A deep dive into the role of the Urban Greening Factor Standard, one of five green infrastructure standards in the Green Infrastructure Framework: Principles and Standards for England produced by Natural England. Includes case studies of good practice and practical application.
Audience: Local government professionals and their delivery partners involved in housing and regeneration strategy, planning and delivery.
Okay let’s start the session it’s going to be an amazing session we’ve got some brilliant speakers here this morning um it’s a topic that you know I thought to know about working in the industry for a long time but actually you know after speaking to our wonderful
Presenters I didn’t and so put all of your questions and all of your comments into the chat um it’s going to be an amazing and um it’s going to be a rasing session so today’s session is exploring the role of urban Greening and house and development next slide
Please um for those of you who don’t know we are the local government capacity Center um we are a team within homes England what we try and do is like we understand that there is challenges in different local authorities and what we want to do is just make sure that we
Offer you the topics that you need to know more more about and we can help you in planning for the homes that people need in the place where they want to live and we can drive fre generation and create all that Qui Quality Homes and the places that people want to live next
Slide please if you’ve not signed up to any any further ones from this winter learning session we are one of the first that are brilliant ones to follow look at the regen ones you know there are some of that are sold out it’s an amazing and amazing place to know more about the
Kind of um we’re all in this together you know we all want to make homes where people want to live in a safe and um important place for them we have have so much here so look at this slide we will send out the slides so we’ve got the Hub we’ve
Got the fact sheets and we’ve got the tool as well all of these things beside today we’ve got you on offer next slide please I won’t take up too much of your time because we have got an amazing session for you so I’m going to hand
Over in a second to one of my colleagues who will be talking about the um Urban Greening this will be our session our Q&A at the end is for everything that doesn’t get covered so what I’ll do is I will hand over Jane Jane can you introduce yourself and introduce the
Session on Urban Greening Greening thank thanks very much Claire and hello everyone I’m really pleased to join you to introduce Urban Greening and show how it can deliver many benefits in housing developments and existing housing areas for people for nature for adapting places to climate change and supporting
Regeneration and I’m going to finish by introducing the GI framework and the urban Greening Factor standard then hand over to Peter Neil who talk through the urban Greening Factor standard and Lindsay will give a case study for Southampton City Council next slide please so we can think of urban Greening as
Nature doing a job and nature is a really great multitasker so in urban areas well planned and good quality Green Space can meet many of the city’s needs and urban Greening can help to reduce Urban heating it can reduce the risk of storm water flooding which we’re so aware of
At the moment and it can improve air quality as well as boost Urban biodiversity and evidence shows that recreational space and contact with nature both offer real benefits for mental and physical health so this logic change shows that healthier more resilient nature means healthier more resilient places that can adapt to
Mitigate climate change which means healthier more resilient people leading to a healthier more resilient economy next slide please the drivers for urban Greening include the climate emergency biodiversity emergency and of course ID 19 highlighted the ongoing importance of green space and green roots for health and well-being and urban Greening can help
To deliver all the legislation and policy mechanisms shown here so the national planning policy framework the mppf and related guidance mentions urb Greening in terms of creating and maintaining sustainable communities and it can help to deliver the environment act targets and biodiversity net gain and urban Greening can help to deliver
The envir environmental Improvement plan which you know key headline of that is that everyone in England lives within 15 minutes walk of a green green space or water and it can encourage walking and cycling and defra will be Consulting on bringing in a requirement for sustainable drainage and developments
Through the floods and mor at schedule 3 uh and much of that uses uh Urban Greening so also Urban Greening can contribute to cop 15 biodiversity targets so they a really strong policy and legislative drivers for urban Greening next slide please so what are the building blocks
Of urban Greening some are familiar and traditional uh Street trees and green spaces but also more Innovative features such as rain Gardens and swes which are part of sustainable Drainage Systems the national planning policy framework doesn’t use the term Urban Greening it uses green infrastructure and it defines
It shown here on the the sliders a network of multifunctional green and blue spaces and other natural features urban and rural which are capable of delivering a wide range of benefits but we can see Urban Greening as a plain English term for green infrastructure in
