Sustainable Communities in the UK

Aerial perspective of Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset. by Leon Krier. Poundbury is an extension of the city of Dorchester, with a distinct urban/rural edge.

UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, a strong supporter of New Urbanism, announced this week that he is “bringing all 25 nations of the European Union together to begin creating a code for sustainable communities.” He's also announced an Academy for Sustainable Communities (here).

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

“In the 1980's and 1990's, there was an unprecedented flood of out-of-town development which changed the character of Britain.

The overall number of superstores increased from 150 in 1979, to over 1,000 by the time of the 1997 election. Traffic from out of town shopping centres such as Meadowhall and Lakeside created more congestion -which backed up and choked our strategic motorways.

In the last 8 years, our policies have enabled regeneration and have checked the growth of sprawl.

We have intervened through the planning system and our other policies, to secure better outcomes for our economy, society and the environment.”

UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott

Prescott will speak at the CEU meeting in Berlin in September. The CEU is a European equivalent of the CNU.

                                                     

> About ODPM > The ministerial team > The Rt Hon John Prescott MP > Speeches

Accessible Town Centres - Sustainable Communities Town & Country Planning Association Conference, London, 13 July 2005 Check Against Delivery Accessible Town Centres - Sustainable Communities. What is the new PPS6 Agenda? Thanks, Gideon [GIDEON AMOS, DIRECTOR OF THE TCPA]. It's a pleasure to be here. I want to take this chance to express my appreciation for the work of the TCPA. In preparing for this speech, I read the TCPA's leaflet called "A programme for sustainable development" and I noted our common ground. I'm delighted to be here to talk about a great success story - how we are creating sustainable communities by bringing shops, jobs and homes back into towns and cities, where they belong. Of course, sustainable communities are not a new idea. The Garden Cities of a hundred years ago - and historic cities like Roman Chester and Georgian Bath - were all highly successful examples of sustainable communities. But it's only been in recent times that we are rediscovering how to create sustainable communities after decades of mistakes. In the 1980's and 1990's, there was an unprecedented flood of out-of-town development which changed the character of Britain. The overall number of superstores increased from 150 in 1979, to over 1,000 by the time of the 1997 election. Traffic from out of town shopping centres such as Meadowhall and Lakeside created more congestion -which backed up and choked our strategic motorways. In the last 8 years, our policies have enabled regeneration and have checked the growth of sprawl. We have intervened through the planning system and our other policies, to secure better outcomes for our economy, society and the environment. We have enabled public private partnerships which have transformed the fortunes of our towns and cities, up and down the country. This could not have been achieved without the sustained economic stability, low inflation, low unemployment and low interest rates which give the private sector the confidence to invest. In particular, the Core Cities - our big provincial cities like Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle - are on the up. They're creating jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the country, and the working population of the core cities has increased by more than 11% since 1997. There's a new confidence, thanks to less crime, higher education standards and a more attractive public realm. Old industrial assets are being reused for homes and job, and our 21 urban regeneration companies are creating new partnerships for regeneration. I'm delighted that the TCPA's President, Sir Peter Hall, has become Chairman of the Blackpool urban regeneration company. The growth of the Core Cities has also been partly caused by a retail renaissance. In Manchester, the rebuilt Arndale Centre has become the focus of a new confidence in the city centre after the devastating IRA bomb 9 years ago. And the new Selfridge's in the heart of Birmingham has got what I call the wow factor. It's a stunning building which symbolises how Birmingham has revived its city centre, its canals and waterways to create a new public realm where people really want to be. Across the country, retail is bringing jobs and life back to our town and city centres. And the leading firm of chartered surveyors, GVA Grimley, said recently that our planning policy is also "already paying off" in terms of attracting multiplex cinemas and other leisure attractions back into our towns and cities. It's in largely because of sustained economic growth and the Government's Planning Policy Guidance 6 that the major retailers have moved to town centre locations with new store formats. Today I am publishing new statistics on the location of retail development. These provide clear evidence of the success of our town centre policy since the 1990's in increasing the proportion of retail development locating in town centres - reversing the trend of the previous 20 years. I know that this influx of investment by the major retailers has created concern about the spread of so-called clone towns. I know that the big retailers can put pressure on local stores and we have to be aware of this - but which is worse: the major retailers leaving the towns