One Powerhouse Towards A Spatial Blueprint South West
FRONT COVEROne PowerhouseTowards a spatial blueprintSouth West2020
INSIDE FRONT COVERImportant Note from AuthorsYou will have noticed that this report is dated 2020.The delay in publishing has been brought about by the Coronavirus lockdowns.Any issues that might necessitate allusion to Coronavirus do not, we feel, have a profound impact on the factorsthat underpin the approach, findings, plans or recommendations contained in our reports.Indeed, our view is that the likely negative effects of the lockdowns and social distancing, combined with thecross-party aspirations for levelling up, make our draft Spatial Plans even more relevant as a very practical andtransparent road map to delivering an equitable, sustainable future for the Regions of England - in the shortestpossible time.One Powerhouse Consortium Board and RSAJanuary 2021About the OnePowerhouse ConsortiumAbout the RSAThe One PowerhouseConsortium, supported byThe Sir Hugh and Lady SykesCharitable Trust, believes that asubstantial part of the problemof regional inequality can besolved not just by money, butby the transformative potentialof spatial planning. Workingwith recognised leaders inThe RSA (Royal Societyfor the encouragementof Arts Manufactures andCommerce) believes in aworld where everyone is ableto participate in creating abetter future. Through ourideas, research and a 30,000strong Fellowship we are aglobal community of proactiveproblem solvers. We unitepeople and ideas to resolve thechallenges of our time.creating draft spatial plansfor the ‘mega regions’ ofEngland to sit alongside theexisting spatial plans for Wales,Scotland and Northern Ireland.Barton Willmore is the UK’s largest independent, integrated planningadvice. We are passionate about creating places that are not onlycommercially viable, but also sustainable, dynamic and progressive.By curating teams of Planners, Infrastructure and Environmentalspecialists, and Designers with a diverse range of skills and expertise,Barton Willmore would like to thank everyone who contributed to theresearch behind the project, including the South West Councils, LEPs,and Chambers of Commerce, local businesses, and Highways England. The contents of this document must not be copied or reproducedin whole or in part without the written consent of The Barton WillmorePartnership. All plans are reproduced from the Ordnance Survey Mapwith the permission of the Controller of HMSO. Crown CopyrightReserved. License No. 100019279.Desk Top Publishing and Graphic Design by Barton WillmoreGraphic Communication
Thinking Big - Our Top 12 Interventions 4A Vision for Britain. Planned. 6The Importance of Spatial Planning 8Assumptions About the Future 9Barton Willmore South West 2070 – Why Now?Current and Future Challenges 1012Why Now? 12Cross-boundary Infrastructure 13Priorities Summary 13The South West Demographic Trends The South West Economy Political Structures Challenges 14Our Great Opportunities 42Connectivity 43Our Economy 46People and Place 48Environment 50Priorities 52Our Connectivity 54Our Economy 55Our People and Places 56Our Environment 57Strategic Investment Programme 58Existing Investment in the South West 6314Institutional Framework 68Sources 74242630Challenge 1 - Connectivityand Congestion in the Region 30Challenge 2 – The Significant Needfor New Homes and Affordable Homes 34Challenge 3 – The Skills Gap in theRegion & Retention of Skills/Attracting Talent 36Challenge 4 – Climate Changeand Achieving Zero Carbon 38Challenge 5 – Social Inequalityand Isolated Communities 403
Thinking BigOur Top 12 InterventionsOur ConnectivityOur Economy1. Prepare a digital infrastructure upgradeplan for the whole South-West regionto enable the region to competeinternationally.4. Prioritise infrastructure-led housingand employment development intowns with hidden strategic potential,for example Weston Super Mare,Cheltenham-Gloucester, Plymouth,Tiverton and Taunton.2. Host an annual digital infrastructuresummit, focused on transformativesocial and economic change forvulnerable localities and high growthsectors.3. Plan for strategic infrastructureconnections beyond the region, toNewport, Oxford, Southampton andBirmingham.45. Establish a diverse ‘places of learningnetwork’ involving colleges anduniversities in towns and cities of allsizes throughout the South-West.6. Create a public value business planto underpin inward and governmentinvestment in infrastructure andskills, channelled across urban andrural localities in the South West.
