October 03, 2014

#BattleFest2012: To build or not to build?

1 hour 19 minutes

This podcast was recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival at the Barbican in London on Sunday 21 October, 2012

From Boris Island to the Dale Farm gypsies, no building

project seems too big or small to fall foul of the UK’s notoriously

stringent planning laws, which sometimes seem to exist to prevent

development rather than manage it. In contrast to China, which delivers

new development equivalent to a country the size of Greece every six

months, the UK planning system seems to be in a permanent state of

denial. The Thames Gateway, High Speed Rail 2, Heathrow’s third runway,

Battersea Power Station redux, Green Belt housing and even Eco-Towns

have all run up against a wall. Perhaps the biggest issue is in housing,

where building languishes at the lowest levels since the First World

War. By some estimates, five million people are waiting on housing

registers. According to Shelter, the younger generation bears the brunt

with a fifth of 18- to 34-year-olds living with their parents because

they can’t afford to rent or buy a home.

At Inside Housing, Colin Wiles argues the need to build three

million new homes on greenfield land in the next 20 years. But few

others seem willing to countenance actually increasing housing stock.

The charity Intergenerational Foundation argues the problem is

‘under-occupation’ and that elderly people should be encouraged to move

out of their ‘big houses’ to make room for larger families. Eight

‘radical solutions’ to the housing crisis discussed on the BBC News

website included curbing population growth, forcing landlords to sell or

let empty properties, and banning second homes. Meanwhile, the likes of

the National Trust, the Countryside Alliance and the Campaign to

Protect Rural England campaign against any liberalisation of planning.

More broadly, many people distrust developers, fearing they will scar

the countryside and destroy our architectural heritage.

Some ask why has planning lost its way and what happened to the big

visionary plans of the past. David Cameron wants us to rediscover how

‘to build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the

Victorians once did’. But will cutting ‘red tape’ and simplifying the

system be enough? Does the new ‘presumption in favour of sustainable

development’ merely reinforce the ‘green tape’ that is already a barrier

to development? What are the smart ways to deliver good urban

development? Is the solution better top-down planning, more bottom-up

planning, or something else altogether?

Speakers

Professor Kelvin Campbell

managing director, Urban Initiatives; author, Massive Small: the operating system for smart urbanism

Penny Lewis

lecturer, Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Robert Gordon University; co-founder, AE Foundation

Paul Miner

senior planning officer, Campaign to Protect Rural England

Daniel Moylan

The Mayor of London's Aviation Adviser; Conservative councillor, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Christine Murray

editor, The Architects' Journal

Chair:

Michael Owens

commercial director, Bow Arts Trust; owner, London Urban Visits; formerly, head of development policy, London Development Agency

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By academyofideas

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