completely, or having the big retailers trading downtown, bringing more people and more money into the town centre as a whole? Successful town centres contain a good mix of shops. Our planning policy aims to enhance consumer choice by encouraging shopping, leisure and other services in town centres. We can't be complacent - but I believe that there is widespread support for PPS6 and that people recognise its success. Most of the major retailers understand the need for a proper balance in the planning system and equal treatment and fairness - although I wonder sometimes if their lawyers share that view! I'm pleased that even IKEA appear to have changed their minds about out of town retail and they want to develop in town centres. They've joined Asda and Tesco and Sainsbury's - and the housebuilders and the office developers - to realise that we mean it when we say it - we want sustainable communities. In recent years we have made excellent progress, but we are determined to continue our success. In March, we published a new Planning Policy Statement 6, which continued our policy in favour of town centres, but gave the policy a more positive emphasis. Our research on the effectiveness of the old Planning Policy Guidance 6 found that too many local planning authorities were using the policy to stop things happening out of town. That was not bad in itself - because it helped to combat sprawl - but it meant local authorities weren't identifying opportunities where retailers could build. In the new Planning Policy statement 6, we put even stronger emphasis on a plan led approach and proactive planning. We're encouraging local authorities to use compulsory purchase to assemble sites, and to extend town centres to accommodate growth where necessary. We want local authorities to be positive and inclusive in their approach to plan making, rather than simply saying no to unsuitable development and then muddling through. In this way we can help create communities in which economic progress and social justice go hand in hand. We are working with the Treasury on our Underserved Markets Project, which is encouraging retailers and other businesses to invest in deprived areas in order to improve services, create jobs, and combat social exclusion. This reminds us that creating sustainable communities is about planning for a social purpose - providing jobs, homes, shops and services together in cleaner, safer, green places to live. A crucial part of this agenda is tackling the housing needs of this country through responsible growth. Our planning policies on housing are delivering a triple win - more homes built, more efficient use of land and more brownfield land used. In 1997, 56% of homes were built on brownfield land. We set a target of 60% - by 2008 - and it's already over 67%. And, thanks to PPG3 and our Density Direction, we are building homes at 39 homes per hectare, up from only 25 in 1997. That means we can build 1.1 million homes on less land than the previous Government set aside for just 900,000 homes - saving an area of greenfield land the size of Oxford. Of course, we still face huge challenges in dealing with pent up housing need. For decades, under successive governments, this country failed to build enough homes. More houses are being built - there's been a 28% increase in the four southern regions, in the last 4 years, but even with this increase, we are still only building 3 homes for every 4 that are needed. Kate Barker's recent "Review of Housing Supply" showed the consequences of failing to meet housing need on our society and our economy. Families on middle and low incomes are being priced out of a home of their own. Schools and hospitals short of teachers and nurses because they can't afford to live near where they work. That's why our £39 billion Sustainable Communities Plan will enable 1.1 million new homes in London and the wider South East by 2016 - as well as offering over £1 billion in housing support for key workers and first time buyers. We're developing shared equity schemes, and we're using public land to provide more affordable homes.  We'll be responding to the Barker report later this year, but, in the meantime, we want to keep up the momentum, and that includes planning reform. The current planning system was set up by the post War Labour Government for excellent reasons, but over the years it became ossified and less and less effective. We've undertaken a comprehensive package of reforms to create a modern and efficient planning system. Our reforms include:   the most significant planning legislation since 1947, so that for the first time the purpose of planning - to contribute to sustainable development - is set out in law; £600 million in Planning Delivery Grant for local authorities which improve their planning performance; changing the culture of planning, so that committees, officers and communities fight each other less and work together more a new series of Planning Policy Statements, including PPS 1 - which sets out how planning can help deliver sustainable development. and every month 55,000 people log on to the Planning Portal, which is helping to deliver a more transparent and efficient planning system. We want to transform planning from what can be a negative exercise into a creative process which helps deliver sustainable communities. We need more and better trained planners, so this year we've funded bursaries for nearly 140 newly trained planners.  