Building a Safer, Healthier, and More Sustainable Future – is Government on the right track?

Last July, through our 56 joint recommendations from built environment professionals, CIC members urged the new Government to pursue a long-term mission-driven commitment to “Build A Safer, Healthier and More Sustainable Future for All.” This meant improving energy, food, and water security, providing safe and sustainable homes, enhancing local amenities, fostering healthier families, and protecting against global heating and biodiversity loss through blue and green infrastructure.

In order to achieve this, our list of recommendations included establishing a Land Use Commission for England to develop a comprehensive and multi-layered land use framework, a stronger focus on blue-green infrastructure (BGI) measures such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), and new actions to expand and protect urban green spaces.

Ten months on from this, we have seen significant intent from the government with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill being discussed – although there is some controversy over Part 3 of this Bill - and the Land Use Framework now drawn up for consultation. CIC supports the five land use principles proposed by the government here and welcomed the attempts to coordinate the various frameworks and initiatives relating to land use and planning.

Long-term Benefits of the Land Use Framework

This is important because, if successful, we could see a decisive shift from the short-termism that has dogged planning and land use policy in recent years to an information-driven emphasis on spatial planning that delivers on the high-level and long-term goals for our industry and beyond into food security and defence. This can only be positive for construction and our national wellbeing.

The Land Use Framework represents a historic opportunity to improve construction now that the technology and systems, including GPS and AI, are sufficiently available and affordable to allow a fully functioning, real-time land use resource to become a reality. To ensure that data is being usefully integrated across all functions, the framework must be a live document being updated continuously.

Are we up to the challenge?

There’s a lot to do to get here. Planning departments must be resourced appropriately to enable the introduction of spatial development strategies – something ministers are beginning to recognise – and the government needs to urgently identify the specific skills gaps which must be addressed to deliver the framework successfully. The national benefits in terms of public health, agricultural productivity, energy provision, and climate resilience will ultimately far outweigh the costs.

There is also a lack of free and easily accessible data, and too much information is left unshared. This has resulted in a barrier to delivering public policy. Up-to-date and localised data and information on the existing condition of land and its status, connections, resources, and potential must be the building block of the framework. It can be used to support growth and address misinformation, for example, regarding the implications of renewable energy generation and outdated assumptions on the role of green belt and ‘grey belt’ land.

Collectively, we need to act at pace given the need for land to deliver on multiple fronts, especially in the face of the growing climate and nature emergency. With local elections again showing the strength of feeling on land use and local planning matters, perhaps the biggest challenge will be to encourage communities across England to engage and positively shape the vision for future land use, something our industry needs to be at the forefront of. Almost everything needed to secure government’s goals involve the productive use of land.