Responding to May’s announcement by Housing Minister Christopher Pincher of the 14 places that have been appointed to test the application of the government’s new design code, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Chief Executive Victoria Hills said: “The Government’s announcement on the 21st of May the 14 places which will
The innovative work of planners in response to the Covid-19 pandemic is to be recognised at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Awards for Planning Excellence 2021. Finalists in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at this year’s RTPI Awards are: Amos Ellis Consulting The team at planning consultancy
Half a billion pounds must be injected into the England’s planning system over the next four years to ensure the government’s objectives on housing, beauty, climate, the economy and health can be achieved, according to the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). In its formal response to the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR),
Responding to May’s announcement by Housing Minister Christopher Pincher of the 14 places that have been appointed to test the application of the government’s new design code, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Chief Executive Victoria Hills said: “The Government’s announcement on the 21st of May the 14 places which will take part in a six-month testing programme for the National Model Design Code is a pragmatic way of identifying problems that may arise in the application of the code and will also hopefully provide some potential solutions. “The RTPI has no doubt that only a multi-disciplinary approach – involving planners, architects, developers, ecologists, highways authorities and communities – will lead to effective delivery of quality design outcomes. These pilot programmes should help to identify how these relationships will work in practice. We will keep a close eye on the results. “However, what is already clear is that substantial extra investment into the planning system will be needed if planners are to play their part fully – almost 90% of our members have told us that they want to prioritise ‘beauty’ in their work but lack the policy support and resources to do so. “As part of our submission to the 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review, we said that a Design Quality Fund of £81 million was needed to support cash-strapped local authorities through design training, specialist expertise and design-focused policy. “These pilot programmes are an encouraging start but it is only through significantly increased funding for local authority planning teams that the government’s ambitions for Design Codes in every council will be realised.”
The innovative work of planners in response to the Covid-19 pandemic is to be recognised at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Awards for Planning Excellence 2021. Finalists in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at this year’s RTPI Awards are: Amos Ellis Consulting The team at planning consultancy AEC has been shortlisted in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence for its work on multiple complex projects over the past 12 months, including Brent Cross West, London’s first new railway station for over a decade. AEC adapted quickly to shift their engagement to a virtual format as soon as lockdown started and has since offered socially-distanced site visits and regular online community engagement sessions. Cheltenham Borough Council The planning team at Cheltenham Borough Council has been named as a finalist in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence for a range of proactive approaches which have helped the survival of local businesses and organisations. Among the team’s innovative initiatives has been a scheme to allow and fast-track the erection of temporary buildings and structures, creating more space for businesses to accommodate social distancing and safer operations. Land Use Consultants LUC has been shortlisted in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence for its work to allow projects to progress with meaningful and constructive input from key stakeholders and local communities, despite lockdown. Customisable virtual consultation rooms gave the public vital opportunities to interact with graphics, video content and interactive maps, while online consultation ‘hubs’ housed curated sets of project information that could be easily updated. Planning Inspectorate The team at the Planning Inspectorate has been named as a finalist in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence for its work to shift all appeal and infrastructure hearings and plan examinations across England to virtual delivery. With input from key stakeholders, the team rapidly developed a viable option for holding public events across all casework areas remotely, using digital platforms with a telephone dial-in option to facilitate universal access. Michelle Simpson-Gallego Michelle Simpson-Gallego, an Associate Planner at consultancy Pegasus Group, has been named as a finalist in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence for her work to track and report on the response of Local Planning Authorities across England and Wales to the pandemic. The project demonstrated the willingness of a significant proportion of councils to embrace change and new ways of working. Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council The planning team at Barnsley Council have been shortlisted in the Planning Heroes in a Pandemic category at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence for their ‘business as usual’ approach to an unprecedented situation. A rapid switch to virtual planning committee meetings was evidence of a real team effort between council officers and elected members and allowed the town to remain open for business throughout lockdown. The RTPI’s annual Awards for Planning Excellence are the longest-running and most respected in the UK planning industry. The awards celebrate exceptional examples of planning and the contribution planners make to society not just throughout the UK but internationally. The climax of the ceremony, which will take place on virtual platform, The Awards Room by Evessio, on 29 April, will be the presentation of the Silver Jubilee Cup, awarded to the project adjudged best overall. In total, 93 projects, teams and individuals across 15 categories have been selected by the independent judges this year. A new category for this year is Planning Heroes in a Pandemic, recognising the innovative work of planners in response to Covid-19. The judging panel in 2021 will be chaired by Dyan Currie HonMRTPI, chief planner at Brisbane City Council, Australia and immediate Past President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners. RTPI President Wei Yang FRTPI said: “For more than 40 years, these prestigious awards have celebrated the exceptional work undertaken by town planners. In the middle of a global pandemic, I believe they are more relevant than ever before as we showcase the very best of our profession from all the RTPI’s regions and nations and from countries around the world. “I am particularly pleased to see this year a new category has been created to recognise the incredible commitment and dedication of planners who have risen to the challenge of responding to the impacts of Covid-19 on the planning system. “I wish all the finalists the very best of luck at the ceremony.” Sarah Elliott MRTPI, UK&I Town Planning Lead for Buildings and Places at headline sponsor AECOM, said: “AECOM is proud to once again be a headline sponsor of this year’s RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence. The finalists are a diverse mixture of outstanding examples of planning, including new responses driven by the pandemic and climate change. Once again this demonstrates the breadth of the impact the profession has on quality place making and delivery in the built environment, alongside our resilience to evolve and adapt.”
