If there’s one thing I know about Community Land Trusts now it is that they are made up of people who have got off their backsides and done something. If you put aside your prejudices, that’s pretty much the model of the entrepreneur property developer, really.

Something very interesting is going to happen to the housing industry over the next five years and I’ve got a feeling that people who wouldn’t be seen dead together might make productive bedfellows in the new Big Society face of things.

My adventure started off at a community development meeting I went to in Chelmsford, where a group of people engaged in helping local people take action and find a voice, were sharing their hopes and fears, in the light of the new coalition government. That’s where I first found out what a Community Land Trust was. It is also where a local government worker said as we were discussing the cuts, ‘You’re private sector, you’ll be ok.’ Yesterday the adventure continued at the Community Land Trusts 2010 conference in Savoy Place, London, (as a guest of Newstart Magazine)where another group of people engaged in helping local people take action and find a voice were launching a new CLT Network, a national body to facilitate and enable their work, to be hosted by the National Housing Federation.

A Community Land Trust is a corporate body set up by local people, with the objective of acquiring and managing assets for the benefit of the community, in perpetuity. They hare been around in the US for years, and here too in organisations such as Almshouse Trusts. Using a shared equity model, it is theoretically possible for CLTs to provide affordable housing. Real schemes have been particularly successful in rural areas where local house prices can be as much as 20 time local income levels, thereby pricing local people out of the housing market.

The reasons CLTs are not having huge success all over the country developing affordable housing are threefold:

1. They can’t get people to give them land (especially Local Authorities, who through a mixture of regulation and attitudes can’t realise the benefit);
2. They can’t get planning permission, particularly in rural areas whre there is a huge need for affordable housing; and
3. They can’t get funding (and this is worse now for them as it is for most of us).

These three problems add up to a huge headache and years of wrangling with bureaucracy, with only the most tenacious (or lucky) getting projects built.

Things are changing however, and the conference yesterday was buzzing with talk of CLTs finally being able to overcome their difficulties and emerge into the mainstream, in the way that Housing Associations did over thirty years ago.

Getting Land

Headline speaker at the CLT conference yesterday was Grant Shapps, Housing Minister. Shapps is part of the team putting together the Decentralisation and Localism Bill which will be published at the end of the year. The bill is expected to make huge changes in the way Local Authorities operate, and Shapps hinted in his speech that he’d like to make it easier for land to be made available for community projects.

In the afternoon panel discussion, Kate Brathewaite (Carnegie Trust) and Stephen Hill (C20 Futureplanners) talked about Local Authorities having a need for CLTs to help fill a vacuum in housing provision, or the provision of other facilities and services. This might also assist in the availability of land.

Getting Planning Permission

The process of achieving planning consent for affordable housing (often through ‘exception sites’) is fraught with challenges for RSLs. When we do it, there has to be a careful step-by-step approach with all stakeholders on board.

Grant Shapps announced yesterday that the government will enable the establishment of Local Housing Trusts, and that these trusts, if they get 90% support from the local community will be able to ‘Grant themselves Planning Permission’. Blimey.

If that did happen in any meaningful, practicable way, then CLTs would have real power to deliver housing, if they could get funding.

Getting the Money

The only issue Grant Shapps wouldn’t make a commitment on was funding, and I read and heard a great deal yesterday about difficulties making the first step in access to funding. So who’s going to help with this final hurdle?

As anyone in the conference audience could tell you, whilst their motivations might be centred on community benefit, property developers and investors are motivated largely (but not exclusively) by money. In the last few years they have had to be particularly creative in how they make it.

In pursuit of profit during a recession, developers move from areas of low demand to areas of higher demand. Over the last few years we’ve seen them move from open market housing into residential care, for example. Not all developers are short of funding even now, and if they have it they are just finding more effective ways of using it.

So if Community Land Trusts, who will, all being well, have the planning and land opportunities, and developers, some of whom have the financing opportunities, can overlook the fact that they have different motives and understand how to meet them both, wouldn’t there be a chance to achieve more?

