A New Era for Planning - by Graham Haughton
Throughout August 2024, in light of the new UK government's ambitious house-building and planning pledges, we are highlighting Lund Humphries’ planning and housing books and offering a 50% discount on a curated collection: The Future of Housing. Use code HOUSING50 at checkout until 31 August 2024.
To launch this special promotion, Graham Haughton – the series editor of the Concise Guides to Planning and co-author of the volume Why Plan? – has written a special blogpost, reflecting on how the topics of the Concise Guides intersect with Labour’s pledges to reform the planning process. Read on for Graham's roundup:
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The election of a Labour Government in July 2024 has cast the spotlight firmly on how planning could be reformed to better support the new government’s ambitions for future growth, in particular the manifesto promise to build 1.5 million new homes before the next elections – so 300,000 homes per annum on average, well above anything that has been achieved in recent decades.
These ambitious targets will create an upsurge in demand for the skills of planners, architects and others in the built environment. The government has already announced it will support the creation of 300 new planning posts in local governments – and many more planners will be recruited by developer and consultancies looking to support the government’s housing targets.
The Lund Humphries Concise Guides to Planning series was created specifically to bring the best of contemporary thinking to those already in practice and looking to update and enhance their skills, whilst also appealing to students and members of the public looking for easy-to-read guides.
The range of subjects covered in the series is truly impressive: all of the books cover topics relevant to those wanting to engage with the process of creating high quality development and enhancing our natural environment and making the most of our historic areas through modern conservation planning. All the volumes need to be on the shelves of every planning consultant and every local and central government planner. All are written by experts in their field, drawn from both academia and practice.
The best seller so far has been The Urban Design Process, a wonderful introduction to how to be an urban designer, superbly illustrated. Neighbourhood Planning in Practice is not far behind in the popularity stakes along with volumes on Green Infrastructure Planning, and Conserving the Historic Environment. I personally loved Healthy Cities? Design for Well-being because I learned so much, and because it placed centre-stage the relationship between public health and planning.
Planning and Real Estate provides an indispensable introduction to aspects such as valuation, and again I learned a lot from reading it, whilst I was moved by Planning, Sustainability and Nature which provides an incredible range of inspiring ideas for those grappling with how contribute to improving biodiversity.
Perhaps the most revealing book for me has been Security, Resilience and Planning, which reveals how planners and developers are re-shaping the built environment in order to deal with emerging threats, not least terror attacks. I learned how to read the urban landscape in an entirely new way as a result.
My understanding of planning was both broadened and challenged by our books on Planning for an Ageing Society; Children and Planning; Planning, Transport and Accessibility – each of them drawing on decades of experience and applying this to contemporary practice. I felt humbled reading them but also grateful that authors such as these have been out there pushing for a more expansive vision of an inclusive planning.
Finally, there are two books that ask some of the fundamental questions such as Why Plan? Theory for Practitioners, which outlines some of the key contemporary ideas that influence planning thought and planning practice. Planning and Participation is the most recent book in the series and provides a wealth of experience that might just help planners, communities and developers avoid ending up in confrontational positions and instead learn from and work with others.
– Professor Graham Haughton, July 2024
Read more from Graham Haughton about the implications of the Labour government's plans, in The Conversation, HERE
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