A new report from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has set out a number of recommendations for the next UK Government, including building on the green belt and to end local ‘NIMBY-fearing’ planning.
The RIBA writes:
A new report from The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has set out a number of recommendations for the next UK Government. RIBA’s report, Building Better Britain: A vision for the next Government, calls for commitments to:
- Schools – faced with the greatest shortage of school places in decades, too many of the UK’s schools are past their life cycle and riddled with asbestos. The current school building programme is just too cheap. We need to be spending 20% extra on the new schools we build
- Building on Green Belt – there is an urgent need to assess the real value of greenbelt to allow communities to unlock the housing and growth potential of wasted land.
- Health – the Government should commit to spending 10% of transport budgets on ‘active travel’ e.g. linear parks and protected routes for walking and cycling
- Planning – we need an end to the risk adverse, NIMBY-fearing tick-box planning system that is failing communities across the UK. Government needs to own up to a lack of strategy and create a national spatial strategy for the country.
