered by 2016 and 3 million homes by 2020 • Shift back towards public sector leadership in housing provision • New Housing and Planning Delivery Grant • Public land assets: government taking a deferred receipt on all or part of land value • Surplus public sites to be developed and provide a minimum of 50% affordable housing • Delivery: Local Housing Companies – the master developer for new communities within an area

4. Homes and Communities Agency • First reading gone to parliament • Timetable • What does it mean for London?

5. New GLA powers • Under the provisions of the GLA Act 2007, the Mayor will: • Publish a London housing strategy, setting out his strategic housing investment priorities for London; • Be able to determine planning applications of ‘potential strategic importance’ (PSI) in London; • Publish a strategy for reducing health inequalities between Londoners; • Be subject to a duty to address climate change, and publish a London climate change mitigation and energy strategy and an adaptation to climate change strategy for London.

6. New GLA powers GLA Consultation Paper on the draft Mayor of London Order 2008 and draft GOL Circular 2008: Strategic Planning in London: • “London faces critical challenges to provide more housing, particularly affordable housing... The need to drive up delivery in these areas is a shared goal of the Government and the Mayor, and we believe their importance justifies strengthening the Mayor’s powers to intervene in these areas.“ • “We propose therefore to lower the threshold for housing applications from more than 500 homes to more than 150. Currently, the Mayor may direct boroughs to refuse applications for more than 150 homes only if schemes do not accord with the development plan. The new threshold would apply to any application providing more than 150 homes.”

7. Place shaping • Lyons local government white paper • CAA not CPA • Local Asset Based Vehicles • Skills? • Spatial planning / LDFs

8. Cost of bad design Long-term social, environmental and economic costs

9. Good design should… “Good design should contribute positively to making places better for people. Design which is inappropriate in its context, or which fails to take the opportunities available for improving the character and quality of an area and the way it functions, should not be accepted”

13. We know what good design is Good design: • Delivers value for money and can stand the test of time • Ensures our towns and cities are economically competitive and socially inclusive • Encourages local community identity and cohesion, a sense of place • Improves the long-term ‘liveability’, management and maintenance of the built environment • Contributes to the achievement of sustainable development

14. Quality first

15. Purpose of the Commission • Produce mechanisms for the Corporation to improve quality and consistency • Develop understanding of current procurement mechanisms and delivery chain

16. Purpose of the Commission • Send a message: “One of the main organisations at work in the Gateway is committed to a serious long-term programme of significant high quality investment there”

17. Purpose of the Commission • A call to action

18. High expectations “We must hold high expectations. That Leamington, Belgravia or Edinburgh New Town could 200 years ago, self-consciously and planned, build environments which remain so attractive to communities even today, when they had less than a tenth of our wealth, less than a tenth of our social legislation and less than a tenth of our engineering technology, shows what is well within our reach, if we have the consistent will and patience. People are the only difference in the equation, to make it worse or to make it better. We must choose to make it better in the Gateway.”

19. National Policy Framework • PPS 1 • PPS 3 • Code for Sustainable Homes • Manual for Streets • CABE • The Callcutt Review • CABE review

20. National debate on housing • CABE audit of Thames Gateway housing in 2004: Thirteen schemes: • Five ‘Poor’ • Six ‘Average’ • Two ‘Good’ • 82% ‘Average or worse’

21. CABE findings • Findings of East of England Housing Audit • Overwhelming majority (61%) assessed as ‘Average’; 17% were ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’; 22% were judged to be ‘Poor’ quality. • Positives: a number of urban design principles becoming the norm (particularly in London), including relationships between public and private space, appropriate use of scale. • Negatives: ‘Poor’ schemes dominated by highways infrastructure (over-scaled roundabouts, separate surfacing for pedestrians and vehicles), and limited evidence of site specific design and construction. • Schemes built after introduction of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 (which sets out design principles for residential developments) show improvements overall, but problems remain with highway infrastructure and design

22. CABE findings • Comments on National Picture, Housing Audit, February 2007 • Only 18% - fewer than one in five – of developments audited could be classed as ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’ • The quality of a substantial minority of developments – 29% - is so low that ‘they simply should not have been given planning consent’. • The four southern regions of England outperform the national picture, with 24% of developments classed as ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’ • Where there was more social housing, the CABE results were better

23. The need for quality • “If housing is built in those areas without good accessibility to jobs, shopping, leisure, health, education and other facilities, it will suffer the same fate of other large-scale peripheral estates.”