And our new Academy for Sustainable Communities in Leeds under the chairmanship of Professor Peter Roberts, will also play a key role in improving the skills of planners and how they work with other professionals. Who knows, even the highways engineers might start talking to the planners! But as well as improving the culture, we need to continue to improve the planning system itself. Next week we will publish a consultation on how to improve planning for housing, and we will work with stakeholders over the Summer to develop our new approach. Too often in the past, the planning system has failed to respond to changing demand for homes in different places. We want plans take better account of housing markets and need, and reflect the needs and circumstances of different areas. We want plans that are forward looking and provide enough developable land to create sustainable communities. We want local authorities to be more proactive about good quality development. That means we want them to tackle the constraints which hold back difficult, but appropriate, sites from development. The Government intends to publish in the autumn a draft new Planning Policy Statement on Planning for Housing to help deliver sufficient and appropriate residential development to create mixed and sustainable communities. Another key issue which Kate Barker's report raised was how the public good can be served by unlocking some of the private gain from development. There's a big uplift in land values as a result of land being released for development. We should have a fair and effective way to use some of that profit for the public infrastructure which services private development. We are looking at Kate Barker's recommendation for a Planning Gain Supplement and we will make a decision later this year. In the meantime, it's important that Section 106 is used as effectively as possible. Next week, following a successful consultation period, we will publish the final version of the revised Circular on planning obligations. The new Circular will streamline the process of negotiating planning obligations, and will make the system more transparent, accountable and predictable. Next week we will also announce details of even stronger protection for the Green Belt. We have already added 19,000 hectares to the Green Belt since 1997. Now we are publishing a consultation on a new Direction which will ensure that significant applications for development in the Green Belt are given much greater scrutiny. It will give greater clarity about which planning applications need to be referred by local authorities to me as Secretary of State. I can then consider whether to hold a public inquiry. You know, my experience of visiting leaders and communities around the world is that our approach to sustainable communities is leading the world. Just look at America, where "big box" retail malls are linked by 8 lane highways. The American planning system, if you can call it that, actively discourages homes from being built near shops. In the United States, anger at the unchecked sprawl led to the rise of New Urbanism. The New Urbanism is explained in its Charter: it's about strong governance, social equity, economic prosperity and compact development. I've seen how the New Urbanists are working in communities like Chicago, Washington, Milwaukee and in new places like Seaside in Florida. They're reconnecting the art of building with the making of communities. Compared to American New Urbanism, the European approach - particularly in Britain - is more influenced by environmental considerations, social justice, economic progress, and a more interventionist style of Government. It's little wonder that many Americans view our planning system with envy -because we have much stronger tools of intervention to balance environmental, economic and social considerations in the interests of the whole community. A recent article by Neil Peirce who writes for the Washington Post said: "Britain cares about its cities; the United States does not." He then described what he called our "amazingly broad set of activist initiatives...in housing, transportation, recycling abandoned industrial lands, revitalizing towns and using government power to force new malls and mega-stores back into downtowns." Neil Peirce said we have "a stunning vision, extraordinarily tough to execute, even by a determined national government. The tragedy is that we Americans aren't even dreaming it." So I believe that we are leading the global debate about how our towns and cities can respond to a rapidly changing global economy. In mainland Europe, although they recognise many of the ingredients of a sustainable community, they have not pulled them together into a coherent approach. So at a Ministerial Informal meeting in Bristol in December, I'm bringing all 25 nations of the European Union together to begin creating a code for sustainable communities. We'll look at how to promote the skills and investment we need to make sustainable communities a reality - not just for Britain - but for 450 million people - living in the new Europe where East is meeting West, in common endeavour, after 50 years of division. There is a huge international agenda for sustainable communities, but we remain determined to keep up the pressure here in the UK and deliver even greater progress. As the leading architect Lord Foster said last week - "As architects and planners, we can draw attention to ways of living that are unsustainable.  "We know that the denser cities consume less energy.  "The cities which sprawl consume a huge amount of energy.  "We do have a choice.  "We can increase density in cities, we can improve the quality of urban life and we can look at history to guide us in that way." That's what it's all about, and, through its programme for sustainable development, the TCPA has shown that all of us have a role to play. Speech by the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott MP on 13 July 2005.