Urban areas so what um what I say in this presentation equally applies to Green infrastructure next slide please Urban Greening features can be integrated across the whole urban area from high density Urban centers including High Street and out into the suburbs and as population increases there will be even more pressure on land
For good quality homes schools places of work and cities will need to become Greener whilst also becoming denser and urban Greening can really help to meet this challenge new developments can include you know more green roofs walls and other Urban Greening such as pocket Parks but existing buildings um streets
And the public realm will also need to become Greener too so Greening will need to be retrofitted where possible and pocket parks are likely to fit best but there are many opportunities for more generous larger green spaces as well next slide please in the suburbs housing density is
Relatively lower residents tend to rely more on the car for transport but roads often have great capacity to accommodate more Greening more tree planting sustainable drainage features like rain Gardens and traffic free routs for walking and cycling and if you reduce the frequency of mowing verges you can promote wild
Flowers and really important point is urban Greening schemes are most successful when communities have been consulted um their views taken on board and involved in planting and after care and gardening and tree planting and its after care can be a great way to get your to know your neighbors you can
Involve people of all ages and you can really increase that sense of belonging and Community cohesion next slide please oh sorry just to say before um in the outer suburbs where there’s more green and blue space we really need to look at making that more accessible restoring and enhancing wildlife habitats and
Connecting green spaces together thanks next slide please so focusing in on Urban trees they’re really important for the microclimate in towns and cities and shades and evaporated evaporative cooling from the leaves will help to save lives in Heat Wave and trees add to local character they can help to improve
Air quality they soak up rain water to reduce flooding they support Wildlife increase contact with nature and they’re good at dampening sound and another Advantage trees can be planted where there’s very little space for other kinds of urban Greening so we should look for opportunities to plant trees in existing urban areas where
Needed and the national planning policy framework recognizes the importance of urban trees so it says that new streets should be treelined uh trees should be planted elsewhere within developments where possible existing trees should be retained wherever possible and so on but achieving long-term benefits from trees requires a strategy and from the outset
Of Planning Development um and really needs to be developed through collaborative working across uh different disciplines so that all the different benefits can be uh responded to and delivered next slide please so planting and maintaining trees in urban Landscapes can be challenging as we know and that’s due to the competition for
Space beneath the streets with an ever expanding network of pipes and cables and tree roots need good below ground conditions the different underground tree planting structures and products that are available can be used to provide the right growing conditions that trees need and the long-term maintenance of newly planted trees is
Really critical watering and after care are essential for trees to Survive and Thrive and local volunteers can help water trees regularly they’re then invaluable especially during hot and dry weather next slide please elephant Park is a good case study um uh for urban trees it’s a regeneration project for
3,000 homes and offices uh in elephant in Casta in southeast London 35% of the master plan area of the nearly total of 10 hectares is urban Greening and in total they’ll plant over a thousand trees in the development itself and also in the surrounding area across elephant and castle and they’re retaining over
120 mature trees where trees have to be removed they’ll plant replacement trees but to reach this level of Greening they’ve had to turn the traditional methods of Master planning on their head and instead of saying where can we fit green infrastructure in they’ve asked where is it necessary to have hard
Infrastructure and in this way the developers have been able to use urban Greening to achieve their vision for the public realm to create an Urban Oasis that connects people to place in nature in zone one of London next slide please so moving on to sustainable drainage sustainable drainage systems or
Suds are based on the ability of soil and vegetation to act as a sponge and soak up rain rain water as it falls and then release it slowly to throw flow through features such as vegetative channels into ponds and water courses and suds are an alternative or an addition to Conventional draining where
Pipes move rain water rapidly to drains and water courses the big benefit of ss is that by slowing down the flow of rain water into water courses it reduces the risk of flash flooding and this can be a particular issue in urban areas partly due to the the predominance of sealed
Surfaces and it means that daving parts of the urban core and replacing with Urban Greening can really help to reduce flooding the s’s philosophy considers that the quantity and quality of water the immunity and biodiversity value um are all important and it looks at how water management can be improved across
A wider area but when SS features are designed for biodiversity as well as water management they can contribute to bi diversity net gain and the nppf has policies to incorporate SS in development and for more information on SS you might like to join tomorrow’s um homes Inland winter
