Community Planning: Housing in the UK
Housing UK
- introduction
- planning policy
- housing policy
- resources
- suggestions
Sustainable new communities
Award winning urban extension with 1,000 new homes masterplanned using a collaborative process involving all stakeholders. See ‘Upton Urban Extension’ in Projects AZ. Photocredit: The Prince’s Foundation, 2008
Introduction
This section provides links to resources of special relevance to those wanting to help local communities engage in the main housing challenges facing the UK.These are:
- Where and how to build a large amount of new housing to cater for growing demand. An additional 240,000 new homes each year are planned – approximately 2 million by 2016, 3 million by 2020.
- How to make new and existing neighbourhoods more sustainable, so reducing energy demands and helping combat climate change.
In this section you will find information on how planning for housing works in the UK and how individuals and communities can get involved. You will also find links to a range of tools and information sources on this website and elsewhere.
Can’t find what you want? Suggestions for improvement? Any comments? Please use the Housing UK submission form or see Contact us.
It is important that people are equipped with the evidence about local housing pressures, demand, and supply and to know the processes that shape decisions on housing locally. Information on local housing pressures is available at www.communities.gov.uk/
Much of the material on communityplanning.net will be useful to those concerned with involving local communities in housing. Explore for yourself using the menus on the left.
For those in a hurry, here are some direct links to material most likely to be useful. On this site:
Methods A-Z - effective techniques for involving people in planning
Community planning event
Collaborative events where all stakeholders, including the local community, work closely with specialists to make plans for the future
Open house event
A popular way for those promoting development initiatives to present them to a wider public and secure reactions in an informal manner. Less structured than a workshop, more informal than a traditional exhibition.
Planning day
Good way for getting the key parties to work creatively together to devise and explore options for a site, neighbourhood or city.
Planning for real
Uses simple models as a focus for people to put forward and prioritise ideas on how their area can be improved. Highly visible, hands-on community development and empowerment tool.
Process planning session
Allows people to work together to determine the most suitable public participation process for their particular situation.
Planning weekend
Highly effective way of generating momentum for change and getting all parties involved in producing a plan of action for a site, neighbourhood or city.
Scenarios A-Z - solutions to some common development situations
Housing development
Building a large new housing development with the future occupants involved from the outset.
Local plan production
Getting involved in producing a spatial plan for a local area (sometimes known as a Local Development Framework as it is used by the planning authority for development control). Local neighbourhood initiative
Agencies and local people work together to speed up the regeneration process
New neighbourhood
Developing creative proposals for a new neighbourhood, extension to a neighbourhood or completely new settlement.
Regional plan production
Getting involved in producing a plan for a region (meaning a substantial area of land including many towns and villages as well as countryside).
Village revival
A village takes the initiative to preserve and build on its local character.
Whole settlement strategy
Creating a vision for a village, town or city as a whole and settings out ways to achieve it.
Case studies – real places, real projects, real results
Aylesham Masterplan
Comprehensive example of producing a Masterplan for a substantial urban extension with the full and creative involvement of key stakeholders including local residents.
Caterham Barracks Village
Impressive example of a private developer using consensus-led masterplanning to create a new sustainable community.
Heart of East Greenwich
Comprehensive and creative consultation approach to preparing a development brief and selecting a developer for an urban site of strategic local importance.
Upton Urban Extension (coming soon)
Award winning sustainable urban extension with over 1,000 new homes masterplanned using a collaborative Enquiry by Design process.
and on other sites:
On CLG and other UK Government Websites
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/
The most relevant English government department which deals with both planning and housing.
Government housing guidance
www.communities.gov.uk/housing/about/guidanceforpublic/
Guidance for homeowners, tenants and landlords. Quick links to useful information produced by the government.
Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IDeA)
www.idea.gov.uk/idk/
Good practice on housing and on planning for housing
Local Housing Pressures Toolkit
www.communities.gov.uk/housing/
Empowering local communities in decisions about housing - information on local housing pressures. Some of the most useful or popular data, presented by type and other variables. These information sources provide an indication of local housing pressures, to enable a community to reach its own views on the challenge its local area faces.
The National Housing and Planning Advisory Unit www.communities.gov.uk/
Set up to help make market housing more affordable
Planning Advisory Service (PAS).
www.pas.gov.uk/pas/
Good practice on housing and on planning for housing
The Planning Portal
www.planningportal.gov.uk/
Planning and building regulations resource for England and Wales. Use this site to learn about planning and building regulations; and use the links to apply for planning permission, find out about development near you, appeal against a decision and research government policy.
On other sites
Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
www.cih.org/
Professional body for people involved in housing and communities.
National Housing Federation
www.housing.org.uk/
fRepresents 1,300 not-for-profit housing associations in England.
Shelter
england.shelter.org.uk/
Information and advice on housing and homelessness
Town and Country Planning Association
www.tcpa.org.uk
Campaign group for reforming the planning system. Useful publications.
Key publicationss
The UK Government key policies for housing in England are set out in the 2007 Housing Green Paper - Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable -
and its policies on planning for housing are in the 2006 Planning Policy Statement 3 on Housing.
Its overall plans for sustainable growth were published in 2003 in Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future – the sustainable communities plan.
A wide range of statistics on English housing can be found both on the DCLG website and in the annual UK Housing Review produced by Prof. Steve Wilcox.
Do you have anysuggestions on how the Housing UK section could be improved or any specific detail that you think should be included?
Thanks; This section of the website and much of the material linked from it has been funded by Communities and Local Government as part of an initiative to provide a toolkit on community involvement in housing provision and improvement.