Memorandum by the Urban Design Alliance
(UWP 05)
THE PROPOSED URBAN WHITE PAPER
These comments are from the Urban Design Alliance
(UDAL) in response to the request for evidence to the Committee's
investigation into the proposed Urban White Paper.
The Urban Design Alliance (UDAL) was formed
to bring together a variety of key organisations committed to
improving the quality of urban life through urban design. UDAL's
goals are to foster greater awareness and higher standards of
urban design.
UDAL has a combined membership of over 250,000
individuals across a range of professional and community groups.
The members of UDAL are the Civic Trust, Institution of Civil
Engineers, Landscape Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects,
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Royal Town Planning
Institute and the Urban Design Group.
These comments concentrate on how the various
public, private, professional and voluntary bodies can foster
higher standards in Urban Design. Individual members of UDAL may
also be submitting evidence on the other aspects of the proposed
urban white paper.
SUMMARY
Urban Task Force recommendations
The Urban Task Force's recommendations must
be treated as a package, with every effort to move forward the
broad agenda, rather than cherry pick a few specific topics.
There must be a full audit of the Urban Design
needs of an area, drawn up in conjunction with the local community,
before any masterplan or design competition is run.
The recommendation to make public funding and
planning permissions for area regeneration schemes conditional
upon the production of an integrated spatial masterplan may be
over prescriptive. It could also introduce a potential source
of delay and uncertainty, hampering the regeneration process.
Central Government
Guidance must discourage Local authorities from
simply stating density and over development as a reason for refusing
planning permission. Councils should be required to include policies
on reasons for refusal.
A practice note on density standards linked
to design quality is required.
There needs to be stronger guidance against
excessively low density for new "greenfield" developments.
Regional Development Agencies
RDAs must show leadership in the formation of
regional centres of excellence for regeneration.
Skills
Urban Design is a collaborative effort, involving
all the professions, working with local communities.
There needs to be better co-ordination of education
and training in urban regeneration skills, across the professions.
SPECIFIC COMMENTS
Which of the recommendations of the report of
the Urban Task Force should be a priority for implementation?
We believe that the recommendations must be
treated as a package, with every effort to move forward the broad
agenda, not cherry picking a few specific topics.
For example, while much can be done to improve
urban design at a "micro-level", unless there is reform
of land assembly processes it will still be difficult for the
public sector to assembly large enough sites to consider larger
scale improvements. In addition mechanisms will have to be created
to ensure long term financing for the management and aftercare
of urban regeneration projects. Comments on specific Task Force
recommendations are given as an annex.
Integration of policies to foster urban regeneration
A far from complete list of public sector bodies
with an interest in urban design would include the DETR, DCMS,
all government department's which procure property (eg schools
and hospitals), Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment,
English Heritage, Planning Inspectorate, Highways Authority, Treasury
(specifically public procurement), Regional Development Agencies
and English Partnerships.
There are a number of barriers within public
policy to delivering better urban design. These include public
procurement policies, restrictive rules on highway design and
guidelines on crime reduction. We understand that both the DETR
and the DCMS are looking at this issue. However, there needs to
be a more public and transparent review of the barriers within
public policy to good urban design.
The future of urban areas suffering from low demand
for housing and social decline
Although physical regeneration is only part
of the process needed to turn an area around, it is an important
one. The improvements in Hulme, Manchester, clearly demonstrate
that attention to high quality design can radically improve the
quality of life and even the reputation of an area. There are
a range of examples across the UK and abroad where urban design
has been an important part of an area's regeneration.
In an overall strategy to improve an area it
is essential to have an understanding of its urban design needs.
The Urban Design Alliance has developed a methodology, termed
the "Placechecks Initiative", which will allow local
authorities and community groups to undertake an urban design
audit of their areas. We are very pleased that the DETR and English
Partnerships have provided financial support for this work.
How planning authorities should be encouraged
to foster creative urban design
If planning authorities are to foster creative
urban design they must have better guidance and more skills to
interpret and implement this guidance. Local authorities must
ensure that their planning departments have the skills and resources
to play a positive and proactive role in the development process,
rather than simply react to developers' proposals.