With legislative support for planning and land availability, do you think there is an opportunity for CLTs to have the sort of clout that they can talk to and work with housebuilders and developers about joint ventures, if they knew how to talk to them?

Could we even forsee (as Michael Kohn of Slider Studio suggested to me in the break) a situation where some CLTs negotiate their facilities and housing with RSLs and volume housebuilders on a larger scale?

I think Community Land Trusts should consider talking to the construction industry. With the right attitude, the new planning landscape might facilitate some mutually beneficial relationships.

On Wednesday the new, first woman president of the Royal Institute of British Architects continued her tour of the East of England with a stop off in Chelmsford to see the new Salvation Army Citadel and to meet local architects and architecture students from Anglia Ruskin University.

Working for a Chelmsford architect myself I was pleased to attend what was a positive, friendly and busy meeting, and get a good look round the new Citadel by the architect Anthony Hudson, who told me it was the first place of worship his London practice had designed. This was somewhat surprising as it is clear the building is working extremely well and the client is very happy with it.

Ruth Reed was on strong form, much more engaging than our last meeting in London and clearly enjoying getting out and meeting her members across the region. Yesterday morning I had asked my network on Twitter what they would like to ask her and interest seemed to focus on the planning system and how it prevents contemporary design.

I wasn’t able to ask all the questions which came out of this (notably @scarpadog’s question about how small practices can get involved in school design – because they should) but she did spend much of the session talking about improving the planning system, an issue raised by artist @Linda_Sgoluppi:

@SuButcher Will RIBA campaign for local planning departments to be more enlightened to contemporary design in domestic housing? #ruthreed

One of Ruth’s four policy areas on her personal agenda is planning (you can see the detail of her manifesto here )Ruth was a planning inspector in a previous guise, and would encourage all architects to enter local politics – not least to get involved in the planning process.

Ruth said the RIBA is working to bring in local Design Review Panels (representing a range of professionals) to give Local Planning Committees more confidence in planning decisions.

One way that she thinks that planning can be simplified is for other issues such as building performance, nature conservation and so on, to be removed from the planning process and leave planning for land use and spatial design – important matters for which the process was intended.

Issues of building performance could then be addressed through Building Regulations where they can be enforced. Ruth said that it would be a brave planning authority who would demolish a house because it didn’t conform to a required level of the Code for Sustainable Homes!

The audience, though somewhat reluctant to engage at first, took up these issues and a discussion developed. Should there be architects as patrons of local planning authorities to help LPAs? Could the government extend permitted development rights to schemes submitted by a Chartered Architect – perhaps there could be self-certification?

Were Design Review Panels really going to be able to help with the huge workload when there isn’t enough support for them? There is a huge problem getting financial support for Design Review Panels – though there is a legislative requirement for LPA’s to consider design in the planning process. We will have to see what the general election brings.

Ruth was optimistic about the future of design quality in the planning process. Where there is competition between developers, and pressure from the public to get good contemporary design, she feels that the bar will be raised. A recent RIBA discussion paper on housing pointed out that only 30% of homebuyers would consider a new home, the remaining 70% of the developers market don’t want a new home and prefer the older (larger and perhaps better quality?) housing stock. There’s a marketing opportunity.

Other issues discussed included employment – Ruth campaigned for election during a boom time and now the RIBA has to deal with high levels of unemployment not just amongst architects but also graduates. There has been some talk of enabling architecture graduates to train as planners, but unfortunately with high unemployment amongst planners as well this seems unlikely.

Old chestnuts surfaced – including protection of title (“The RIBA has a quality brand which it can promote to the consumer”) and students not being ready for practice (“Graduates shouldn’t be expected to have the wisdom of our years”) Students of architecture come out as great problem solvers, lateral thinkers, and keen to hoover up new skills and knowledge. This is an opportunity, not a disadvantage.

