Housing Policy for a Big Society: Co-producing a Believable Policy Story

1. A Housing Policy F.I.T for the Big Society Co-producing a believable policy story “They are not normal” International Cooperative Alliance, London October 2010 Stephen Hill, Director, C2O futureplanners

2. …and they all lived happily together ever after. Please, Mister, tell me that Big Society story …again!

3. The Big Picture Story… The Big Society and Open Source Planning “Too much has been imposed from above, when experience shows that success depends on communities themselves having the power and taking the responsibility. It’s no good officials in Whitehall or even the Town Hall telling people what is needed in their street.” …. everyone has a stake based on equal rights and where they pay their dues by exercising responsibility in return, and where local communities shape their own futures.

4. Letter to the Editor Prescott’s ‘growth areas’ pull plans for thousands of homesBuilding Magazine 6/08/10 “Dear Sir, The ‘big society’ is working well, then.Up and down the land, local communities have overwhelmingly agreed they don’t want any new neighbours. Yours etc” (Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells? ) MP for Tunbridge Wells

5. “It’s a very miserable view of human nature, that people who are not told what to do, default to something that is short term, individually selfish, and unenlightened.”Greg Clark, Minister for Planning and Decentralisation, Guardian Interview 15/9/10 600 home scheme in Tonbridge Wells turned down to protect the dormice

6. Housing Policy for a Big SocietyWe need a shared visionof what housing is for in the life of the country …but what housing policy?

7. Purpose & Process of co-production • “We will be hosting public meetings to engage with individuals, those active in civil society and social entrepreneurs on all aspects of the big society, but in particular how the network can best support individuals to come together in groups at local level.”Big Society Network invitation [Network staff=6 civil servants] • “If we can answer this, then it is possible to genuinelyallow communities to have more involvement.”Greg Clark interview

8. The story of community housing… as told by the normal people • More expensive than…? • More risky than…? • More complicated than…? • Difficult people…? • Difficult schemes…? Quite probably, because they want to do more than…. NORMAL

9. Some not normal schemes:Models for bottom up housing and open source planning “At last, it’s not Vauban”

10. Smiley West, KarlsruheA grown up politics of design…secure by living together

13. “Managing our co-existence in shared space”Prof.Patsy Healey – Definition of Spatial Planning

14. “The innovation in German urbanism in the last decade”

15. Coop Mika, Karlsruhe

18. Diversity and maturity in mainstream politics and housing markets - Germany Tübingen Südstadt Hamburg, Leipzig…. Project Vauban, Freiberg

19. The Tübingen way…Co-production of shared space

20. The English way…space as commodity

21. Trust…in the design code…At Vauban…this is allthere is …andco-production through dialogueHow many pages does yourDesign Code have?

22. Alternative public practice • Pelham Grove Coop N17 • The Game>>Planning for Real • Brief: “not look like a council house”

23. 40 years on-Sanford Coop, Railway Cuttings,Lewisham…60% cut in CO2

24. Argyle Street CoopCambridge

25. Half Moon Crescent TMC LBIslington

26. Wesley Square Co-ownership, North Kensington

27. Community and Private Self-build The Diggers, Brighton “ a microcosm of what could be achieved on other sites all over the country by harnessing the imagination and skills of ordinary people.” “that indefinable quality which marks out the outstanding from the excellent DETR Housing Design Award citation1998 Sussex Road, London N19 1999

28. Old people look after themselves… HAPPIerandcheaper than the council Tenant Management Coop 355 Queensbridge Rd

29. Springhill Co-housingStroud, UK

32. “Weirdy…they are not normal.” Ward Councillor (from the Big Society Party) at Planning Committee Definitely not normal…

33. Threshold Centre, Dorset First HCA grant funded mixed tenure co-housing Shared facilities include: • The stone farmhouse for visiting guests, and shared meals • 1 acre community market garden • Laundry • Car pool Commitments for all residents: • 4 hours per week of unpaid time to help look after the shared facilities, and do cooking • 1 car and 1 pet per household • Paying share of the running costs of shared facilities • Before taking up residence, spending up to 4 nights here, for the new resident and community to get to know each other.

34. Hearthstone CohousingN. Denver, Colorado33 leasehold houses and flats with a 4,800 sq. ft. common house on a 1.6 acre site. The community was first phase of a ‘new urbanist’ redevelopment in the historic North Denver neighbourhood.

35. Commercial and political good sense • Attracting a particular kind of resident, where the market may be weak, but opportunity is rare • Reducing risk through pre-sales and pre-allocations • Preserving affordability in perpetuity • Living marketing - new residents actively occupying early phases • Stewardship committed to the long term success of the place • Increasing and retaining value within neighbourhood for the benefit of residents and investors. Wick Village TMC, Hackney

37. Spatial Planning &Placeshaping Outcomes • Community membership and ownership • All incomes and tenures • Medium and high density • Value for money • Long term stewardship • Life in the space between the buildings • Social Capital for the care of the place and people • Resident satisfaction and wellbeing • Sustainable living and resilience through social organisation …social cohesion??? Definitely not normal…

38. Ye Olde Placeshapynge and Spatial Plannyng… “The exceptional urban and environmental qualities we esteem in many of our older cities were achieved with a very modest input of resources, and by a careful and evolving response to the needs of their inhabitants.” Ralph Erskine, Architect

39. Social Housing Provider of the Year 2004 Decidedly normal…

40. Public Interest DesignCode143 pages

41. “…uniformly depressing”Another developer “It’s like Beirut…” Germaine Greer in the Guardian, September 2009

42. A Prize-winning street?

43. Who will be responsible? What are these spaces for?

44. Maintenance? Workmanship? Design? Who will decide?

45. A. “The Resident Management Company” Coproduction needs new ideas about… • Skills and Competence • Control and Accountability • Scale • Self-help • Commercial • Social Enterprise • Mixed economy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjrIVjSK6oA

46. SPAN Housing – BlackheathThe Ralph Erskine Test of time, and skills and ideas we have lost The Hall and Hallgate, Blackheath 1957 The trouble with planners is… The Architect in Society, Keith Godwin

47. SPAN Housing at Corner Green… …50 years on

48. “Resident-controlled management companies may sound dully utilitarian, but have been crucial to their success.”Tony Aldous, former resident and architectural writer “My particular interest was the formation of the courtyard which I thought was a dead space. [It] is not a dead space. It is actually circulation” Eric Lyons

49. Failure of top-down planning and housing • Impoverished design and quality of place • Unrealistic expectations of house builders as placeshapers • Planning as remote…control‘Too big, too dense and too near me…not for us or with us’ • Affordability permanently lost • Central housing targets are not spatial planning • Democratic deficit The Legacy of the Normal…

50. Key planning and housing policies for the Localism Bill Community Rights to: • Build… rural first, and extend to urban • Buy… public first, maybe private assets • Plan… CRtBs X 2 & Neighbourhood Plans • Bid… for public sector functions