UDAL is very pleased to be assisting the DETR
in the production of the long awaited Good Practice Guide to
Design in the Planning System. This must provide a tool to
stimulate more creative thinking in the design process. It is
vital that the guide does not become a blueprint which is unthinkingly
and slavishly followed, but is a catalyst in promoting innovative
solutions. Nonetheless, the guide must be robust enough to be
used in planning inquiries.
The guide must provide a powerful tool in raising
awareness of urban design, which is as vital as raising the level
of skills. Planning authorities must at the very least be able
to recognise the need for urban design skills at the start of
a project and be in a position to "buy in" these skills.
UDAL is also pleased to be working with English
Partnerships on the production of their Urban Design Compendium,
which we hope will be a useful companion to the good practice
guide. An ever growing range of organisations are producing guides
which relate to urban design. There needs to be a scoping exercise
to co-ordinate the increasing range of design framework being
produced.
The DETR, and other public bodies, must play
a more active role in UDAL's Urban Design Week. After only two
years the week already hosts over 70 events across the UK and
has a growing role in raising awareness around good quality urban
design.
We believe that any review of PPG 1 needs to
reflect the Government's new design emphasis and also ask that
the current review of NPPG 1 in Scotland needs to consider design.
The consequences for the urban renaissance of
housing and business development on greenfield sites—plus
towns and suburban areas
We welcome the Urban Task Force recommendation
against excessively low density. Getting the right format for
new "greenfield" developments and innovative designs
for suburban areas is key for more universal increase in the sustainability
and vitality of our urban areas. Increases in densities, where
appropriate, can be a useful tool in promoting services and public
transport.
We recommend a practice note on density standards
linked to design quality. There must also be more guidance on
the urban design of new residential developments.
January 2000
Annex 1
URBAN TASK FORCE'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Outlined below are UDAL's comments on the key
recommendation's of the Task Force which relate to urban design.
Page 59—Recommendation 1
Require local authorities to prepare a single
strategy for their public realm and open space, dealing with provision,
design, management, funding and maintenance.
To develop a single strategy those in charge
of delivery (ie the local authority), must have a full understanding
of the current problems and issues. UDAL's "Placechecks Initiative"
will be a tool for promoting community involvement from the start
of the design process, which includes defining the priorities.
Page 64—Recommendation 3
Revise planning and funding guidance to discourage
local authorities from using "density" and "over-development"
as reasons for refusing planning permission; create a planning
presumption against excessively low density urban development;
provide advice on use of density standards linked to design quality.
UDAL supports these recommendations for new
guidance. Local authorities must be discouraged from simply stating
density and overdevelopment as a reason for refusing planning
permission. The local authority should be required to state why
the proposed density does not fit in with the character of the
area. Councils must be required to state their policies when giving
a refusal.
Page 75—Recommendation 5
Make public funding and planning permission
for area regeneration schemes conditional upon the production
of an integrated spatial masterplan, recognising that public finance
may be required up front to pay for the masterplanning.
This recommendation may be over prescriptive,
producing a potential source of delay and uncertainty. Development
frameworks are a valuable tool, but only if they aid the delivery
process, and are translated into a realistic set of actions, most
notably the land assembly process.
There must be a greater appreciation of, and
a proactive approach to, design issues in urban development. However
rather than a prescriptive masterplan, area regeneration schemes
should be developed within a strategic framework which provides
strong guidance to landowners, developers and investors on the
scale and mix of uses sought and treatment of the public realm.
While recognising the need for funding to be
available for preliminary studies of regeneration areas, there
is a danger that the recommendations could lead to scarce resources
being directed towards plan-led consultancy studies at the expense
of practical investigations into site and market conditions.
Any masterplan must have consideration of adjacent
areas and not be concentrated solely within the tight boundaries
of an existing site.
Page 78—Recommendation 6
All significant area regeneration projects
should be the subject of a design competition. Funds should be
allocated in any regeneration funding allocation to meet the public
costs of such competitions.
Urban Design is a collaborative process between
a number of professions. Putting together the right team at the
very start of the regeneration process is of key importance.
