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How land value capture is being used to help communities
When infrastructure such as a new rail line is built, the value of the land around it goes up: suddenly this land is desirable for housebuilding because people want to live near the new rail route. Landowners hit the jackpot. The problem is that such infrastructure projects are often tricky to get funding for in…
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For housing fit for the future, let’s get these policies right
The Government is consulting on changes to the National Model Design Code and National Planning Policy Framework. Together, these documents will set the direction for the housing that we build in the near future. With hundreds of thousands of new homes needed, it’s vital that these two documents take transport properly into account: we must…
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If conservation areas can have a mix of homes and amenities, why can’t newly planned communities?
We’re concerned that a proposed change to ‘permitted development rights’ would make it harder for local authorities to plan communities with a mix of homes, shops and services. Our Homes Without Jams campaign is all about ensuring changes to the planning system result in new homes being built in the right locations with good transport…
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Our joint letter to the Telegraph about high street planning
LETTER: We urge the Government to think again about its proposals to allow high street businesses to be changed to housing without full planning permission.
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Planning white paper risks more car dependent sprawl
We had several concerns with the reforms as proposed. The first, and for us most concerning, is that the proposals barely mention transport at all. We need to address how we will provide and fund public transport to the new places we plan to build.
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Sustainability Through the Looking Glass
Guest blog by Richard Tamplin ”When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Of course, we all know what sustainability means – don’t we? It’s now almost 40 years since the United Nations, concerned by the…
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So, what else could we build?
In our recent report, Garden Villages and Garden Towns: Visions and Reality, we explain that, although the visions for garden communities are often very good, we fear ‘business as usual’. Rather than enabling people to walk, cycle and use public transport to go about their daily lives, these developments will generate high levels of traffic by…
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Planning reform is on the way
Planning reform is on the way. But will it lead to better development in the right places, and stop car-based sprawl? From the point of view of Transport for New Homes, and the many others who are appalled at the spread of car-dependent new housing dominated by roads and parking, planning reform should be about…
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If Active Travel England is set up right it could increase walking and cycling for residents of new homes
On 28 July 2020 the UK Government announced the creation of Active Travel England, a funding body for walking and cycling provision in England and also an inspectorate of the work of highways authorities. This formed part of the Gear Change: A bold vision for cycling and walking plans set out the same day. The…
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Planning and COVID-19
Back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic we noticed that planning and development were continuing. We asked you to get in touch about what was happening in your local area, to tell us how decisions were being made about new housing. We worried that changes to oversight of planning might mean that proper…