Events

EVENT:

RIBA London has launched an Autumn Policy Debate Series to review and re-consider three key areas of interest.

The events are free and open to members and the general public. Through expert contributions and commentary the events are intended to provoke and reveal policy priorities as the institute looks ahead to 2011 and gets to grips with the emerging priorities of the coalition government and their likely impact on architects and the wider built environment.

Tuesday 16 November- 09:00 Gallery 1, RIBA

The housing sector has been suffering for some time from a chronic lack of capital and development has been near stagnant since the collapse of the boom. Supported by cheap mortgages, government directives and an insatiable public desire by own, new properties and their sale became the business of our towns and cities. The transfer of land from public to private was promoted and developers asked to meet any number of economic and socially motivated targets.

The debate asks:

• With development plans mothballed, targets on the verge of being scrapped altogether and a continued lack of affordable housing emerging from the current model, do we need to re-evaluate how we deliver homes altogether?
• With a localist agenda promoted by government and the ‘right to build’ can we look again at community-led and co-operative development as a viable alternative?
• Can councils emerge once more as builders responsive to local need or do we need to challenge our national attitudes to land tenure and its associated value?

To book a place email Jessame.cronin@inst.riba.org