Professor Ashley Wheaton of the University of the Built Environment discusses the launch of the Regional Building Foundation, a new initiative to revolutionise housebuilding by replicating the proven success of place building communities throughout the UK
For too long, the debate around housing has focused solely on numbers. It’s true that as a country we are not building nearly enough new homes and are consistently falling short of national targets. However, by fixating on volume, we’ve lost sight of whether we’re building the right types of homes in the right kinds of places. This is the key issue that the Regional Building Foundation (RBF) has been set up to address.
The flagship report which has shaped the RBF’s framework, Reimagining Place Building: Advancing Sustainable, Inclusive and Locally Anchored Developments in the UK, argues that we shouldn’t just be focusing on building more homes, but better places.
Quality, not just quantity
I do not want to minimise the problem of supply, particularly as our consistent failure to build enough homes has been a significant driver of worsening housing affordability over recent decades.
However, we have to acknowledge that building isolated business parks, retail zones, schools and housing estates that sit beside, rather than within, our communities is not working. Unless we change our approach, these problems will only become more entrenched.
The answer, we believe, is place building. We need to create communities that are walkable, locally distinctive, mixed-use and socially cohesive.
This is distinct from placemaking, which tends to focus on activating existing public spaces, and from urban regeneration, which is largely reactive.
Place building is proactive. It seeks to create the conditions for thriving new communities from the ground up and it requires a joined-up approach involving landowners, regional builders, materials suppliers, architects, designers, planners and other built environment professionals working within a common framework.
The model exists
A fundamental shift in how we deliver new places will not be easy, but we already have a working blueprint. Poundbury in Dorset demonstrates what is possible when development is guided by a long-term vision for community, rather than a short-term focus on the number of new houses built.
The numbers speak for themselves. Poundbury delivers 35% affordable housing, against a national average of 18% across large sites. Some 17% of residents commute on foot, more than double the national average of 7.6%.
A 2018 economic impact assessment shows that the development had permanently increased local Gross Value Added by £98m annually. The example of Poundbury, as well as Nansledan in Cornwall, is proof that building better can be both practically achievable and financially sound.
A framework for building better places
The Regional Building Foundation has been established to support the wide-scale adoption of place building and will operate across four key areas: networking, educating,
enabling and innovating.
Fourteen regional forums will bring together practitioners and stakeholders to share best practice, with the first launching in Hampshire this September.
The RBF’s knowledge hub will make guidance, design templates and tools accessible to builders across the country. An enabling programme will provide hands-on support for projects ranging from single-site SME developments to town-scale schemes. Regional innovation hubs will drive skills development and help establish local supply chains that ensure the places being built genuinely reflect local character.
Central to this framework are SME housebuilders, who have consistently demonstrated an ability to deliver schemes that are better integrated into their communities and that
people actively want to live in. Reversing the decline of this vital sector, squeezed by cumulative viability pressures over many years, is one of the RBF’s core objectives.
The homes we need should not only be found second-hand, in places built decades ago for a different age. With the right framework, the ambition and the right builders, we can do far better.
The RBF has been set up to make the case for building better and to make sure that the people delivering these new places have the right tools, knowledge and skills to do it well. Place building is a practical, proven model that should become the new standard for how we build across the country.
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