Promoting energy efficiency in the private rented sector

The English House Condition Survey for 1991 demonstrated that levels of energy efficiency in private rented property are significantly below other sectors, even though energy improvements have tangible benefits for landlords. The low level of energy efficiency provision in the private rented sector indicates that landlords are unaware or unconvinced of these benefits and market barriers may have restricted uptake. Information regarding energy efficiency advice to the private rented HMO sector has focussed on offering good practice design guidance, and information about the level of fitness and overall characteristics of the sector. This research project evaluated the PRESS scheme, which encouraged landlords to introduce energy efficiency measures. A total of 78 private sector rented properties in Sheffield were analysed with retrofit measures to improve levels of energy efficiency. The results demonstrate that whilst market barriers exist, the PRESS scheme went some way to overcoming some barriers to energy efficiency.<br /

Elected Mayors: Leading Locally?

The directly elected executive mayor was introduced to England a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from European and American experience, the elected mayor appealed to both New Labour and Conservative commentators in offering a solution to perceived problems of local leadership. There was a shared view that governance of local areas was failing and that elected mayors were the answer. The first local referendums were held in 2001. Most have continued to reject the idea of the elected mayor. During 2012, the coalition government initiated 10 further mayoral referendums in England's largest cities but only one, Bristol, opted for an elected mayor. Overall, there is no evidence of widespread public support, yet the prospect of more mayors - with enhanced powers - remains firmly on the policy agenda. Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors' analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England

Contamination of indoor air by toxic soil vapours: the effects of subfloor ventilation and other protective measures

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in the journal Building and Environment. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0360-1323(97)00053-XA steady-state analytical model is derived for estimating the concentration of vapour-phase contaminants in indoor air in houses with subfloor voids, given the contaminant concentration in bulk soil. The model includes the key mechanisms of transport and dispersion—contaminant partitioning into the soil-vapour phase, molecular diffusion, suction flow, stack effect, and ventilation, including contaminant transport by ventilation flow between subfloor void and living space. Using the model, different construction styles are examined from the point of view of their resistance to ingress of soil gases. Model results indicate that indoor air concentration depends strongly on wind velocity and on geometrical parameters of void and living space. Worked examples for houses of different construction styles illustrate the effects of wind velocity and house parameters on the concentration of benzene in soil that would give rise to its maximum permissible concentration in indoor air. Brief consideration is also given to concrete raft foundations and clean cover systems

New housing association development and its potential to reduce concentrations of deprivation: An English case study

Social housing across Western Europe has become significantly more residualised as governments concentrate on helping vulnerable households. Many countries are trying to reduce the concentrations of deprivation by building for a wider range of households and tenures. In England this policy has two main strands: (i) including other tenures when regenerating areas originally built as mono-tenure social housing estates and (ii) introducing social rented and low cost homeownership into new private market developments through planning obligations. By examining where new social housing and low cost home ownership homes have been built and who moves into them, this paper examines whether these policies achieve social mix and reduce spatial concentrations of deprivation. The evidence suggests that new housing association development has enabled some vulnerable households to live in areas which are not deprived, while some better off households have moved into more deprived areas. But these trends have not been sufficient to stem increases in deprivation in the most deprived areas

Appraising infrastructure for new towns in Ireland

Copyright © 2013 ICE Publishing Ltd. Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.Over a 20 year period 1996–2016, a new 223 ha town is being developed 10 miles west of Dublin's city centre on the south side of Lucan, County Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland (ROI). This €4 billion ‘Adamstown’ development is the first of four planning schemes in ROI to be approved as a strategic development zone – an integrated planning framework deemed suitable for creating sustainable neighbourhoods in sites of strategic economic or social importance to the state. The creation of sustainable neighbourhoods in ROI is facilitated through the implementation of a checklist of 60 indicators. This paper critically examines the attempts being made to consider sustainability within the development's overall infrastructure plan, specifically: transport, energy and water services, information technology and waste. Inadequacies in the existing development are linked to shortfalls in the sustainability checklist, by way of a comparison of infrastructure-related indicators from the ROI checklist with those derived for the UK and exemplar European projects (i.e. Bedzed, UK and Freiberg, Germany). The subsequent legacy for future residents of Adamstown is then considered in the context of ‘what if’ scenarios

Rethinking the changing structures of rural local government - state power, rural politics and local political strategies?

