“The property industry has a problem.” These are direct words from Sir Crispin Tickell, government adviser on sustainable development, about the property and building industry’s failure to provide sustainable communities for the UK.
These failings encompass the design of buildings; infrastructure; the need for more development on brownfield sites; and planning issues.
Before protestations, Sir Crispin recognises that the industry is more a victim to government legislation.
However, added to all the other potential man-made environmental concerns, Sir Crispin warns that if the property industry does not play its part and deal with these issues then “in 20 years’ time we will be in a bigger mess than we are in at the moment”.
The Armageddon statement is in stark contrast to the understated elegance of London’s Fortnum & Mason tearoom, where Sir Crispin is sitting. Continuing to enjoy such surroundings is what Sir Crispin — a foremost expert on environmental issues — campaigns for. And he makes no excuse for using strong words, which have lead some to call him a doomsayer, others a prophet.
Whatever the opinion, when Sir Crispin speaks on what awaits the UK if environmental policies are not changed, British prime ministers including Tony Blair, John Major and Margaret Thatcher listen. So, the property industry would do well to heed his words also.
In his forthright manner, Sir Crispin explains that the property industry is responsible for “about half the carbon dioxide emissions from buildings”. He believes that more thought should go into the design and construction of buildings — the new developments at Elephant & Castle in London being a classic example — and also calls on the industry to use more brownfield sites and to build compact cities, rather than seeking to spread out into the suburbs: “Whilst focusing on sustainable communities, we have weakened our stance on urban regeneration.”
Infrastructure and building good public transport networks is another major issue which he says should be at the forefront of thinking when designing sustainable communities.
These issues were highlighted in Towards a strong urban renaissance, the independent report published in November 2005 by Lord Richard Rogers and the Urban Task Force, on which Sir Crispin also sat.
It has taken on added significance because of recent criticism about the thousands of homes planned for the Thames Gateway and whether there will be enough water to supply them. “Where is all the water is going to come from? These are the kind of issues the building industry needs to be thinking about,” says Sir Crispin.
But, for all his criticisms, Sir Crispin says he supports the building sector and lays many of his gripes about today’s sustainable communities at the door of the government. He believes that a lot of the problems within the sector are down to the government not taking a firmer hand in regulating the industry and a lack of proper integrated planning.
On the property industry, Sir Crispin says: “It needs a measure of government legislation, but I understand that it also needs to profit from supply and demand. However, [the industry] does need outside regulation as it is unfair to expect them to do it. Everyone wants a level playing field, particularly as the existing record of the building industry is very bad. They don’t observe all the rules at the moment.”
One of the main “rules” troubling the industry is the planning regime, and it is one of Sir Crispin’s main bugbears. “One of the biggest mistakes is a lack of integrated planning — different agencies have different requirements, and the regional development agencies don’t put together things properly.
“The ODPM [as it was], the DTI and the regional development agencies are at loggerheads with each other.”
This echoes Lord Rogers’ report findings that: “The confusing sponsorship and funding arrangements of the regional development agencies — through which they are 85% funded by ODPM but sponsored by the DTI — have led them to focus on economic development, jobs and growth rather than high-quality, well-designed, sustainable urban development.”
Sir Crispin believes that although the government has been trying, “it hasn’t been succeeding.” He wants the recommendations of the Lord Rogers report taken fully on board. But in an interview earlier this year, Sir Crispin said that if environmental issues are not taken seriously, then the human race will be “no more than a somewhat messy episode in the history of the earth”.
● Sir Crispin will speak at the EG Summit on 12 October in London. Details from sarah.barnes@rbi.co.uk
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Born 25 August 1930 1954 Joins the British Diplomatic Service — postings include British Permanent Representative on the Security Council (1987-90) 1990-93 President of the Royal Geographical Society 1990-94 Chairman of the International Institute for Environment & Development 1994-2000 Convenor, Government Panel on Sustainable Development 1996 Becomes Chancellor of the University of Kent 1999-2004 Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Environment, part of the International Council for Science 2002-03 Senior Inaugural Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Centre for the Environment 2004 Adviser at large to the president of Arizona State University 2006 Director of the Policy Foresight Programme in the James Martin Institute for Science & Civilization at Oxford University |
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During EG’s interview, government adviser for the environment Sir Crispin Tickell refers to the city of Curitiba, in southern Brazil, as model of urban planning excellence. Curitiba, population 1.6m, is hailed around the world for the success of its public transport network and its stance on environmental issues. The city’s public transport system is based on circles of local bus lines connected to five lines that radiate from the centre of the city in a spider’s web pattern. Buses travel as fast as London’s Tube trains, while speed for other traffic is strictly limited. Added to that, there are 90 miles of bike paths. So successful is the public transport system that it carries around 85% of the Curitiba’s population. On green issues, Curitiba has 581 sq ft (54m2) of green space per inhabitant, spread across 17 new parks, while its citizens automatically recycle over two-thirds of their rubbish into organic and non-organic lots. According to many reports, one of the successes of Curitiba’s planning system is how it is managed. New projects have, historically, been chosen by referenda in order to assure they meet real needs. Voters are informed of relative costs and then choose between projects. The masterplan for the city was devised in the 1940s and 1950s, when Curibita had a population of 150,000, and focused on boulevards and public amenities, but this lack of money fell by the wayside. Then, in 1968, the Curitiba Masterplan was introduced, bringing in pedestrianised main areas, and the modern-day city was born. While the world thinks that Curitiba has worked out all the answers, the city is not a utopia. It still has squatter settlements peppered with illiteracy. But with people like Sir Crispin highlighting Curitiba as a city that has got it right then it is only a matter of time that other cities will follow its example. |
