Urban Spaceman

The pic is neurons under a microscope.  Towards the end of my career, I did quite a bit of coaching and teaching mainly focused on the financial hydraulics and art of getting things built and and aimed at environment professionals ranging from student architects and local authority planners to developers and the Planning Inspectorate I like to think they were engaged when I was writing this stuff.  The links here take you to my OneDrive account where there is a small selection of material on development economics and delivery strategies that I used. I still get asked for them sometimes and the downloads are safe.   Most of this is quite old and a lot of the hard data and references to regulations are out of date, but the general analysis is still mostly relevant and website analytics tell me that people still look for them. I hope you find it expressed here in rather more accessible terms than in the dreary text books.  Development Viability Appraisal s  An...

  UPDATE : It is widely recognised that housing in South East England is too expensive and we are failing to bring forward enough land for development. Recently, there have been some political baby steps towards a regime that will allow public agencies to acquire the necessary land at something close to its value in its current use, rather than being held to ransom by landowners greedy for an unearned windfall. But until we see some results, the general argument remains relevant ...... Do you want a break from the wind and rain-lashed countryside hereabouts, preferably somewhere with more than the bleak view of bare street trees from your living room window? Transform yourself, shut your eyes and think of Point Gourde, a small but perfectly formed peninsula in Trinidad, an emerald in a sapphire sea, with a neat yacht harbour at Coral Cove. Amazingly, this sleepy, sunny little corner of the world played a role in creating our housing shortage here in Southern England. I refer, of co...

  The Current System The Government are intent on speeding up the planning system to get more houses built and investment by businesses. The current system is simple enough in theory. In practice, it isn't. Every Local Authority in England with town planning powers should have a Local Plan that sets out land use and related policies on transport, utilities, drainage, environment etc. This is based on an extensive process of research, analysis and consultation. In practice, not all areas have a Plan, and in others it is out of date by the time it is completed and agreed.    In general, things in the real world move faster than the planning process. The policies themselves are often either opaque or overly specific, so a lot of detail needs to be negotiated at the scheme application stage. This can be very time consuming, and it doesn't help that the planners usually  don't trust developers, with  good reason.  After all that, the final  decision is stil...

  The government aims to increase housebuilding in the hope that this will improve affordability. In the long term, they might be right, but  I doubt it. I n the short term, the terms on which mortgage finance is obtainable might be more important, and the Government are now looking at this. However, in any case, the supply of suitable land is a concern. My intention here is to illustrate the extent to which the increase in land values consequent on high house prices mainly benefits landowners, when it could be used to improve the supply of affordable housing.  The key distinction here is the difference between the value of the land in its current use and its potential value if redeveloped for housing. The increase is often enormous, and obtaining planning permission is the key to unlocking it.  If a site has already been zoned for housing in the Local Plan, development is effectively agreed in principle, so what remains is haggling over detail, and the sale agreemen...