Copper and Burges Salmon welcome industry interest in how public attitudes and needs can inform housing planning decisions

On 2 April 2019, Copper Consultancy and Burges Salmon LLP hosted an event to explore public attitudes to housing. It was very encouraging to hear speakers and attendees echo the need for the industry to involve local communities in planning, but it was clear that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.

At the event, Linda Taylor, Vice Chair of Copper Consultancy, presented Copper’s independent research into public attitudes to housing, which is part of a research series into how the public perceives the different aspects of infrastructure, with the next instalment focusing on urban transport. Liz Dunn, partner at Burges Salmon LLP, presented the firm’s three ‘Perspectives’ reports, exploring that housing is increasingly treated as its own asset class, enabling developers, investors and the Government to deliver infrastructure projects. This was followed by expert insight from guest speakers Ben Bolgar, Senior Director at The Prince’s Foundation, and Jackie Sadek, CEO of UK Regeneration.

The panel presentations sparked interesting discussions amongst the attendees that included representatives from the Local Growth Unit of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, developers, funders, think-tanks and other planning experts.

After the event, Linda Taylor of Copper commented that what she heard in the room was a growing recognition amongst the developers and funders of the need to look for new ways of communicating with local communities as a part of planning process.

Liz Dunn of Burges Salmon suggested that one of the main challenges for the property industry is to ensure consistency of policy implementation across central and local government.

Jackie Sadek of UK Regeneration discussed the need for leadership and trust between private and public sector to deliver Government’s ambitious housing targets.

Ben Bolgar of The Prince’s Foundation explored how understanding long-term value and the creation of social capital can move the industry from house building to placemaking.

For more information about Copper Consultancy’s research into public attitudes to housing please follow this link. For access to our earlier report from 2017, please follow this link. To access Burges Salmon’s infrastructure reports please follow this link.