We are not certain that a design competition
would aid the regeneration process. A competition can result in
a prescriptive approach. We believe that the Urban Design Alliance's
Placecheck Initiative could provide a powerful tool for ensuring
a strategic framework, based on a firm understanding on the urban
design needs of an area, drawn up in conjunction with the community.
Any "vision" must be capable of delivery.
It must incorporate a range of professional skills including planning,
marketing, funding and appropriate knowledge of commercial delivery
vehicles.
Page 80—Recommendation 7
Develop and implement a national urban design
framework.
Guidelines and criteria are helpful. However,
the key must be to respond to individual sites. Therefore, as
stated earlier, guides must not be overly prescriptive.
Page 81—Recommendation 8
Building on the Millennium Communities initiative,
undertake a series of government-sponsored demonstration projects.
We are broadly supportive of this recommendation.
Careful selection of demonstration projects will be required to
ensure that any lessons are applicable across the whole country.
We would also recommend testing different blends of approach to
gauge the effectiveness of the design-led approach.
In the short term a review of current best practice
would provide a fast and inexpensive way of highlighting what
can be achieved. We are pleased that the Good Practice Guide to
design in the planning process will include such examples.
Page 81—Recommendation 9
Establish Local Architecture Centres in each
of our major cities.
We recognise the need for regional centres of
expertise, but there should not be termed architecture centres.
They must not have a narrow architecture approach, but be inclusive
of the other professions, civic amenity groups, schools, the voluntary
sector and academic organisations.
The number of centres envisaged by the Task
Force may be beyond the resources currently available. The priority
must be to strengthen the existing architectural and built environment
centres and build on their regional networks, working with regional
partners.
Regional Development Agencies have a clear role
in developing these centres. UDAL has contacted all RDAs, but
has had a patchy response. The leadership shown in this area by
RDAs such as OneNorthEast should be reflected by the others.
Page 164—Recommendation 38
Establish joint working between professional
institutions, education providers and employers to develop a plan
of action for improving the skills-base in urban development over
the next five to seven years.
The Urban Design Alliance has a clear role in
improving the urban design skills across the property professions.
We are working with the DETR to gauge the level of education,
training and skills in urban design across the professions.
Co-ordination
There is a lot of piecemeal local activity promoted
by professional bodies, academic institutions and others. However,
at the national and regional levels there is a general lack of
co-operation. The proposed national network of multi-disciplinary
centres must act as a key element in drawing these strands together.
The government should host a Ministerial cross-professional
summit to consider how the various organisations with an interest
in the built environment can work in a more co-ordinated fashion
to raise standards.
Urban Design as a career
Currently there are more places on undergraduate
courses in urban development related disciplines than there are
students, so provision is not the problem. There is also an increasing
number of postgraduate courses being offered at universities specialising
in urban regeneration. The problem lies in attracting a sufficient
number of good quality applicants to such courses.
Ultimately applicants will look at the rewards
and prospects of a particular career. Unfortunately a lot of jobs
in the built environment disciplines suffer from fairly poor remuneration,
as well as a poor or misunderstood image.
A prime focus must be schools, as once a young
person discovers an interest in the built environment they are
more likely to follow this interest into further education and
ultimately a career in the built environment. There needs to be
a co-ordinated programme of promotion, linked to the citizenship
strand in the curriculum. UDAL, and its consistent bodies, would
be very pleased to draw up a proposal for how to approach this
challenge, but it will require the support of government.
Barriers
There are problems with drawing together cross-professional
undergraduate courses, primarily due to (1) professional institutions
accreditation systems (2) funding mechanisms for higher education.
These are also barriers within government policy. To overcome
potential and actual barriers this will require, for example,
reviewing the Department of Trade and Industry's competition policy
and the Department of Education and Employment rules on NVQs and
similar qualifications.
Continued Professional Development (CPD)
CDP provision and quality is very variable between
locations and professions. What is required is an improvement
in the quality and depth of provision to ensure that practitioners
are encouraged to attend CPD and can see the benefits of doing
so. UDAL is working to ensure CPD is co-ordinated across the professions
where appropriate.
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