Our People & PlacesOur Environment7. Promote the public value businessplans under ‘One Voice for the SouthWest’.10. Establish a collaborative networkthat supports intelligent longterm investment in natural capital,to achieve local and sub-regionalbiodiversity and environmental netgain including regional forests, e.g.Forest of Avon;8. Create cross-boundary, ‘zonal’evidence bases for, in broad terms,the Peninsula, West of England,Gloucestershire/ Cotswolds andWiltshire/Dorset sub-regions.9. Align zonal evidence bases withplanning frameworks that matchquality of place and design to thequality of the South West’s landscape,cultural and heritage assets.11. Develop a South-West CoastalStrategy, that strategically blendsnatural, heritage, recreational,maritime, sustainable energy andtourist assets to enable diversecoastal communities to maximisetheir assets and opportunities.12. Develop a complementary carbonstrategy to become a net-exporterof zero-carbon energy, combiningenergy assets and opportunitiesincluding coastal, nuclear and onshore developments.5
A Vision for Britain. Planned.The One PowerhouseConsortium, supportedby The Sir Hugh and LadyRuby Sykes CharitableTrust, believes that asubstantial part of theproblem of regionalinequality in the UKcan be solved not justby money, but by thetransformative potentialof spatial planning.Spatial planning is the ‘where’of decisions. It looks at a definedgeographical area and makes anassessment of everything containedin that area – towns, cities, housing,schools, universities, roads, rails,airports, offices, factories, hospitals,energy sources, museums, parks andleisure activities - and makes a plan todevelop those assets for the benefit ofthe people who live in that region, nowand for the future.It is well understood that countries andregions around the world have usedspatial planning to focus political will,economic activity and social reform togreat effect. Notable examples includeGermany’s Rhine-Ruhr, Holland’sRandstad and New York City’s RegionalPlan Association.6Regional inequality in the UKToday, just under half of the UKpopulation live in regions with acomparable productivity to the poorerparts of former East Germany – andcomparable living standards areworse. According to the recent UK2070Commission, the UK today is moreintraregionally unequal than Germanywas in 1995. Since reunification,Germany has since pulled itselftogether, through decisive investmentprogrammes underpinned by visionaryspatial planning. During a similarperiod the UK, on the other hand, hasfragmented.The nature and extent of the so-called‘North-South’ divide can be presentedin many forms. Maps showingeconomic productivity, educationalattainment and poor health all presentsharp disparities between regions andnations. Current forecasts suggest thesituation will only get worse and thatin fact the economy of London andthe South East is ‘decoupling’ fromthe rest of the UK (McCann 2016). Therepercussions are stark and grow moreevident all the time.While bemoaning the growth ofregional inequality in the country,successive governments haveextolled the virtues of spatially blindinvestment in the best performingsectors and projects. The adherenceto current appraisal mechanisms,codified in the Treasury’s Green Book,has been to channel investment to themost prosperous places, reinforcinggeographical divides.Spatially-sensitive policy is notsimply a matter of social justiceand political prudence. Regionalprosperity drives national prosperityand so regional imbalance constrainsoverall performance. Accommodatingagglomeration in some places whileservicing mounting welfare bills inothers damages the UK’s fiscal balanceand exacerbates the underlyingproblem.
The value of place & scaleOur PlanDraft blueprintsThere is evidence that spatial planninghas already begun to deliver results inthe UK. We are not alone in recognisingthat the two ‘regional economies’ thathave the highest levels of productivityare those where there are coherentregional economic plans: London andScotland.The clear ‘gap’ in terms of economicplanning in the UK, therefore, is atthe level of the English regions. Anyspatial strategy needs to bring togetherthe best local industrial strategiesand plans within a wider regionalstrategy framework. The foundationsof how this can be achieved are alreadypresent. The regions of England arealready coming together: The NorthernPowerhouse, The Midlands Engine, TheGreat South West and The Wider SouthEast all exist as functional identities.The vision of the One PowerhouseConsortium has been to prepare a seriesof draft spatial blueprints that willdemonstrate the potential of regionalplanning in action and show how itcould lead to better decision-makingand prioritisation of investmentacross the country. Our definition ofa blueprint is that of ‘an early plan ordesign that explains how somethingmight be achieved’ (Cambridgedictionary). While based on thoroughanalysis and evaluation, our draftblueprints are by no means the finishedproduct but they point to what couldbe achieved with better resourcing, coordination and support.Indeed, in England, there is goodwork taking place through some LocalEnterprise Partnerships (LEPs) andCombined Authorities and Mayoraltiesbut not all. In strategic planning andinvestment terms, these tend to berather small and the outcome is ratherpatchwork.Our ambition is, in short, to work withthese regional networks to prepare aseries of draft spatial blueprints thatwill better enable decision-making andprioritisation of investment across thecountry and thus help the UK as a wholedevelop over the long term – creatingopportunity for all, jobs for all andprosperity for all.The technical work has been led byplanning consultancies linked to theregions: Atkins in the North, BartonWillmore in the Midlands and the SouthWest and Aecom in the South East.The One Powerhouse Consortium hasalso worked hand-in-hand with theUK2070 Commission and drawn uponthe support of the well-respected thinktank the RSA.This blueprint, along with those beingdeveloped in other English regions,identifies a series of challenges andopportunities facing the region butit also sets the context for a nationalconversation about the transformativebenefits of regional spatial planning.7