I was particularly glad to hear Ruth Reed’s comments on Value. The RIBA has tried to help architects articulate the value provided by design. There are simple metrics, such as the financial benefit of BREEAM, but there are also complex metrics like the value of landmark buildings to a town, the value of hospitals and schools to human recovery and performance. It was great to hear that the RIBA is planning a Guide for practices on Value-based Fees. Ruth said that people realize over time that good design adds value, once they experience it. You can’t force people to accept that you add value, you have to prove it.

Hear hear!

You can see my tweets about the visit and the questions and answers by following the hashtag #ruthreed.

The Guardian published an interview with her in September; Leading Questions

image: BD Online

Ruth also has her own website at www.ruthreed.co.uk It would be great to see her engaging with architects on twitter – don’t you think?

All good designers are great at joining things together.

A classic example is the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the German Pavilion at Barcelona (1929) rather disappointingly alluded to by Kevin McCloud in a recent episode of the UK TV programme Grand Designs.

I say disappointing because the essence of the German Pavilion to me is how it connects spaces, whilst the building which was apparently inspired by the German Pavillion failed to make any significant achievements in this area.

But we’re not just talking about connecting spaces here, we are talking joints. Poor joints are where buildings go wrong, and good joints are what good design is all about.

As my modernist tutors taught me, the best way to connect two opposing elements is to insert something to mediate between them, and good architects do this with the Planning process. The client and the planning behemoth both get what they need, mediated through the design and negotiation of a good architect.

By inference, good architects should also be good at connecting people, or ‘Networking’. In essence networking is about working together to find areas of common interest and sharing these with others. Which is why I like working with property developers because I find it interesting, no inspiring, how they can see opportunities in these associations and make them happen.

This is the second of a short series looking in to what good architects can do for you. Read the first post here. If you’d like to suggest another topic in this series, please drop me a line.

Everyone wants planning permission. Why? Because it adds value to their property and enables them to achieve their objectives. Getting a good planning consent is not as easy as it used to be, and if you are going to reap the benefits, you will also be taking the financial risk of making the application. All the more reason get it right first time, to plan ahead and to know what you are committing to before you commission any work.

What makes up a planning application?

As a minimum an applicant or their agent needs to submit the following:

1. A written application form (in paper or online)
2. A site plan identifying the land
3. Scale Drawings sufficient to describe the proposed development
4. Certificates and related documents
5. An application fee, and
6. A Design and Access statement

If you apply online at the planning portal, you only need to submit one copy of everything, but if you send the actual documents in by post or by hand, multiple copies are required.

Since 2007, Local Authorities can now adopt their own ‘Local List’ of additional information they require in support of a planning application. Here is just an example of the range of additional information they can ask for:

• Air quality assessment
• Biodiversity survey and report
• Affordable housing statement
• Tree survey/Arboricultural Impact Assessment
• Daylight/ Sunlight Assessment
• Economic Statement
• Environmental Statement
• Foul sewage and utilities assessment
• Flood Risk Assessment
• Heritage Statement (including Historical, archaeological features and Scheduled Ancient Monuments)
• Land Contamination assessment
• Lighting Assessment
• Noise Assessment
• Open Space Assessment
• Planning Statement (how the proposal accords with national, regional and local planning policies)
• Site Waste Management Plan
• Statement of Community Involvement
• Structural Survey
• Transport assessment
• Travel Plan

Preparing these documents takes special expertise, so they will probably need to come from a number of different sources. Your agent, usually an architect or planning consultant, can co-ordinate these professionals for you so that everything comes together and is ready on time.

All this information must be put together carefully – if anything is missing it can hold up the process of registering the application (confirming that it has been received intact and the clock has started ticking) and delay the 8 or 13 week time period from application to determination (decision).

Planning is a democratic process, involving not only national and local guidance but elected counsellors and members of the public. As a result it is not possible to guarantee a result, but there are ways to reduce the risk of refusal along the way.

