World Town Planning Day - Homes start with Planning

The theme marking this milestone is: Homes Start with Planning which highlights the role of planning and planners in delivering housing that meets the needs of communities, helping to create equitable, inclusive, and sustainable solutions for all.

It is a theme that chimes greatly with what we do at Tibbalds. We are specialists in residential led mixed use development and design guidance that focusses on housing and the elements that support people friendly places.

The nature of the work we do means we are intimately familiar with the challenges faced in bringing forward sustainable and affordable homes and places that are viable and deliverable.

The new Labour government were elected on a declaration to build 1.5 million homes during this term of parliament to meet the profound shortage of housing in the UK.

The new government's proposed amendments to the NPPF will impose more rigid housing targets on local authority areas to underline government’s expectation that housing is delivered at scale.

But we think it’s important to understand the long-running national context that means delivery of housing is too often in unsustainable locations with unsuccessful elements of development repeated across the country. Think poor access to sustainable transport, poor landscaping - with inappropriate planting, not enough for children to do or places to go and uninspiring low-density housing at the edge of settlements.

However, despite this national picture there are plenty of examples out there of housing led development and guidance that is successful and which we should be cheering. And to celebrate World Town Planning Day we wanted to highlight some examples Tibbalds have worked on:

York Housing Delivery – Tibbalds were part of the award-winning team led by Mikhail Riches Architects delivering Passivhaus homes on Council owned sites across York. The City Council’s ambitious programme is delivering sustainable and affordable homes in one of the UK’s richest heritage environments.

Bradford Design Guide – Tibbalds were commissioned by Bradford City Council to create a go-to manual for housebuilders, planning officers and communities to help raise standards for high-quality design in Bradford District. The guide includes eight priorities for homes in the district which include greening, inclusivity, health and distinctiveness amongst others.

We are currently working on a design code for Bradford which will take forward the principles in the design guide.

Carpenters Estate – Tibbalds were the lead consultant and planning consultants appointed to secure the wholesale regeneration of a large postwar estate directly adjacent to the Olympic Park for London Borough of Newham and Populo Living. Working closely with the design team (Proctor Matthews, Metropolitan Workshop, LDA, XCO2, CampbellReith, Mott Macdonald and Make Good) a resident led masterplan for the area has been established that will deliver up to 2,022 new and replacement homes, including 50% affordable housing. It will also retain and retrofit two of the high-rise towers on the site ensuring a huge reduction in embodied carbon.