Urbanissta Planning - Landscape - Heritage

30/06/2021

Remember Jenrick, Westferry Printworks affordable homes and Party donations?
If not, here is a refresh. “Called in” planning application, low number of affordable homes, Jenrick (Secretary of State) approved application then accepted his approval showed “apparent bias” and the developer donating to the Conservative Party after approval was granted.

To try and clear the mess, a second Public Inquiry has been running and now the GLA, LB Tower Hamlets and the developer are at odds on delivery of affordable housing. The former 2 wish a “mid-stage review” of affordable housing numbers with the developer disagreeing.

Sign of agreement and moving forward? Not currently, the saga rumbles on!

29/06/2021

South West Rugby Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD)

Rugby Borough Council have formerly adopted the South West Rugby SPD for 5,000 dwellings, and 35 hectares of employment land. It is now a material planning consideration.

In formerly adopting the SPD, the Borough Council has identified the essential nature of the allocation in delivering the Local Plan’s spatial strategy given that the housing and jobs numbers represent a significant proportion of the overall plan targets – most significantly aiming to deliver some 40% of the total number of houses required in the whole Borough.

The SPD sets out climate change, biodiversity and affordable housing targets amongst a range of other technical requirements. It is also acknowledged that if the strategic allocation does not deliver then the Council’s 5-year land supply targets could come under threat.

28/06/2021

West London co-living scheme granted at appeal.

The scheme, by developer Stamford Hounslow, would see the creation of a high-rise mixed-use scheme in Hounslow town centre to provide 'co-living' homes for 248 people as well as offices and over 2,500sqm of communal facilities including a gym, launderette and library.

The applicant submitted an appeal against the LB Hounslow’s non-determination of the scheme. As part of the appeal process the council stated it would have refused the scheme for a number of reasons including flood risk, air quality and the absence of any on site affordable housing.

The application has been allowed after the inspector dismissed local authority objections. The inspector concluded that the proposal’s height and scale would not adversely impact the character and appearance of the local area. In terms of the issue of living conditions, he concluded that the scheme would provide acceptable living conditions for future occupiers, in accordance with London Plan policy. The appellant also submitted evidence to demonstrate that it could not viably make a contribution towards affordable housing which was accepted by the Inspector.

25/06/2021

High Streets – remember Mary Portas??
No – well a reminder – 10 years ago she unveiled her thoughts in the form of a review. 10 years on and the Centre for London have unveiled their research findings. They themselves have found that many issues remain and are relevant today.
Much of the same is being done in the form of different models (e.g. Business Improvement Districts then, Community Improvement Districts now). The emphasis of what the Centre has found is pivoting towards the community more, especially as we reel/appreciate the community impacts during and post Covid.
You can read the report here
http://ow.ly/js1q50FbUQH

24/06/2021

Government Watchdog finds fault with an Authority Population Projections
West Midland City official population projections has been identified as erroneous by a report of the UK Statistics regulations. The impact in the city itself is likely to be limited according to experts, the news is likely to embolden campaigners and discontented councillors to challenge greenfield housing allocations across England, particularly in cities with large student population.
The report shared Coventry and other “smaller cities with large student populations”, the ONS’s estimates appeared to be “inconsistent with and potentially higher than, local evidence suggests” they should be. The crux of the dispute was the ONS’s over estimation, based on assumptions it had made, of the proportion of students, particularly those from overseas, who chose to stay put in the city after they graduated. The ORS noted that, “more needs to be done to investigate the root and scale of this issue”.
This dispute about methodology matters to planners because these population growth projections are important building block in the way that Councils calculate their housing need figures, using the government’s standard method formula, which are in turn used to work out Local plan homes targets.

23/06/2021

Andy von Bradsky, Head of Architecture, MCLG to step down from his role on 23rd July. Instrumental in preparing the National Model Design Code, Andy was appointed to the role in Feb '19 having been architectural adviser from 2018. His replacement will be announced in the summer.

22/06/2021

Green Belt – “exceptional circumstances” – single dwelling ✅
Trying to secure a new dwelling planning permission in the Green Belt and arguing a “special circumstance” via Para 79 of National Planning Policy (NPPF) will always be difficult.

Congratulations are therefore due to a wheelchair bound former (uncredited) actress in the Bond film Casino Royale who is married to former newspaper boss Eddy Shah.

According to her agents the house has been “meticulously designed around the needs of the client’, Jennifer Shah, ‘balancing the challenges of a sloped site and the restrictions imposed by her wheelchair,” her impairment being due to the side effects of radio therapy for cancer treatment.

We await the final version of the NPPF to see if similar successful arguments can be made against the bastion of UK planning, the Green Belt!
More on this here http://ow.ly/wbFd50FaCdh

22/06/2021

Planning reform – some Conservative MP’s thinking …
Hot on the back of a thumping defeat by the Lib Dems on the Conservatives at the recent Amersham by-election (Planning reform and HS2 alleged to be key factors) , MPs yesterday decided that it was time for them to debate some of the Governments proposed planning reforms. With the debate called by The Labour Party, here is what some Conservatives had to say.
“ … growth zones which will be like the Wild West for developers – have got to go” Mr Blackman MP
“Planning reform was clearly an issue which contributed to losing this seat.” Ms Villiers MP
Boris Johnson has some nursing to do on his own party not least as it has been reported 60 Conservative back-bench MPs have joined together on a WhatsApp group to share their views. The debate rumbles on, the result unknown.

21/06/2021

How time flies! Ellen Nicholson joined us 1 year ago, as Planning Principal. Ellen has been a great addition to our team and brought a wealth of planning experience with her.
Congratulations to Ellen on your 1 year anniversary with Urbanissta from all the team!

21/06/2021

Former investment banker and CEO of the Hyde Group, Peter Denton has been confirmed as the new CEO of Homes England, replacing Nick Walkley who left his post earlier in 2021.
This was amid rumours of disagreements with Jenrick.

Denton having worked in a variety of property investment roles including BNP Paribas, Barclays and Deutsche Bank has skills in raising capital and managing large property portfolio’s. His skills are understood to be particularly significant given Homes England’s need to generate private sectors investment in addition to undertaking governmental works.

Homes England is understood to be pursuing a new ‘regeneration’ focus.

http://ow.ly/5OJ150FeF9u

Housing association boss and former banker to lead 'reset' of funding agency

18/06/2021

Drivers of housing market move from first time buyers to house movers...

A report by UK Finance has indicated that between Jan-March 2021, home movers represented a significant driver of the housing market; compared to the usual drive being first time buyers.

Home mover transactions are understood to have increased by 82% in the period, in the race to secure stamp duty holiday benefits. First time buyer transactions rose by 31% over the same period.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, first time buyer have driven the housing market with home mover transactions being roughly half the level of that before the financial crisis. It will be interesting to see if this trend sustains following the end of the stamp duty holiday period.

17/06/2021

“The Future of the Planning System in England”

The Local Government Association (LGA) have delivered their verdict on the Government’s thoughts on changing the planning system.

Councils wish more houses to be built faster, point out that with council’s approving 90% the planning system is not at fault and that with a million homes earmarked on land in Local Plans it is the developers who should hurry up and submit planning applications!

A slight aside but a strong fiscal issue is that they reiterate their cry that councils can levy Council Tax on incomplete properties in an effort to once again, hurry developers up and build those homes!