Pre-Application Consultation

Before the application is made it is essential to consult with the local authority about your proposals. This makes it possible to identify relevant issues early on and will give greater certainty of the process and its likely outcome. It may be possible to consult with a planning officer via email or telephone, or a meeting may be appropriate. Some local authorities now charge for Pre-Application advice and it is important to build this into your cost picture and to make good use of the consultation.

What will it cost?

Before anyone carries out any major work, find out what the application will cost to make. Each document will take time and expertise, you may need a survey of any existing buildings, and there is the planning application fee and the costs of a pre-application consultation.

Find out the likely cost of getting the application together, and the probable timescale from the professionals involved, before anyone does any work for you. That way you can assess the risk against the likely outcome, and as the process proceeds and more information is uncovered, you can keep abreast of progress and make informed decisions.

The reason why obtaining planning consent is so lucrative is precisely because the process involves risk. As the client who will own the permission, you are taking the risk, but you will also reap the benefits.

So minimise your risk: be informed and be prepared.

If you liked this post consider commenting below,  subscribing to my RSS Feed, following me on Twitter, and you might also like to read this post:

Planning Permission – Getting Information Online about a Site’s Planning History

and this article:

Maximise Your Assets: Nowadays it is even more important to make a planning application count.

Are you interested to find out more about the planning history of a site in England or Wales?

You might be considering purchasing a site, or want to get planning permission for a development or alterations to a property. Getting planning permission via your local authority is usually the first task for any development work (with some exceptions) and planning issues can make or break a project so it is worth being well informed about the decisions and policies which apply to the site you are looking at.

Many people might consult the planning department by phone, or ask an architect or planning consultant for advice, but you can make a start yourself. Today a wide range of planning information is made available online, and some local authorities publish all or most of the application data they hold, so you can download it and view it at your leisure.

This article explains two ways you can get internet access to this information

First stop – The Planning Portal

The Planning Portal is the government’s online doorway into the planning process. Here you can search for generic advice about all aspects of planning and building regulations processes.

When you arrive at the site, identify yourself as “General Public”, Professional User” or “Government User” as appropriate. Different versions of the site are available for each of these user types. Then if you want to find out about a particular site, click on Local Information on the left hand menu.

Here you can enter an address or postcode and find out the name of the Local Authority responsible for the site you are researching. Links will then be available to the website of the Local Authority and its current Planning Policies. If you are lucky, a link to their online planning information will also be available. Typical titles are ‘view planning applications online’ or ‘online planning gateway’.

Although every Local Authority in England and Wales is signed up to the Planning Portal, the service is somewhat patchy, so once you have the Local Authority, you might have to search elsewhere for the link to their online information.

Second Stop – Search for Planning Online

Local Authority websites are notoriously difficult to penetrate, being very large and cumbersome. Fortunately however, their sites are usually indexed well by Google and you can take advantage of this.

If you can’t find the direct link from the Planning Portal, try sending a query to www.google.co.uk entitled “Chelmsford Planning Online” (substituting the name of your chosen Local Authority). With a bit of scanning of the links which result, this should take you direct to the relevant pages managed by the Local Authority, where you can search for the information they hold on a site and view the planning applications and relatively current information about their progress.

The more progressive Local Authorities have maps on which you can overlay the sites of Listed Buildings, Conservation areas and various planning policy areas etc. Some even have the wisdom to give you the name and direct telephone number of the Planning officer handling the application you have an interest in, which can save you hours of waiting on their telephone systems listening to Vivaldi.

When you get to the online sites, remember to read the disclaimers and the Terms and Conditions and remember to check the copyright status of documents.
Some Local Authorities point out that they don’t hold the contents of every file online, so it is important to speak to a planning officer and/or a suitable qualified professional before you make a commercial decision based on the information online.

These caveats aside, you can now access a great deal of information about the planning system direct to your desktop, which can aid your preliminary research and save you a great deal of time and energy.