There is a very real danger that, in its bid to reform the planning system and build 1.5m homes across England at pace, the government will neglect the basic requirements of livable communities (‘No shops, no schools’: homes in England built without basic amenities, 27 July).
As your article makes clear, already “thousands of homes across England are being built without urgently needed community infrastructure”. The planning system cannot allow such fundamental aspects of quality, sustainable placemaking to be neglected. It would do well to recognise the solution offered by a landscape-led approach to development.
Landscape is everywhere – not just in protected countryside, but in every high street and cul-de-sac. It is the setting in which we all live, study, work and play. By thinking landscape first and engaging landscape architects early, planners and developers can design-in essential community infrastructure from the outset, creating resilient places that deliver what people need.
So, let’s build quality as well as quantity by prioritising landscape.
Carolin Göhler
President, Landscape Institute
One of the problems with the way we build homes in England is that local people have no role beyond complaining and objecting.
In one case in your article, the community offered to finish off and run a community centre if the developer would just build the shell. But the idea that communities could roll up their sleeves and build, own, run these things just isn’t considered by our housing and planning systems. The developer considered and rejected the idea; the community had no say.
In a small but growing number of places this opposite is happening. Communities are gaining a seat at the table in the design and build-out of new homes, and taking ownership of shops, playgrounds, open space, community centres and affordable homes. Developers have to work with, and negotiate with, local people over what is built. This little bit of leverage and agency, achieved through a community land trust, builds better places with a stronger sense of community.
The Labour government has talked a lot about supporting communities. The prime minister recently spoke of people tired of being excluded from decisions about their own lives. Here’s your chance, Sir Keir, to include them in decisions about housing by wiring community agency and ownership into the planning system.
Tom Chance
Chief executive, Community Land Trust Network