A new town

Congrats to @tpkennedy.bsky.social for runner up paper Brownfield First – How devolved brownfield funding can build a new generation of homes in the North.

The standard of entries was very high and make fascinating reading - both papers on Thinkhouse website.

www.thinkhouse.org.uk/about/early-...

www.thinkhouse.org.uk/site/assets/... - Michael's winning paper here.

www.thinkhouse.org.uk/site/assets/... - My paper here.

What exactly is the link with selective licensing? Is having a licensing scheme a prerequisite to taking this action, or is it just that this wouldn’t have been made aware to them without it?

Should more funding be made available for major regen. and refurb. programmes? Yes. Should the Government front up on building safety and fire safety costs? Yes. Neither is likely, so either the gap increases between costs and budgets - some orgs have already slashed investment programmes.

And on that… here’s another paper on how devolved brownfield funding and wider housing/regeneration policy could be improved to deliver more homes on previously developed land - www.flipsnack.com/northernhous...

One of things I think the revised NPPF gets right is that planning housing growth across a city region makes more sense than just putting a 35% uplift on the urban core. But to make that work properly, the funding, policy and appraisal systems all need to be working for all areas…

Tough to see how there are still tickets left unsold.