Landscape Institute policy priorities

Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Belinda Gordon, sets out an LI policy agenda focused on bridging the gap between builders and blockers.

The Landscape Institute and its members are in a unique position in relation to the government’s housing and infrastructure development agenda. We bridge the ‘builders v blockers’ narrative that has developed, unfairly pitching nature concerns as preventing development.

LI members are the ones who can cross this divide, ensuring we get the housing and infrastructure we need and crucially that this development is high quality, creating new landscapes and places that deliver for people and the environment for the long term.

The policy team at the LI, ably supported by members and staff with policy, technical and communications expertise, has been working to exploit this unique position and expertise. Here I set out some of the ways we’ve been doing this and our future approach to influencing policy.

Strategy

Given both planning and environmental policy are devolved, we have the challenge of influencing four administrations with limited staff resources. To do this as effectively as possible, we are moving our activities upstream, from responding to written consultations (by when many decisions have already been made) to engaging more directly with government sooner. With this in mind, the team have been building links with government officials, agencies and partners, as well as developing some focused policy influencing priorities to use as a way in and to build out our broader message about the importance of all landscapes and the vital role of landscape professionals.

Given the emphasis the government is placing on built development, our priorities for this year all relate to that agenda – in order to have impact, we can’t spread our resources too thinly.

To help deliver this approach, we have renewed the LI’s Standing Committees, establishing a new Policy & Public Affairs Committee, chaired by Ian Phillips CMLI, and a Knowledge & Practice Committee, which will ensure members guide these areas of work. We were delighted by the response to our call for members to get involved and by the quality of applicants. The new Committees are now established and providing strategic oversight of our work.

Action

To begin to deliver this approach, the team have been busy meeting organisations such as Natural England (on biodiversity net gain (BNG) as well as broader landscape issues), the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) (to discuss both design and broader planning policy), Defra (on sustainable drainage systems (SuDS)), Northern Irish government and partners on design, the Scottish Government Planning Division; connecting with partners such as the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) on planning, the Construction Industry Council on skills and immigration, Northern Ireland Environment Link, Historic Environment Scotland and the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) Scotland on skills and training needs, Learning through Landscapes, the Wales Landscape Group and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) on Environmental Outcome Reports; and working with the Better Planning Coalition on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

We have continued responding to critical consultations such as the Land Use Framework, Energy Planning Guidance Notes and the creation of a new national park in Scotland.

We have gathered data on the landscape workforce (an update to our 2022 Skills for Greener Places Report) to be published later in the year. And we have published an evidence-based briefing setting out why a landscape-led approach to built development is essential. Aimed at developers and policy makers, it was launched at UKREiiF in May, and will be the focus of our next Journal edition.

Impact

It is too early to be able to judge our impact – it is clear that in Scotland, where we have strong links with the government, we have influenced policies such as Scotland’s Flood Resilience Strategy. In England, we are getting on the government’s radar and have been invited to various fora – such as a newly formed MHCLG Design Sector Forum and various National Energy System Operator groups.

Based on our refreshed brand identity, Corporate Strategy and case for a landscape-led approach to development, our visibility and impact will grow and we will have more tangible policy ‘wins’ to outline in future.

Coming up

In the next few months we’ll be delivering plans for each of the policy-influencing priorities outlined above, with input from the new Committees, including pushing hard for a landscape-led approach as being essential to build quality developments and new towns. As part of this, we will also be raising the profile of landscape workforce issues and focusing on influencing the rapidly changing planning agenda in England – from Environmental Outcome Reports, to BNG exemptions, and another set of changes to the NPPF, to be consulted on shortly.

We are also delivering conferences around the UK, with a focus on housing and regeneration – the first being in Birmingham on 2 October, as well as webinars and masterclasses that support members on vital issues.

Get involved

We are dependent on member expertise to help guide and inform our policy work. We will be recruiting another set of members to our new Policy & Public Affairs Committee next year, but in the meantime we are looking for members for our Task & Finish groups on issues such as planning. If you’d like to help with this, please contact the policy team at policy@ landscapeinstitute.org.