24. Respecting the environment • Designing in a flood plain • “Humanity has rather successfully managed to flourish in flood plains over millennia and it’s difficult to see why this success needs to come to an abrupt end in our lifetime in the east Thames corridor.” • Carbon neutral development

25. Role of local authorities • Place-making • Establishing a local framework quality – and setting the bar high • Emerging Design Pact – Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership • Plinc?

26. The section 106 challenge • Rising proportion of affordable housing • In hands of short-term developers • Worst for ‘waivers’

27. Publicly-owned land • Much of the Thames Gateway • Housing Green Paper • Critical to quantity and quality

28. Need for long-term engagement • “Housing associations traditionally have a long-term engagement with the housing they create, resulting in an inherent interest in its long-term viability, more of a commitment to and connection with ‘place’.

29. The service charge problem • Big issue • How to solve?

30. Ends and Means: responding to Hills • Social housing should help create mixed communities • Avoid building in the most deprived areas without reducing concentrations of social housing and deprivation • Adopt and promote choice-based lettings • Social housing as a tenure of choice • Reduce negative ‘neighbourhood effects’ and improve labour market integration

31. Recommended approach • Prospectus: quality first • Round table • “How was it for you?” • New business models / new entrants • Long-term engagement

32. Recommendations: RSLs • Embrace quality first/prospectus approach • Support emerging Design Pact • Get behind the Thames Gateway Interim Plan • Best practice relationships with local authorities, GLA, house builders • Promote mixed tenure developments • Commitment to carbon-neutral development

33. Recommendations: CLG • Set out criteria for planning authorities to judge and prioritise design • Require Planning Inspectorate to produce annual report on design and quality • Encourage partnering between local authorities and quality developers • Obtain support in CSR07 for investment to bring sites in Interim Plan to market • Adopt model of English Cities East pact • Review service charges and maintenance funding

34. Recommendations: local authorities • Embrace and implement the TGSP Design Pact • Adopt Residential Design Guidance based on Building for Life and other existing standards and guidance • Adopt choice based lettings approach by 2010 • Review their role in place making • Monitor planning decisions against design criteria • Avoid disposing of freeholds for ‘best price’

35. Recommendations: Planning Inspectorate • Let developers and local authorities know that applications can be rejected on the basis of low quality

36. Recommendations: private sector • Look at longer term models of investment, engagement and management • Engage with housing associations and local authorities at an early stage • Embrace the prospectus approach • Invest in skills and knowledge to establish and adopt best practice

37. The Callcutt Review: Quality in design • Planning conditions applied inconsistently • Building for Life standards – results suggest new housebuilding falling short • Limited direct commercial rewards for schemes assessed as high quality • Existence of numerous panels creates a risk that different standards may be applied by different panels of in different places

38. Callcutt recommendations on Quality and Regulation • Government should announce that after two years it will cease dealings with any housebuilding firm which fails to achieve a predetermined standard of customer satisfaction. • Single design review process for housebuilding, arranged and available nationwide. • Process should allow for type approval of standardised designs. • Government review should consider CABE’s possible role in relation to the new assessment standard and the process itself. • Presumption that any development proposal which passed the assessment process would not be subject to any further objections/conditions in relation to quality imposed by the planning authority.

39. Quantity / Quality Threat or opportunity?

40. BedZED: the Beddington Zero (fossil) Energy Development