Incorporating local sustainability indicators into structures of local governance: a review of the literature

Too often studies about sustainability indicators focus either on the science that goes into indicator development seeking to make them rational and relevant or on the soft impacts such as social capital, community empowerment or capacity building that are outcomes of their use. When attention is turned to what effect they have on policy, it is often difficult to discern any link between their use and policy change. This paper seeks to address this problem by consolidating current thinking on indicators and asking the question: How far have notions of governance been incorporated into current research into indicators? The answer to this question has implications for the continuing utility of indicators as policy tools, not only in so far as they are able to aid the evaluation of policy, but also, and arguably more importantly, in how they are able to facilitate relationships between actors and act a catalyst around which various contested meanings of sustainability can be evaluated

Workshop: Accelerating new housing production in London – what works?

This reflective blog summarises the major topics covered at our 29 October ‘New Housing and the London Plan’ workshop

Build, build, build? the consequences of deregulating planning

As part of its plans to stimulate the economy, the Government has promised to build more homes, faster and greener. Nancy Holman argues that any planning deregulation they embark on will have severe consequences for protecting the poorest from substandard housing

Backlash in the London suburbs: the local/strategic tension in multi-level governance

In this article we explore the tensions in metropolitan level governance between strategic planning and desires for political decentralisation. We do this through a three-part analysis. First we focus on the 2008 election strategy of Boris Johnson to become Mayor of London, with its aim of gaining suburban votes and giving more autonomy to the local Borough level. We then look at the impacts of this campaign on electoral results and, finally, the outcome of the Outer London Commission, which was set up by the Mayor after the election to deal with strategic issues concerning London’s suburbs. We find that a strategic intent to benefit suburban residents and the decentralisation of power to the Boroughs, are contradictory and have led to a policy stalemate

The politics of conservation planning: a comparative study of urban heritage making in the Global North and the Global South

Urban heritage is the category of heritage that most directly concerns the environment of each and every person. Conservation or the integration of the built historic environment in city planning is typically viewed as a desirable undertaking, and policies to this effect are established as an integral element of planning in many countries. Our paper investigates the complexities at play between conservation planning structures, their applications and how these vary between contexts. It asks: how does conservation compare between planning systems of the North and South and what does this suggest about heritage value? Based on a survey of conservation planning systems in 5 countries, focusing on 5 city case-studies, this paper studies conservation’s position within planning in current urban policy in different contexts. Our paper analyses how different planning systems have adopted and integrated urban heritage definitions and accordingly, how zoning techniques, governance levels and planning constraints have resulted in quite varied conservation planning outcomes not only between the North and South but between European examples alone. In exploring contexts where the desirability of conserving and enhancing the historic environment is overlooked, overturned or simply ignored despite the existence of conservation policies, this paper also explores the limitations regulation has in pinning down heritage values

Distinctively different: a new approach to valuing architectural amenities

We propose a method to estimate the capitalized value of the architectural design quality of a neighbourhood. Our economic design premium is identified by spatially differentiating property prices and design quality within neighbourhoods and comparing the differences across neighbourhoods. We apply our method to 47 conservation area neighbourhoods in England in which we analyse around 7900 property transactions and interview more than 500 residents. We find a capitalization effect of about 25.4% (£38.7k) associated with a one-step increase on a five-step scale ranging from not at all-distinctive to very distinctive. Our results suggest that this effect is at least partially driven by an architectural externality

Why do they return? Beyond the economic drivers of graduate return migration

This paper explores the factors that shape the location choices of formerly mobile graduates (FMGs) initially resident in Sardinia, Italy, a less developed European region. Combining qualitative and quantitative techniques the paper examines the reasons why some individuals decide to return after their studies, and the factors that shape their decisions and how these choices unfolded in space and time. It counters the literature, which suggests that migration is a one-off linear process driven only by wealth maximising behaviour positing rather that ac-cess to opportunities in open meritocratic job markets and circular migration trajectories are far more salient to FMGs. This suggests that policy makers should concentrate on promoting labour market opportunities and investing in social network promotion that will aid brain circulation

From brain drain to brain circulation: how labour mobility can help less developed European regions

One of the potential problems created by the free movement of people is that skilled workers are drawn toward more developed areas, undermining the development of their own regions. As Riccardo Crescenzi, Nancy Holman and Enrico Orrù write, this process, commonly referred to as ‘brain drain’, can present a number of challenges for less developed European regions. However, drawing on research in Sardinia, they suggest that fostering an alternative process of ‘brain circulation’, in which the international networks and contacts of individuals living within an area can be utilised as a resource for development, can make mobility a positive driver of change