Where should we build 300,000 new homes every year?
We could build tall buildings, which can have transformative effects on city centres and their skylines, but might not necessarily match delivery with need.
Or we could build urban extensions and new settlements, which could be imbued from the outset with the highest possible design and build standards, but are very difficult to deliver.
Or we could densify, gently, existing suburbs. We could incentivise LPAs, residents and SME builders to upgrade older, less energy-efficient housing stock, especially in those parts of the cities with the greatest potential to reduce car dependency. This too though is a challenge. Centre for Cities found that over a fifth of neighbourhoods outside city centres have built no new houses since 2011, while half have built, on average, less than one home each year.
Why are our suburbs the way they are? What are the barriers to densification and how might they be overcome?
Sam Stafford puts these question to Samuel Hughes, Hana Loftus and Ben Woolnough
Samuel (@scp_hughes) is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and Create Streets. Hana Loftus (@hanaloftus), is a Director at HAT Projects and an Associate at Public Practice. Ben (@benhoward_w) is Planning Manager at East Suffolk Council.
Some accompanying reading
‘What have been the impacts of the introduction of the standard methodology for calculating housing need on planning for housing?’ A report for Barratt Developments by the University of Liverpool
‘New settlements in local plans: Not everything in the garden is rosy’ by Matthew Spry at Lichfields
‘Sleepy suburbs. The role of the suburbs in solving the housing crisis’ by Anthony Breach and Elena Magrini at Centre for Cities.
https://www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Sleepy-Suburbs.pdf
‘Intensification and how to achieve it’ by Hana
http://virtualhana.blogspot.com/2022/04/intensification-and-how-to-achieve-it.html
‘Street Votes - what's the big idea?’ by Hana
http://virtualhana.blogspot.com/2022/04/intensification-and-how-to-achieve-it.html
‘Strong Suburbs’ by Samuel and Ben Southwood for Policy Exchange
https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/strong-suburbs/
‘Learning from History’ by Ben Southwood for Create Streets
https://www.createstreets.com/projects/learning-from-history-december-29th/
‘New Suburbia: What is a suburb?’ by Simon Cooke
https://theviewfromcullingworth.blogspot.com/2022/04/new-suburbia-1-what-is-suburb.html
Supurbia by HTA Design
https://www.hta.co.uk/project/supurbia
The Croydon Suburban Design Guide
https://suburbandesign.croydon.gov.uk/
‘Mayor Perry delivers on planning promise to protect Croydon’s local character by removing planning design guide’
Some accompanying listening
Skirmish in the Suburbs by Snapped Ankles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s714eMCbdX4
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners.
50 Shades episode also include the 'All Around the World' series, which is being led by friend of the podcast, Paul Smith.
Paul put it to Sam that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Planners here very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he chats with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can be learnt.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram, and his blogs can be found here (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter).
The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use the podcast or the YouTube channel for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam via [email protected].
Why Fifty Shades? Well, town and country planning is very much not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
