Planning Convention 2009
DOES RECESSION MEAN ‘SELL OUT’? MAINTAINING QUALITY IN A COLD CLIMATE
Or ‘Planning in the Credit Crunch - Delivering Quality in Planning at any cost?’

Councillor Clare Denman (Executive Member for Planning and Economic Development, Crawley Borough Council) commenced the proceedings by giving an insightful overview of the recent challenges facing Crawley. She stated that it was imperative not to lose vision and to continue to deliver economic benefits, and that Local Authorities had an important role to play in making sure current developments kept moving forward. The recession and subsequent slowdown in planning activity meant that Authorities had more time on their hands to take stock, revise existing policies and create and develop quality conservation and environmental areas. She concluded by asking the audience whether quality was harder to achieve in a recession or a boom.

Councillor Alastair Moss (Planning and City Development Committee, Westminster City Council) then spoke about how the council had seen a reduction in planning applications and an increase in incomplete or aborted developments. Dialogue between stakeholders was now more important than ever, and the slow down provided the opportunity to go back to first principles. From an economic angle, poor quality buildings did not retain their value or inspire civic pride, and so it was vital that standards in design should not be compromised in the current economic climate.

Further to the points raised by the speakers, a discussion took place on the topic of whether there should be a suspension of the five year housing land supply initiative; it was commented that although compromises needed to be made in some areas, at some point the recession would be over and there would be an issue with ‘catch-up’. There was also a debate over the role of design tools such as Design Codes and Building for Life and their usefulness regarding quality design. Whilst it was felt that they had a part to play, different regions had different requirements, and that it was important to tailor any design guides to the needs of the town in question.

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Author:

Andrew Matheson

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

24-Jun-09

Categories:

 

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