The Importance of Spatial PlanningDefining spatial planningThe One Powerhouse Consortiumbelieves adopting and implementinga broad notion of spatial planning iscritical to the future of the UK economy.For some, the discipline of planninginvolves a limited set of narrowstatutory functions regulating the useand development of land. Increasingly,however, planning is conceived moreholistically, as a creative process ofenvisioning and delivering places andregions fit for the future. This broaderconception often goes by the name of‘spatial planning’.At its most basic, spatial planning is the‘where’ of decisions. A spatial plan is thevisual illustration of the potential futureof an area. It maps out all the assetswithin a given area – the towns, cities,houses, schools, universities, roads, rails,airports, offices, factories, hospitals,energy sources, leisure activities – and,using the available evidence, suggestshow best to arrange and develop them toachieve stated goals. Spatial planning isthe practice of producing these maps andthe associated coordination of differentactivities and decisions that influencespatial organisation. In its 2004 plan,the Welsh Government defined spatialplanning simply as the “considerationof what can and should happen where”(WAG 2004).Spatial planning tends to be multiagency, long-term and strategic. Itencompasses wide-ranging economic,political and environmental functionsand incorporates projections for thefuture, aiming to proactively shapechange and improve investor confidence.In many parts of the world the disciplineof planning spans the spatial elements ofmultiple different policy streams.8The UK government itself haspreviously defined spatial planningas something that “goes beyondtraditional land use planning to bringtogether and integrate policies forthe development and use of landwith other policies and programmes”– such as sustainability, transport,economy and culture – “whichinfluence the nature of places and howthey function” (Taylor 2010).Spatial planning in the UKIn the UK, spatial planning hasbeen best embraced in the devolvednations. It has helped the newlydevolved nations to express theircohesiveness and their distinctivenessand to coordinate their different policyprogrammes in service of commonaims.Alongside this, in the early 2000s theNew Labour government oversaw thecreation of 9 regional developmentagencies in England tasked withdeveloping Regional Spatial Strategies(RSS). These helped to bridge thegap between local planning policyand national objectives, in manycases allowing for more effectivedevelopment and infrastructuredecisions. But after 2008, whenthere were signs of some of theseimprovements coming to fruition,planning was widely blamed forharming the post-crash recovery andsome strategies were mired in debatesabout housing numbers. In 2010, thenew coalition government abolishedthe regional strategies as part of itsmove towards localism in planning.There has since been little or no spatialplanning at the regional scale, leavinga patchwork and uncoordinated systemof local planning at various scales.At the time, the all-party CommonsCommunities and Local Governme
One Powerhouse Towards a spatial blueprint South West FRONT COVER 20 20. INSIDE FRONT COVER Barton Willmore is the UK’s largest independent, integrated planning advice. We are passionate about creating places that are not only commercially viable, but also sustainable, dynamic and progressive. By curating teams of Planners, Infrastructure and Environmental specialists, and Designers with a .
The Powerhouse Alliance The Powerhouse Alliance includes the companies: Snøhetta Architects, Skanska, Hydro, Entra Eiendom and the NGO Zero. The Powerhouse concept was first launched in 2011. The proposal for the first Powerhouse project, a new office building in Trondheim, was presented in 2012. The Powerhouse Kjørbo is the first renovation
The People’s Powerhouse puts people at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse agenda. What started on social media discussing gender imbalance at one event, soon became a focal point for many about the need to shift the focus of Northern Powerhouse discussions on physical infrastructure and economic growth. The People’s Powerhouse tapped into
Northern Powerhouse Network Connectivity 34 7.1.6. Integration of NPR with HS2 35 7.1.7. A Vision for Northern Powerhouse Railfreight 36 7.1.8. Minimised Dependency on HS2 38 7.1.9. A Complete Vision for Northern Powerhouse Rail 39 7.1.10. Technical Excellence for the Northern Powerhouse 39
4 The Northern Economic Powerhouse BE Lobby Report 5 The Northern Economic Powerhouse sets out the proposition for transport and provides a platform for consideration by the LEPs and both private and public sector organisations across the North. The powerhouse plans are to work with these organisations to develop a prioritised set
The powerhouse made power until October 10, 1938 when all power production was shifted to a powerhouse at Kent Avenue. Between 1938 and 1972 it was used to generate DC for trolleys in the area and to power sections of the Fourth Avenue BMT subway. In the mid-1970s operations at the powerhouse ceased and all of the equipment was removed.l
One Powerhouse Towards a spatial blueprint South East 20 20. AECOM are a global network of experts working with clients, communities and colleagues to develop and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most complex challenges. As an integrated multi-disciplinary consultancy, AECOM Town Planning works alongside technical experts in economics, transport, utility infrastructure .
The term spatial intelligence covers five fundamental skills: Spatial visualization, mental rotation, spatial perception, spatial relationship, and spatial orientation [14]. Spatial visualization [15] denotes the ability to perceive and mentally recreate two- and three-dimensional objects or models. Several authors [16,17] use the term spatial vis-
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