Half a billion pounds must be injected into the England’s planning system over the next four years to ensure the government’s objectives on housing, beauty, climate, the economy and health can be achieved, according to the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). In its formal response to the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), the Institute sets out the vital role planning plays in facilitating economic growth, providing affordable housing, tackling climate change, ensuring access to green space and improving wellbeing. It says without significant investment, the government’s ambitions for the planning system, set out in a white paper published earlier this month, cannot be realised. Victoria Hills, chief executive of the RTPI, said: “The drive for new infrastructure, housing and progress towards net zero will create major additional need for planning services in the coming years. The planning system has been severely under-resourced for decades which has had implications not just for efficiency of process, but for the capacity of professional planners to apply their knowledge and lead on strategic place-making. “The government has set out its ambitions to ‘radically overhaul’ the planning system, but to deliver on these ambitions they will need professional planners. The development sector is crying out for support. Without adequate investment, this simply will not be possible.” The response, which comes ahead of the RTPI’s Invest and Prosper report, due to be published in October, says a new Planning Delivery Fund of £500m is required to enable the planning system to deliver outcomes efficiently, effectively and equitably. It would replace the existing fund, which was announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in February 2017 in a white paper, Fixing our Broken Housing Market. It allocated £25m between 2017-18 and 2019-20 to ‘support ambitious authorities in areas of high housing need to plan for new homes and infrastructure’. But only £15.8m was awarded to successful bidder in the first wave of funding, with the remaining £10m not being spent. This compares to a £150m a year (figure adjusted for inflation) Planning Delivery Grant to support local planning authorities between 2004 and 2008. The RTPI’s proposals comprise of nine sub-funds to enable investment into specific government priorities. It also calls for the funding to be ring-fenced and to be distributed fairly across all local authorities according to the number of people who live there, the scale of the development pressure and current levels of resourcing: Plan Making fund – £170 million The government has has said all local authorities must have an up to date local plan by 2023 but has not made any additional funding available. The Planning Delivery Fund would fund 50% of the costs of doing this. Design quality fund – £81 million The RTPI has welcomed the Government’s renewed commitment to high quality design, exemplified in its support for the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission. This funding would enable the delivery of the government’s ambitions for Design Codes in every local authority. Monitoring and enforcement fund – £67 million To allow local authorities to do proper assessment of what is actually being delivered through the planning system and how well the local plan is being delivered and issue enforcement proceedings. Digital transformation fund – £46 million To help support the digital transformation of planning – saving money in the medium and long term and freeing up planners’ time to plan. The existing Innovation Fnd has provided limited support (£1m between 6 LAs and one charity) Wider placemaking fund – £100 million To bring a range of place-focused professionals to local authorities, such as architects, urban designers and ecologists, and to incentivise those outside of local planning authorities, such as public health colleagues, to engage with the planning process to enable the delivery of healthy communities. Joint working fund – £15 million To enable strategic reviews of green belt, waste management and housing targets. Community engagement fund – £50 million The government has repeatedly suggested it would like participation to happen upstream – with earlier engagement for communities at plan making stage. The Planning Delivery fund should provide grant for authorities to engage in rich community participation at the earliest possible stage, for example through deliberative panels. Climate Action – £67 million To deliver the equivalent of one FTE planner to work exclusively on climate proofing policy and development management in each local authority. The Committee on Climate Change’s Net Zero UK report demonstrated there had been little or no progress in reducing carbon emissions of buildings or surface transport. Planning is part of the solution. Capacity building fund – £17m District Councils report that planning roles are the most difficult to fill out of all roles. This fund would comprise of £4m to support talent development from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and 13m to enable the country’s 11,000 public sector planners to attend five one-day courses a year over a period of four years.
