The Built Environment: Focused Questions

Revised remit and questions for consideration following meeting of Core Group on 8th November 2006

The Built Environment subgroup is divided into three core themes:

• planning and the use of place and space;
• buildings and the standards/regulations required to achieve sustainable building/construction; and
• the social impact of the built environment, both rural and urban.

Planning – place and space
Discussion led by Henry Oliver

Key questions:

• Why do we have Planning?
• What is it for?
• What should it be for?
• Can ‘planning’ be reconciled with ‘development’?

First principles and ‘non-negotiables’:

• Enhanced quality of life – social/environmental/economic wellbeing is the principal objective
• We are pro-planning – this means that we favour a constructive, positive form of planning
• We are pro-sustainability – this implies more than just a world of zero-carbon or zero-waste; it necessitates complementarity with other policy areas, for example reconciling frictions such as enjoyment and appreciation of landscape with the need to generate renewable energy and the demands of population mobility
• We are aiming for the best tool to achieve the best result – this may include any or all types of policy mechanisms, such as regulation, market drivers, fiscal incentives/penalties taxation etc.

Concepts to consider:

• Environmental capacity – this relates to the environment’s carrying capacity and resource availability. Can we use strategic environmental assessment as a tool to measure the capacity of the environment to bear change and development?
• Spatial planning – what does it mean? Can it deliver the desired integration of environmental/social/economic objectives?

Issues to consider within the theme of planning:

• How can we clarify the planning system so that it works efficiently and also delivers social/environmental objectives?
• Fixation of policy-makers with housing in isolation from other features of the planning system – can we question the accepted figures as to demand; is there a problem with shortage of supply; is affordability led by demand side factors; what are the options (state/market driven) for dealing with affordability; how do we remedy the collapse in social housing; should we interfere in the market for house pricing and mortgage expectations and if so how?
• Reconciling commercial development with sustainable planning – how do we achieve mixed use development; how do we create the opportunities/incentives to live and work within a sustainable radius; can we change the framework of development within which public policy objectives are set?
• Public engagement and democratic accountability – how do we alter/redefine the decision-making framework; can we define ‘EU-style’ competences in planning at local/regional/national level; do we need to strengthen local power within the decision-making process?
• National spatial plan – do we need one; could a regional spatial strategy be made to work; how do we achieve a larger scale framework or set of criteria within which decisions may be made at regional/local level, which retains legitimacy and accountability, is determined by robust evidence base, may be reviewed through the judicial process, and attains local empowerment and engagement?
• Quality assurance of planning decisions – how do we ensure the quality of service to applicants and 3rd parties, of information and evidence available to those making decisions, of the individuals with the power to make those decisions (eg. Councillors and council planning officers who are disproportionately influenced by political affiliation), of the method and outcome of decisions, of enforcement and implementation mechanisms?
• Planning and infra-structure – how do we achieve a more even outcome in planning, infrastructure and wealth creation across the country; is it indeed desirable to influence the spread of development; how do we achieve harmonisation of infrastructural capacity with development demands; does the problem of stagnation/decline in the north and over-development in the south of the country actually exist (examples of Liverpool, Leeds); who should pay for improved infrastructure; should housing demand lead infrastructural development or vice versa?
• Short/long term delivery – how do we achieve delivery of planning/development objectives by the property/development industry – eg. targets, financial incentives?
• Planning criteria and resource availability – how do we ensure that planning decisions are determined by resource availability (eg. Water)?
• Use of land for agriculture – should we, and if so how can we, attempt to stem the tide of agricultural development/decline; how do we dovetail planning decisions with local food production and future food security?
• Using planning/selling rules to deliver higher environmental/social standards for new build (eg. Milton Keynes Development Corporation)

Buildings
Discussion led by David Strong

Key questions:

• What policy measures, fiscal instruments and/or government action would produce over the next 20 years a radical improvement in the social, environmental and economic sustainability of buildings? 