Learning session at 11 which will focus on SS next slide please so rain Gardens uh are relatively small Suds features and they’re planted areas designed to receive rain water flowing from paved surfaces or from drain pipes and like other such features they can also help to cool urban areas during hot summers through
Evaporation this example here in 2017 Peabody redesigned and refurbished the public Realm of the South M art of TS me in southeast London that was built in the 1960s and prior to Redevelopment the communal Courtyards were raised Lawns around established tree planting with a concrete slab foot path around the
Perimeter the courtyards were magnets for antisocial behavior and under used by residents but this redesign has created rain Garden in each of the four cour chards with colorful perennial planting displays that are rich in biodiversity and permeable Paving around the edge drains into the gardens and a pleasant walkway has been created from
The south Mir State uh down to South Meir Lake next slide please so um Mayfield Park um is part part of a a regeneration scheme for 1500 homes in Manchester and SS is a key benefit it’s the first new parking Central manager Manchester for 100 years
And created on a former Railway yard an industrial site the river Medlock flows through the site and this was converted and cved in the Victorian period it was covered by a large Bridge with industrial space built above but now the old buildings have been demolished and the river’s been opened up or daylight
And this provides water featuring and improves its biodiversity uh in some places along the brick walls they’ve been removed along the river and that creates space to accommodate flood water if needed and that will reduce the risk of flooding in uh areas down stream buil up areas and
Just to briefly mention that including natural play opportunities in parks and schools enables children to learn and uh Thrive through the help of the natural world next slide please so moving on to Green roofs um it’s important that uh good quality green rofs uh go into our built
Environment like this excellent one in Cambridge and green Roes are becoming popular as a way to absorb ring water as part of ss but they also provide biodiversity benefits they help to insulate buildings and reduce energy costs and of course roof Gardens can be created for people’s access and outdoor
Enjoyment the Stockport example on the top right shows food growing which is quite an unusual example of a a green roof but extensive green roofs um such as the Wild camic on the left are lightweight they’re low maintenance they use shallow soils or substrates and they can support toiler plants and flowers
Insect and bird life but they’re not designed for Public Access but the more intensive green roofs for Access are heavier they’re deeper they’re higher maintenance uh but they can be designed for ACC and or high visibility and in London it’s often a requirement of the planning Authority now for any new
Building to have a green roof um and it’s important that it has sufficient depth of soil or substrate to provide the benefits that we’re offer and also good maintenance The Green Roof organization provides codes of practice which are really helpful next slide please and then moving on to green Walls and sorry
Um by solar roofs um a biosolar roof is a green roof that’s combined with photo voltaic arrays and Recent research has shown that combining green roofs with photo Vol takes uh can result in Greater efficiency for the PVS and this is because the green roof keeps the PVS
Relatively cool but there are also blue roofs which are designed to absorb and store rain water to release it slowly and you can combine green and blue roofs and this is a fast developing area next slide please green Walls and facades are another fast developing area so green
Facades are the traditional green Walls where climbing plants are rooted in the ground or into planter boxes they can take some time to mature to grow up irrigation may not be necessary where plants are rooted in the ground and by comparison living walls are proprietary systems often installed and maintained
As a package and small containers support plants they’re usually irrigated by pumps activated by timers but living walls can work well where High visual impact is needed or cooling is a particular objective maintaining these intensive GM walls can be expensive because of the maintenance required each year and specialist Access Equipment
Another but another particular benefit of green Walls overall is that they’re good at dampening sound next slide please so in the street scene the different Urban Greening features can all be incorporated into the street design and they can help to deliver the healthy streets approach which is a human
Centered framework for embedding Public Health in transport public realm and planning and urban Greening features in streets can include build outs from the pavement so for example rain Gardens that make it easier for pedestrians to Cross Lanes of traff traffic shade trees keep people cool and relaxed green Walls
Uh can help dampen Sound small but frequent green spaces and pocket Parks can be included and there’s an example in central London where just three to four parking spaces were closed and turned into a popup park with seating and that had a really positive effect on social connections and
