Themes

Planning

Showcase - best practice
Our website of case studies to inform and inspire. Showcase highlights projects that contribute to creating better communities. These examples give practical insight into developing sustainable communities. Visit Showcase at showcase.homesandcommunities.co.uk Before creating Showcase we researched which sources of best practice knowledge are already used by sustainable communities practitioners and how we can make this better. We're grateful to our stakeholders for their help with this research.
Practice Guidance to support the Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change
Practice guidance to support the Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change This practice guide supports the implementation of the Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change , the (“ Climate Change PPS ”) which was published on 17 December 2007 as a supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1 (" PPS1 ").
Advisory Team for Large Applications (ATLAS)
ATLAS is a part of HCA which provides an independent advisory service to local planning authorities that are experiencing the pressures of increased development activity. ATLAS currently operates nationally with team members based in offices in Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Ashford and Bristol. The team is sponsored by the Department of Communities & Local Government (CLG) and hosted by the Homes & Communities Agency. Members of the ATLAS team are experienced in town planning and development issues and have been advising and assisting Local Planning Authorities across a wide variety of complex projects all of which contain a significant number of residential units. The team has rapidly expanded to offer guidance and assistance across a wide range of planning and technical development issues including transport, urban design, social infrastructure and environmental sustainability.
Related support
Alongside the HCA, Communities and Local Government fund a wider offer of support to local authorities. Planning Advisory Service (PAS) PAS offers a range of services to help planning authorities and their partners make good plans and deliver good development. PAS is part of the Improvement and Development Agency for local government and a member of the Local Government Association group. PAS is funded directly by the Department of Communities and Local Government.
Urban Design & Streets Foundation Course
This three day course covers all the essential design issues from understanding policy to designing an inclusive scheme. This is an intensive three day course on 9, 10, & 12 February covering the fundamental ideas in Better Streets. You will learn about street design principles, risk, safety and liability, what makes a street cluttered and how to prevent this, and how to create inclusive public spaces. This session includes lectures, exercises and site visits.
Urban Design & Planning Foundation Course
This course, offered over three full days, covers all the essential design issues. This is an intensive three day course covering how design is dealt with within the planning system. It covers both policy and development management issues, including a mock appeal hearing and design appraisal techniques.
Urban Design Introduction Day
This one day session will help you understand what urban design is, what makes a good place, and why it is important. This introductory day has been developed to cover both streets and housing aspects of urban design and the line-up promises to be one of the most interesting and informative sessions UDL has seen to date. It will help you understand what urban design is about and why, for you, it is relevant to your work. It will briefly cover:
Planning for Non-Planners - Leeds
Planning for non planners Planning for Non-Planners is for people from non-planning backgrounds who work with planners to help deliver regeneration objectives. This innovative two day programme comprises an interactive seminar day and a study tour. Participating in the programme will enable you to:
Planning for Non-Planners - Birmingham
Planning for non planners Planning for Non-Planners is for people from non-planning backgrounds who work with planners to help deliver regeneration objectives. This innovative two day programme comprises an interactive seminar day and a study tour. Participating in the programme will enable you to:
Leaders gather to consider the future of place
Sir Bob Kerslake is one of a number of prominent speakers that will address leaders at an annual conference in London on 27th November. Our annual Leaders Network conference will provide delegates with details of the 2010 events programme structured around: Partnerships Funding Delivery Sustainability. Brokering better partnerships, the innovative use of funding and maintaining quality and design in a recession will also be explored.

