A new report by KPMG has identified an eight-point plan to help “overcome the barriers” to integrating sustainable transport with new housing.
According to the report, which was created for the Transport Knowledge Hub, the opportunity to maximise economic and social benefits in new housing is being missed due to a disconnect between sustainable transport and the location of new developments.
The eight-point plan could help communities across the country reap these benefits; findings show that longer-term devolved funding to local areas for transport and growth-focused investment is key to enabling local authorities to plan and invest on a more strategic basis.
Claire Haigh, Executive Director of the Transport Knowledge Hub, says: “There is widespread consensus that as a country we need to build significantly more homes if we are going to address the national housing crisis. Yet, in the rush to build new homes, we must make sure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past by failing to align housing with sustainable transport planning.
“This research perfectly captures the important role that sustainable transport can have in unlocking the economic and social benefits of new housing. We must ensure that local planning for housing and transport infrastructure is better integrated so that housing developments across the country are properly supported to delivering the economic and social benefits to local communities”.
Eight-point plan set out in the report’s “call to action”:
- Current capital and revenue funding for local transport and complementary policy areas consolidated into a longer-term, devolved budget to local authorities to enable them to plan and invest on a more strategic basis
- Local authorities capture a greater share of the increased land value resulting from changes in the use of land and public investment in high-quality sustainable transport in order to help raise levels of investment in sustainable transport
- Local authorities are provided with the resources to fund the capacity and capability that are necessary to plan strategically
- Forthcoming National Planning Policy Guidance to clarify expectations for sustainable transport with new development and provide local authorities with the necessary backing to put policy into practice
- Local areas develop spatial plans that integrate planning for transport, housing and employment land, and where appropriate over a single economic geography
- The potential benefits of integrated sustainable transport and housing development are considered at the earliest stages of the plan-making process and appraised holistically in terms of their economic, social and environmental impacts when determining value for money
- Sustainable transport provision is designed-in from the outset in order to support the introduction of public transport services
- Local authorities and transport providers work collaboratively to deliver innovative and cost-effective sustainable transport solutions for new housing.
