21st Century Challenges: engaging with issues facing you today

Concreting the Countryside 13 May 2008, 19.00 Book online  +44 (0)20 7591 3100  events@rgs.org  Sir Peter Hall, Martin Crookston & Simon Jenkins Simon Jenkins, Guardian columnist and former Times editor, chairs Sir Peter Hall and Martin Crookston, discussing South-East England's housing expansion. Is a government target of 3 million new homes by 2020 realistic in the face of a rising tide of NIMBYism? Will these new housing requirements jeopardise our quality of life? Or can brownfield sites accommodate all the South East’s housing needs? Issues being discussed will include brownfield versus greenfield sites, eco-towns, social cohesion, adapting existing housing stock and planning policies versus architecture. Improving the quality and provision of housing has become a pressing political issue in the UK. It is an issue affecting families across the region: an increasing number of households and continued growth in the South East has created spiralling house prices. The government has set a target of building 3 million new homes by 2020, the majority of which will be in or around existing cities and towns. For this target to be met, new homes must increase from 180,000 a year to 240,000 by 2010/11. Public debate is currently focused on where these new developments will be, the advantages of building on brownfield sites and the potential of regenerating existing homes.  Book online  +44 (0)20 7591 3100  events@rgs.org Sir Peter Hall is the Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett, University College London and President of the Town and Country Planning Association. He is an internationally renowned authority on the economic, demographic, cultural and management issues that face cities around the globe. Sir Peter has also been for many years a key planning and regeneration adviser to successive governments. Martin Crookston is an urban economist at London School of Economics and town planner at Glasgow University, and a director of Urban Studio, a team of urban planners, designers and researchers. He was a member of the UK Government’s Urban Task Force led by Lord Rogers of Riverside. He collaborated with Professor Sir Peter Hall on the major Four World Cities study of London, Paris, New York & Tokyo. Simon Jenkins is a journalist and author. He writes for the Guardian and the Sunday Times, as well as broadcasting for the BBC. He has edited the Times and the London Evening Standard.

Quick Facts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . · 5 new eco towns to be built by 2016 [DCLG, 3 April 2008] · 10 new eco towns to be built by 2020 [DCLG, 3 April 2008] · 20 Urban Regeneration Companies across England [English Partnerships] · 21 square miles countryside lost to development each year, housing accounts for around half of this [CPRE analysis of DCLG LUCS data, 2006] · 40 miles length of the Thames Gateway which will include 160,000 new homes · 240,000 carbon neutral homes in eco towns [BBC, 3 April 2008] · 240,000 empty homes in London, the South East, and East of England [CPRE analysis of DCLG housing statistics] · 255,000 English families who own a second home in England [DCLG, July 2006] · 3 million New homes the Gov't is committed to build by 2020 [DCLG, 3 April 2008]