Time to Get Real About the Delivery
of Sustainable Development
Sustainable communities, climate change and the environment
are the key issues to focus on this year, says Clive Harridge
As the Institute’s first directly elected President I am approaching the year ahead with great enthusiasm and sense of responsibility. This includes representing the interests of more than 19,000 members in the UK and overseas - all while doing my day job as a director with Entec!
Planning is facing huge challenges and this year will be a defining time in implementing new planning systems, delivering communities and tackling problems of national and global proportions.
Sustainable development, a commonly misunderstood term, has become a watchword for urban practitioners. Yet with its emphasis on planning for future generations, sustainable development defines what we as planners are striving to achieve. There is no better concept underpinning what we do. In short planning lies at the heart of sustainable development. But it is time that we cut through the jargon and established practical links to the spatial planning that we deliver on a daily basis.
There are three fundamental aspects of delivering sustainable development that need to form the thinking behind modern spatial planning - climate change, environmental justice and sustainable communities. These define the themes that will weave through my year in office and that I will promote through the work of the RTPI and in my duties as president.
Climate change is arguably the biggest issue we face as a nation and the biggest challenge we face globally. It also has a massive impact on our ability to deliver sustainable development. Planning has a major role in tackling the causes and impacts of climate change. Cutting carbon dioxide emissions, reducing reliance on cars and lowering flood risk are just some of the issues planners can target. My recent work with Entec for the ODPM demonstrates the considerable sustainable advantages that can be achieved through building to higher environmental standards, which in turn can bring climate change benefits. I support calls for a planning policy statement on climate change because there must be stronger policy support for initiatives that help tackle this.
Environmental justice defines the right for everyone to live in a healthy and safe environment, with good access to transport, jobs, local services and open spaces. But it is most often the poorest and the least powerful in society who miss out on these conditions and live in the most degraded environments. They experience the worst air quality, have least access to green space and adequate housing, and frequently suffer poor health as a result. The health gap between rich and poor is widening. Ethnic minorities are often the worst affected, with 70% of the UK's ethnic minority population currently living in the 88 most deprived wards. Planning has a key role to play in tackling these injustices. The RTPI is working hard through Planning Aid to help disadvantaged communities and help raise their capacity to effect real change and engage in decision making that will affect their environments.
Planning’s involvement with the public must be more effective if we are to deliver sustainable communities. As planners we need to get beyond those who are heard most often and engage more with the wider population and minority groups. The RTPI is behind several pioneering programmes and has produced practical guidance on how to engage with communities, which can be viewed on our website.
Delivering truly sustainable communities presents major challenges. We need to up the stakes by challenging the government to secure the resources for appropriate infrastructure, by making best practice the norm rather than the exception and by identifying practical and cost-effective ways to deliver sustainable buildings that are efficient in resource and energy consumption. Whilst we need to provide for continued growth in housing and related development, this must take place in appropriate locations with adequate infrastructure. The market is a critical factor in delivery, but it must not be allowed to dictate – we need to influence it, not give in to it. These principles build on what outgoing president Ron Tate established through his work last year.
To deliver effective sustainable development it is clear the UK needs a national spatial strategy. How else can we effectively plan and deliver such complex and interconnected policies fundamental to climate change, environmental justice and sustainable communities? A national spatial strategy would join up regional and national strategies and help provide the evidence on which clear and informed decisions can be taken.
Decisions about climate change and environmental justice cannot be taken in isolation because they are global issues. This year the RTPI will be working internationally with the European Council of Town Planners, the Commonwealth Association of Planners, UN Habitat and planning organisations around the world to advance these themes. The World Urban Forum, which takes place later this year, will provide a stage on which to tackle global poverty and a base from which the RTPI will have real influence in helping change the world for the better.
What better time to take on these vast and important issues? The new Institute is in place, we have more members than ever before, planning school places are in high demand and the sector has top-level political support that recognises good planning as essential for our success as a nation. Planning is where it deserves to be and must remain – centre stage in government policy and in delivering sustainable communities. It is a great time to be a planner.
Feel free to contact me on any RTPI issues at (e-mail) president@rtpi.org.uk. I will do my best to help you.
Clive Harridge is RTPI president.
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