Copyright © 2010 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Rural Studies, 2010, Vol. 26, Issue 3, pp 272–283 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2009.12.005There is a notable absence in contemporary rural studies - of both a theoretical and empirical nature - concerning the changing nature of rural local government. Despite the scale and significance of successive rounds of local government reorganisation in the UK, very little has been written on this topic from a rural perspective. Instead research on local political change has tended to concentrate on local governance and local partnerships – on the extra-governmental aspects of the governance system – rather than on local government itself. In contrast, this paper draws upon strategic relational state theory to explore the changing structures and institutions of rural local government, and analyse how these can be related to the changing state strategies of those groups which are politically powerful in rural areas. In this respect, the paper draws on current and previous rounds of local government reorganisation to illustrate how new objects of governance, new state strategies and new hegemonic projects are emerging as a consequence of such restructuring processes

Fluid Spatial Imaginaries: Evolving Estuarial City-regional Spaces

This article looks at successive attempts to create new spatial imaginaries around three estuary-based city regions in England: the London–Thames Gateway, the Atlantic Gateway/Mersey Belt (Manchester and Liverpool), and Hull and the Humber ports. We develop a framework of analysis for new planning and regeneration spaces that takes forward debates on relational and territorial geographies, spatial imaginaries and the creation of new regional identities as governance objects. Specifically, we adopt a long-term and comparative perspective that allows an examination of how successive efforts at regional building are both path-dependent and context-specific, as new approaches reflect emerging ideas about how best to construct successful regions in a changing global economy.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.1221

The changing regulatory environment for speculative housebuilding and the construction of core competencies for brownfleld development

Speculative housebuilding in the United Kingdom faces an ever tighter regulatory environment owing to the increasing impact of the sustainable development agenda. For example, 60% of all new homes in England are now expected to be constructed on previously developed land or provided through the conversion of existing buildings. As speculative housebuilders are responsible for about 80% of all new dwellings built in the United Kingdom, the achievement of this important government target is critically dependent on the ability and willingness of the private sector to respond to public policy. By exploring the main components of the residential development process, the author investigates how far speculative housebuilding will need to change to ensure the successful implementation of the government's brownfield housing target. He suggests that those speculative housebuilders that are enthusiastically building up core competencies in brownfield housing are likely to emerge as the market leaders of the future whereas those companies that continue to rely on past practices and technologies will face an uncertain future as greenfield development opportunities begin to reduce

Death of the high street: identification, prevention, reinvention

Location is of paramount importance within the retail sector, yet defining locational obsolescence remains overlooked, despite significant concerns over the viability of parts of the complex sector. This paper reviews the existing literature and, through this, explores retail locational obsolescence, including the multi-spatial nature of the driving forces that range from the global economy, local markets and submarkets, to individual property-specific factors; and, crucially, the need to disentangle locational obsolescence from other important concepts such as depreciation and functional obsolescence that are often mistakenly used. Through this, a conceptual model, definition and diagnostic criteria are presented to guide future studies, policy development and the allocation of resources. Importantly, three stages are presented to enable the operationalization of the model, essential to future academic and industry studies as well as the ongoing development of policy in this economically important, complex and contentious area

Contesting longstanding conceptualisations of urban green space

Ever since the Victorian era saw the creation of “parks for the people,” health and wellbeing benefits have been considered a primary benefit of urban parks and green spaces. Today, public health remains a policy priority, with illnesses and conditions such as diabetes, obesity and depression a mounting concern, notably in increasingly urbanised environments. Urban green space often is portrayed as a nature-based solution for addressing such health concerns. In this chapter, Meredith Whitten investigates how the health and wellbeing benefits these spaces provide are limited by a narrow perspective of urban green space. Whitten explores how our understandings of urban green space remain rooted in Victorian ideals and calls into question how fit for purpose they are in twenty-first-century cities. Calling on empirical evidence collected in three boroughs in London with changing and increasing demographic populations, she challenges the long-held cultural underpinnings that lead to urban green space being portrayed “as a panacea to urban problems, yet treating it as a ‘cosmetic afterthought’” (Whitten, M, Reconceptualising green space: planning for urban green space in the contemporary city. Doctoral thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, U.K. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/. Accessed 12 Jun 2019, 2019b, p 18)