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Restore Social and
natural infrastructure
natural infrastructure
10% of worst-off areas in the UK are least likely to secure government funds to renew social infrastructure . Simultaneously, the UK has lost over 50% of its biodiversity in the last 50 years , ranking at the bottom of the G7 .
Urban planning plays a crucial role in solving our public health, well-being, and ecological crises, whilst simultaneously unlocking sustainable lifestyles and social justice. The UN recognises the role that sustainable development plays in ending poverty and deprivations, improving health and education, reducing inequality, delivering growth, whilst positively tackling climate change.
How to ensure social justice is achieved with new development and green transition
1. Develop a nationwide green jobs strategy to ensure just and even distribution across UK
Green jobs strategy to utilise the construction sector’s national reach in job creation. This must include a clear definition of what the Government means by ‘green jobs’ i.e. those which contribute to national climate objectives (to transition away from fossil fuels) and the preservation or restoration of the natural environment.
Reallocate jobs to accelerate a green transition (e.g. those linked to fossil fuels or carbon intensive construction reallocated to renewable and low carbon sector).
Follow principles of New Urban Agenda by committing to development that is people-centred, protects the planet, and is age- and gender-responsive, so that no-one is left behind, facilitating a ‘just transition’ away from a fossil-fuel driven economy. Adopt a citizen-led approach and use participatory engagement within land use planning and development.
Use procurement and funding mechanisms to instil principles of social inclusion with sanctions to prevent developments that do not comply.
How to reverse biodiversity loss and restore our natural assets
2. Concentrate development on brownfield land or existing urban settlements
Advocate a ‘Compact Regenerative Growth Principle’. Grow communities and their ecologies within their existing urban setting. Prioritise existing communities and augment ecosystems with considered growth and resources, to deliver biodiversity, vitality, and socio-economic opportunities.
3. Implement a national plan to restore and protect natural systems and build climate resilience
Identify, protect, restore and expand natural assets or regions which provide vital societal benefits such as sequestering carbon, improving air quality, promoting biodiversity, providing water management and flood prevention or moderating urban heat islands.
Identify regions or ‘policy areas’ at risk to climate threats (e.g. areas at severe risk to flooding, food and water shortages). Evaluate relative priorities at a national scale and develop regional climate adaptation frameworks to prevent or mitigate risk.
Identify regions or ‘policy areas’ of critical natural importance. Assess the role and function of natural assets spanning multiple districts (e.g. rivers or wild-life corridors). Create ‘rewilding opportunity areas’, considering the green-belt and the full extent of habitats and migrations routes.
Enable a more responsive planning system using live data sets which accurately and efficiently direct policy and measure its impacts. Decouple the evidence base stage from the Local Plan Review process and enable it to be a more dynamic monitoring tool.
Rebalance how nature is designated in the planning system in relation to construction.
4. Introduce and extend legislation to protect biodiversity
Strengthen Biodiversity Net Gain legislation to deliver a net gain of 30% from 2026.
Implement a Law of Ecocide . An amendment to the Rome Statute, adding ecocide as a new crime, given that the environment continues to be threatened by severe destruction and deterioration, gravely endangering natural and human systems.
Introduce a Toxin Tax on substances that are deleterious to planetary and personal health.
How to enable sustainable and healthy lifestyles in urban planning
5. Rethink urban planning to make sustainable and healthy lifestyles the norm for all projects
Understand diversity of needs by creating a national evidence-based framework to implement active travel programmes in towns and cities.
Adopt a citizen-led approach to creation of neighbourhood plans and focus on interventions to unlock sustainable lifestyles. Neighbourhood plans should:
Seek to prevent urban sprawl and car dependency by optimising urban form, density, and low-carbon transport connections.
Seek to identify the barriers to walking and cycling, the local needs for amenities or services and the active travel networks between these.
Seek to identify climate threats (e.g. heatwaves and flooding) and provide opportunities to support climate resilience.
Be informed by current data (e.g. LGA Climate Change Programme and local cycling, walking and infrastructure studies), and promote the adoption of successful urban models to embed healthy lifestyles co-ordinated ‘National Park City .’
To do this, local authorities need to:
Work with local communities to assess climate risk impact, seeking input from climate experts, ecologists, planning departments, and built environment professionals, in addition to capturing lived experience through citizen assemblies.
Equip Neighbourhood Planning Groups with greater funding and better access to council resources to undertake an informed analysis and co-develop strategies, alongside climate literacy training.
Rethink the Green Belt and its strategic potential to address climate emergency by considering the socio-economic potential of land-use beyond only addressing the housing crisis, and unlocking broader sustainable development:
Develop a coordinated approach to waste recycling, food cultivation, water purification, energy production, community building and nature restoration. This should complement the needs of adjacent urban development and natural ecosystems.
Establish a unified spatial framework and regulatory alliance for the Green Belt.
Create a nationally replicable model and establish a working group representing different cities, and pilot projects across Green Belt areas.
How to enhance health and wellbeing
6. Legislate and measure wellbeing
Mandate the ‘Wellbeing Guidance for Appraisal’ , using the proxy of Wellbeing-Adjusted Life Years (WALY) approach for all public projects, as set out by the Social Impacts Task Force supplementary guidance to the Green Book, so that all significant construction projects are obliged to measure, monitor and disclose their social impact.
Introduce a ‘National Well-being Measure’ , based on the London Well-being and Sustainability Measure, to supplement financial metrics such as GDP and as a tool to understanding how well our social and physical infrastructure is meeting societal needs.