Mike Rigby Senior Researcher to Richard Bacon MP & Co-ordinator, How Should Norfolk Grow?
The Call to Arms with which Richard Bacon launched “How Should Norfolk Grow” (HSNG) on 20 th November 2015 How do we make Norfolk the best place: To achieve your potential, to get an education and acquire skills, to put down roots, to start a business, to build a home, to raise a family and to be part of a community.
South Norfolk, Broadland and Norwich City Councils are pressing ahead with a new joint Local Plan. The call for sites was completed in July this year and the list of sites will become public knowledge very soon. When this happens, we will get the first inkling of how this new Local Plan is likely to be received. The next slide shows genuine comments sent to South Norfolk Council objecting to large scale housing development in the district.
“ We know that we will probably have to have some development here but this is not a suitable location…We just want to know our voice is being heard.” “ While we recognise the need for some housing development, it must be done in a sustainable way.” “I understand the need for new homes but I do not understand the need to double such a lovely village and community.” “ Although I appreciate that new homes are desperately needed, there is already a lot of ongoing development in the local area.”
There appears to be a silver thread of acceptance running between each objection, recognising that new homes are needed. This gives HSNG somethng to work with. There will be objections but if we are to provide the jobs, homes and infrastructure that we need, we face choices that will be politically difficult and yet impossible to avoid. These are the choices that HSNG aims to inform and influence. What is also clear is that this conversation could not just be about housing. It has to include Education, Healthcare, Digital Connectivity, Leisure, the Environment, Energy, Water and so on.
The Local Plan Expert Group, tasked by the Government to examine how local plans can be made more efficient and effective, reported to the Communities Secretary that: “...many communities feel exluded from plan making – an exercise which they regard as overly technical, dominated by housing issues and often undertaken without a clear community based vision for the future of an area! If we are to stand any chance of bringing development into balance, communities must feel they are truly included in the planning process and excited by the quality and opportunity of the changes that are coming.
There is another side to this – not the entirely reasonable, rational, sensible concerns about the future of one’s community and the impact new development will have – rather the belief that rural England is under existential threat from development, most recently promulgated by the Daily Telegraph. Some of the Telegraph’s more apocalyptic headlines:
Source: Daily Telegraph “Green Belt faces unprecedented threat of destruction” “When our green fields become battlefields”
But figures show that England remains overwhelmingly green and pleasant. Official land use statistics break down the way England’s land is utilised into ten categories including domestic and non-domestic buildings, gardens, open water and greenspace. The following two slides show both England and Norfolk. These are experimental DCLG figures dating from 2005 with the third slide showing land use by district. Of course, there has been plenty of development across Norfolk since then.
6.47% Other land types 4.27% Domestic Gardens 1.14% Houses 0.66% Other 87.47% Buildings Green space England’s Land Use (2005) Source: ONS
6.28% Other land types 2.76% Domestic Gardens 0.63% Houses 0.36% S 89.96% Other Buildings Green space Norfolk’s Land Use (2005) Source: ONS
100% 75% 50% 25% 0% Breckland Broadland Great Yarmouth King's Lynn and North Norfolk Norwich South Norfolk West Norfolk Domestic Buildings Non Domestic Buildings Greenspace Source: ONS, 2005
Let’s assume that the built environment in Norfolk has doubled over the last decade, and it now takes up 2% of the land. For the avoidance of doubt, no-one involved in HSNG is advocating the doubling of the built environment – or anything like it. However, if we assume that doubling Norfolk’s built environment once brings us to where we are today, let’s see what happens if it is doubled again: Again – NOBODY is proposing this as a solution.
7.66% Other land types 5.52% Domestic Gardens 1.27% Houses 0.73% 84.83% Other Buildings Green space Norfolk’s Land Use (2016?)
10.41% Other land types 11.04% Domestic Gardens 2.53% Houses 1.45% 74.56% Other Green space Buildings Norfolk’s Land Use (2026?)
Over 100 people from across Norfolk from both public and private sectors, charities and groups came to hear 9 globally renowned experts describe new ways of thinking about how we provide spaces for people to live. The aim was to find solutions, not new ways of re-stating problems. By the end of the event, each of the groups had come up with one action which would empower communities, improve infrastructure and boost Norfolk’s economy plus two more that were so good they had to be included.
Charles Handy OBE Jim Mackinnon OBE Matthew Rice Author and Former Chief Planner Author of ‘Building David Waterhouse Yolanda Barnes Philosopher for Scotland Norfolk’ Design Council Savills Ted Stevens OBE Andrew Cameron Tim Stonor David Ames Founder of NaCSBA WSP Parsons | Brinkerhoff Space Syntax Letchworth Garden City
1. Creating a co-ordinated narrative between Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich; 2. Form a Design Expert Panel; 3. Better knowledge of Norfolk’s assets; 4. Streamline development plans; 5. Empower parish councils; 6. Bring BT and local communities together;
7. Improve the co- ordination of Norfolk’s buses and trains; 8. Build an enterprising infrastructure within our schools; 9. Create an exemplar community; 10. Communicate what Norfolk has to offer more effectively; 11. Infrastructure needs to be a long-term investment for local authorities; and 12. Create a skills map for the county.
With these action points we should be looking to the future and not just the past. To take these actions forward effectively, we distilled these twelve action points into four workstreams:
We are incredibly fortunate to have secured the contribution, wisdom and industry of four superb leads: Skills – Councillor Ann Leitch, Chair of Starston PC and former CE of the Spire Hospital Housing – Michael Horrowven, Investment Platform Manager at Aviva and former Chair of Saffron Housing Design – Anthony Hudson, Director of Hudson Associates and President of Norfolk Association of Architects Digital - Professor John Last of Norwich University of the Arts
“We will know that digital technology has transformed Norfolk when…” “…people outside and inside Norfolk think differently about our county… fewer jokes!”
Thank You
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