• In what ways should our current stock of buildings change and evolve over time; what policy measures/targets are required to deliver the required outcomes?
• Can a step-change in the sustainability of new buildings be achieved?  If so

• What standards/regulations should be put in place?
• How do we achieve effective compliance enforcement?
• How can the market be stimulated so that building procurers/clients demand more sustainable buildings?
• What measures need to be introduced to ensure that the ‘supply-side’ (i.e. designers, buildings, f.m. contractors, materials producers etc) factors are able to respond to a rapid increase in the demand for more sustainable new buildings and major refurbishment?

Issues to consider within the theme of buildings:

• Industrial capacity to meet higher standards – skills and training gap in architecture, installations, buildings control
• Demolition versus refurbishment of existing stock – should the VAT regime be changed/rebalanced to favour refurbishment instead of/as well as new build; what incentives are required to achieve improvement to existing stock – eg. at change of ownership/tenancy?
• Buildings Control framework – a root and branch review to achieve proper quality assurance checking, incentives/penalties for local authority building control officers to ensure compliance with building standards
• Linking buildings standards with financial services and/or forms of taxation – eg. mortgages, council tax, stamp duty
• Labelling of public/private buildings – energy performance/carbon footprint
• Linking building improvements to domestic cap and trade system or domestic tradable quotas
• Terms of measurement to use re carbon footprinting of homes – SAP ratings may have outlived usefulness as mechanism for measuring energy impact of a house; what does carbon neutrality mean in the context of buildings?

Social Impact of the built environment
Discussion led by Gail Mayhew

Key questions:

• What are the unforeseen social consequences of post-war development and (how) can they be mitigated/how can we better evaluate likely consequences of proposals that we put forward?
• What are the components and characteristics of a sustainable (ie.walkable/location efficient) neighbourhood?
• What would be the delivery implications of a neighbourhood-based approach to development from the point of view of planning; property development; investment and occupation?
• How do we achieve a new approach to planning that places the construction of mixed use, mixed tenure, well connected and socially flourishing neighbourhoods at its heart?
• Where should development take place and what quantum of development should we be aiming to accommodate?
• What are the market/policy obstacles to the delivery of sustainable neighbourhoods - how do we break modern social dependence upon the car?
• Can market forces deliver a social mixed environment and mixed use development?
• Does the Modern Methods of Construction agenda support or undermine the principle of sustainability?
• How can we infuse modern principles of architectural and urban design/ with sustainable community outcomes?

Issues to consider within the social dimension of the built environment:

• Need to review statistical basis upon which spatial planning judgements are based: what are the assumptions behind Barker? 
• Failures of Barker – eg. failed to consider impact of buy-to-let home owners upon first time buyers; need to consider weight of money issue and impact on affordability.
• How can the principle of sustainable neighbourhoods be applied across the range of locational scenarios, from rural to urban, and across the range of market scenarios?
• Looking beyond the planning remit, what would be required from government to secure the delivery of sustainable neighbourhoods?

• Implications for corporate occupiers (e.g. supermarkets; logistics companies) whose businesses are predicated on large footprint buildings and universal car ownership?
• Measures to control/encourage/incentivise property market – do we need targets/regulation/standards?
• Locational efficiency – smart growth – should we demarcate particular places for development? How could this effectively be achieved/what would be the agency and framework for doing so?
• Reduction of carbon emissions from communities/neighbourhoods through pursuing principle of ‘walkability’ and local distribution of services.
• Measuring environment performance of communities/neighbourhoods – eg. sustainability indicators
• Impact of home ownership upon wellbeing – need for clearly articulated position on the private rented sector; new forms of ownership? How to reconcile ongoing need to deliver subsidised/affordable accommodation against commitment to right to buy given limited land supply.
• High rise versus low rise dwellings in terms of wellbeing outcomes? Exploring relationship between density and ability to deliver public transport and local retail and social services; interrogating different forms of density (ie. Inner London terraces as opposed to tower blocks)
• Interrogating modern methods of construction – do they deliver sustainable outcomes?  Are there other more robust ways to meet the challenge of the skills agenda?