The Communities and Local Government Committee will publish its Eleventh Report of Session 2007-08, Planning Matters—labour shortages and skills gaps, on Thursday 24 July 2008. Stay tuned until we get a look at it ourselves and we will pull out the most relevant bits.
I know it will be built in Dubai but this building is WAY too cool not to mention. Check it out here on the BBC website.
Having attended the fascinating Colliers CRE Retail breakfast this morning, I found myself trying not to cry into my pastry. Colliers report that the market is going to bomb for the rest of the year and the majority of next.
However, there are some good deals out there, particularly in central london, the great north east and the best out of town retail. Roll on next year…
Caroline Flint is due to join WS and guests for breakfast tomorrow morning. She will speak about eco-towns, the credit crunch and Gordon Brown’s target of 3million new homes by 2020.
After teasing us with a glimpse of her notes to Cabinet, we are anticipating an interesting debate!
Hazel Blears has announced a doubling of the Planning Aid fund today. The money is provided to community groups to give them more of a voice in the planning process.
Funding will increase from £1.7m to £3.2m this year.
Just one day after David Lock claimed in the Sunday Times that the Government were planning to crash the planning process for eco-town, Caroline Flint has announced an expert panel of advisors.
The “Eco-Town Challenge Team” is made up of fourteen experts who will lay down the challenge to bidders today and ensure that as well as being eco friendly, all houses are well designed, are sensitive to local surroundings and create homes people want to live in.
The fourteen members of the Eco-Towns Challenge Panel are:
1. John Walker (Chair) - Former Chief Executive, British Urban Regeneration Association. Expert in delivery of large mixed use development
2. Dr Liz Goodwin - Chief Executive, Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP). Expert in use of natural resources and recycling
3. Stephen Hale - Director, Green Alliance. Environment expert
4. Sir Peter Hall - President, Town and Country Planning Association. Expert in urban issues, housing and planning
5. Wayne Hemingway - Founder, Red or Dead. Expert in design and social issues
6. Stephen Joseph - Executive Director, Campaign for Better Transport. Transport expert
7. Nick Mabey - Chief Executive, E3G. Expert in energy issues and economic development
8. Kris Murrin - TV presenter, expert in sustainable transport and children’s issues
9. Sunand Prasad - Royal Institute of British Architects President. Expert in design and architecture
10. Liz Reason - Director, Reasons to Be Cheerful consultancy. Expert in innovative approaches to energy issues and climate change
11. Sue Riddlestone - Director, BioRegional Development Group. Expert in sustainability and sustainable development
12. Joanna Yarrow - TV presenter, green-lifestyle specialist and founder of sustainability company Beyond Green
13. Richard Simmons - Expert in architecture and the built environment.
14. Lynda Addison - Managing Director of Addison & Associates. Transport and planning expert.
Today the Government has published its Green Paper, Preparing Britain for the Future—the Draft Legislative Programme 2008-09, setting out the Government’s plans for legislation in next year’s Parliamentary session. The programme includes the Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill.
The Bill aims to create greater opportunities for community and individual empowerment, reform local and regional governance arrangements to promote economic regeneration and continue the Government’s programme of housing reform. The Bill also aims to give all social housing tenants more choice, protection and influence over how their homes are managed; and to empower regional and local bodies to better promote economic development and regeneration. The Bill’s main elements include: extending the powers of the new social housing regulator to apply to local authority landlords; implementing recommendations from the review of sub-national economic development and regeneration to streamline regional governance, integrate Regional Economic and Spatial Strategies and make Regional Development Agencies statutory planning bodies; implementing a proposed new statutory duty on local authorities to assess local economic conditions, and the potential to develop statutory partnerships; implementing recommendations from Lord Sharman’s report to give the Audit Commission a power to appoint an auditor to certain local government entities; and improving the operation of construction contracts.
For more information on this, call Weber Shandwick direct on 020 7067 0341.
It seems that Caroline Flint has been caught out today by the media. Reporters have managed to take a picture of her Cabinet notes and have delighted in sharing them with the world.
The speaking notes, marked confidential, are for her Cabinet appearance today and demonstrate that Government analysts are predicting a 5-10% in house prices this year at best. Not good news for the public - or for house builders.
Ms Flint has issued a statement to the effect that the figures are simply a reflection of commercial analysts views, and do not represent the Government’s view.
The OFT has issued a formal Statement of Objection against 112 companies across the construction sector as part of the biggest ever Competition Act Investigation.
The OFT has formal alleged that the companies have been involved in rigging bids and collusion between bidders, leading to local authorities and other losing money. The allegation also says that a smaller number of comapnies have acted as a cartels, with the winner of the bidding process making payments to other tenderers.
While no official assumptions have been made about infringement of competition laws, we can expect this to play out very publically and claim a number of victims.
DCLG has announced that all new homes will be rated on their green credientials from May 1st and will be able to achieve up to six stars.
Categories will include energy, water and waste managment.
Caroline Flint has commented that the standards are an important step in preparation for 2016.