Mixed use development workshop
The academy held a one-day workshop on the future of mixed use development in the current economic climate. We've summaried the discussions in the practice paper which you can download (please be patient, it's a large file)
How to Turn a Place Around - Effective Regeneration
Retail-led regeneration exhausted? How do you manage and deliver the change your town or city needs to turn it around? This one day workshop will take both a strategic and practical approach to revitalising underperforming centres, and look at all stages of the process from the initial proposal through managing and delivering real change.
Future Communities website
futurecommunities.net is all about community participation and place management, it's been created to help people who build communities. The site shows well presented, clear examples of projects that have created sustainable communities. Additionally the site provides background guidance for people to implement on their own development projects.
Greener planning: new web guidance for planners to tackle climate change
Planners will get help to deliver a low carbon economy and respond to the challenges of climate change, Planning Minister Iain Wright announced today. Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Homes and Communities Academy and the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) have joined forces to provide new web-based guidance on planning and climate change. One year ago, CLG published the Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change to put tackling climate change at the heart of planning. Since the policy was published, planners and councils have been grappling with the challenge of translating this into practice on the ground. The new guidance will, for example, help councils deliver a new wave of local renewable energy and community power schemes like combined heat and power plants (CHP), as well as climate proofing new development.
SDUK09: Time for Change
Soaring oil prices, global food shortages and rising carbon emissions mean now is the time for decisive action by all those concerned with the role that sustainability plays in the future safety and security of the UK. Whether you’re interested in low carbon city action plans, sustainable transport systems, bio-fuels and food security or guaranteeing our future energy sources, SDUK09 will cover all the major issues set to impact on the UK today, tomorrow and the future
Planning for Non-Planners
Two day course to help those from a non-planning background to understand the planning system. The course will help you Understand how your day-to-day responsibilities are affected by planning issues Identify how you can engage better with the planning system Gain a better understanding of how far the planning system can contribute to successful and sustainable regeneration The course is composed of interactive seminar sessions and group workshops. There are also study tours, where you get the chance to use your knowledge to assess local development sites from a planning perspective. You can participate in two ways: Public sessions open to all Tailor-made group sessions Upcoming open sessions of the course Birmingham – 30 & 31 March 2010 Leeds – 6 & 7 April 2010 There are more details of each event in the links alongside.
Programme planned for non-planners
A training programme that provides non-planning professionals who interact with the planning system with a detailed insight into the profession in England has been developed by ASC and BURA. The ‘ Planning for Non-Planners ' programme is targeted at local authority employees who interact with the planning profession but aren't qualified planners. It encourages participants to think about how their responsibilities are affected by planning issues, identify how they can engage better with the planning system and gain a clearer understanding of how the planning system can contribute to sustainable regeneration.
Engaging with rivers
Engaging with rivers in a period of uncertainty University of Sheffield Professor Paul Selman  To systematically review the evidence regarding collaborative river basin planning. Undertake action research into the use of imaginative engagement methods to enable people to visualise complex systems. Appraisal of participants developing awareness of catchment and river basin processes and the meanings they attach to them.
Managing spatial diversity
Skills for managing spatial diversity Queen's University Belfast Dr Brendan Murtagh  Challenges our current understanding that race, religion and poverty interlock to produce ‘wicked' urban problems. Offers a model of practice to 1.  Inform the national debate on community cohesion 2.  Inform the management of ethnically diverse places 3.  Inform the skills sets that may help professionals and practitioners resist the pulling effects of residential segregation.
Planning White Paper Consultation Response
27 Nov 2007 - Government response to issues emerging from the consultation on the Planning White Paper and details of next steps in relation to the Planning Bill. » Download the full response from the Communities and Local Government website  
Response to Planning for a Sustainable Future
25 Sep 2007 - Our response to the Government's white paper. As the national centre for delivering the skills and knowledge needed to make better places, our work is at the heart of the Government's agenda in planning for a sustainable future . We welcome the Government's initiative to maintain the momentum of reform within the planning system started with the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act. It supports the objects of the white paper namely to simplify and make more coherent the current system, and thereby make it more efficient and effective. The following is a summary of our response. 
Barker Review of Land Use Planning
5 Dec 2006 -  Highlighting the role urban and regional planning plays in deliver sustainable economic development. The Review was lead by former CBI Economist and a current member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, Kate Barker, who also led a recent Government Review of Housing Supply.  The Review highlights the vital role urban and regional planning can play to deliver sustainable economic development, particularly in view of the pressures of a growing population especially in the South East, raising incomes, an aging population, climate change and the increasing globalisation of the world economy. Increasing globalisation and in particular the rise of India and China are major drivers for the Barker Review. The business community have long argued that an increasingly competitive world economy dictates that the UK needs a more flexible and responsive planning system. In response to Barker's publication CBI Deputy Director-General, John Cridland, stated "a sound planning system is vital to economic growth, but businesses have been badly hampered by the slowness and uncertainty of the current process". Cridland also welcomed "Kate Barker's recommendations signal a positive shift in planning culture, and we welcome a cutback in bureaucracy".
Planning for Climate Change article
19 Dec 2006 - Our Chair, Prof. Peter Roberts, and Town and Country Planning Association Chief Executive, Gideon Amos, essay on Planning for Climate Change. This was published in the latest Smith Institute pamphlet, " The Green Shift: Environmental policies to match a changing public climate ", along with essays from influential politicians, key scientists and academics.  » You can download the full document from the Smith Institute web site (pdf)
Planning Practice and Policy
A look in some depth at the new act, working with planners and some legal implications for architects of working with the planning system Learning outcomes + Structure of the Planning Act 2008: Introduction to the primary components of the Act; know your way around + Major Infrastructure: Develop understanding of the major infrastructure components of the Act + Town and Country Planning changes: Develop understanding of the local planning system components of the Act
Planning Practice and Policy
A look in some depth at the new act, working with planners and some legal implications for architects of working with the planning system to include: Learning outcomes + Structure of the Planning Act 2008: Introduction to the primary components of the Act; know your way around + Major Infrastructure: Develop understanding of the major infrastructure components of the Act + Town and Country Planning changes: Develop understanding of the local planning system components of the Act + What isn't there?: A brief review of regional planning and anticipated changes + Discussion: What do these changes mean for architects? + Householder Permitted Development changes: Sourcing data on and understanding the GPDO changes + e-planning and The Standard Planning Application Form - 1App: + Open Agenda: What do current planning system changes mean for architects? What do you need help and support with?

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