Retail um but Greening High streets can also have significant benefits for local retail and regeneration especially when combined with pedestrianization and research has shown that people spend longer in Greener retail environments and therefore spend more supporting local economies next slide please Urban Hedges also provide many
Benefits and they can act as a barrier to street level air pollution uh this is because the leaves can trap particulates and many places are planting hedges around school grounds to provide fresh air zones and they can be planted between traffic and walking and cycling routes to act as a pollution barrier
There and the Clean Air effect extends behind the Hedge for about twice its height and hedges can also be useful in giving privacy in private Gardens but we can do so much more uh in urban areas with Hedges they can be designed in to replace some ws and fences and if we use
A diverse mix of British native species and allow them to grow bigger and a little unkempt there are more Wildlife benefits and hedges can increase connectivity of habitats and help species move in urban areas next slide please so food growing um the increasing popularity of the grow your own culture
Has meant that waiting lists for allotment plots have soared leaving local authorities struggling to meet demand but the planning system can facilitate the release and use of land for community allotments and the health benefits of allotments aren’t linked just to diet but also to the mental benefits of community cohesion so giving
The wider community the chance to engage in smaller scale food growing is is useful and that can you know um provision can be made for a small publicly accessible growing space linked to an allotment setting but also Community Orchards can be established in urban areas next slide please and finally grasslands very
Briefly uh different types of grassland are used for different purposes and two examples are given here so grassland for Recreation and amenity it withstands trampling managed to short Moon turfs such as playing fields and it includes a low number of grass species species Rich grassland including wildf flower mixes
Is higher biodiversity more uh provides more contact with nature less expensive maintenance but you know urban areas need a balance between the two types both to meet local needs for recreation and enhance biodiversity next slide please so moving on to a few sides just to introduce the green infrastructure framework and the
Urban Greening Factor standard that will P Peter will talk more about and as I mentioned at the beginning GI and Durban Greening are synonymous in urban areas so the green infrastructure framework that was launched in 2023 and it sets out what good Urban Greening or GI looks like for local planning authorities developers
And communities and it provides tools to help plan and design green infrastructure networks that deliver multiple benefits so the five main products in the uh framework are uh green infrastructure principles the why the what and the how of good GI the green infrastructure standards so five national standards for GI quantity and
Quality green infrastructure mapping over 100 map data sets and analyses across England to support the uh standards and green infrastructure planning and design guide so how to design good quality GI and also process Journeys so how to apply the pr framework products for different stakeholders so for planners developers
And neighborhood planners and these all on our website at the QR code and Link next slide please um just wanted to briefly mention the GI principles because they’re the golden thread setting out the why the what and the how of good gii um in the center are the five key benefits for
Nature uh so uh health and well-being benefit benefit of nature thriving communities climate resilience and improved water management and those benefits are the five why principles and then there are five what principles in the orange circles and they describe what good GI looks like its attributes and five how or process
Principles in green how to do good GI and further information again on our website next slide please so the five headline standards in the framework are voluntary and they support the mppf and they complement mandatory mechanisms such as biodiversity net gain and local nature recovery strategies which form part of
The environment Act and the GI standards are also referred to in the National model design code so the framework includes uh a green infrastructure strategy standard and standards for accessible Green Space Urban nature recovery Urban Greening the urban Greening Factor standard and the Urban Tree canopy cover standard and
Urban graening can contribute to achieving not just the urban Greening Factor standard but all the others as well next slide please so finally um the urban Greening Factor standard aims to increase the level of Greening in developments and in urban environments more widely to improve their resilience sustainability and biodiversity and this
Standard says there should be at least 40% average green cover in urban residential neighborhoods no net loss of green cover in urban neighborhoods generally and for major developments we’ve developed a new National Urban Greening factor and this is a new type of planning tool and I’m now going to
Pass over to Peter Neil um Peter Neil is a landscape architect and environmental planner uh he’s worked closely with natural England on preparing the green infrastructure framework and standards with a particular focus on repairing the model Urban green infector standard many thanks and over to you Peter that’s
Great Jane thanks very much and so we now have the opportunity of looking at one of those standards in particular number four on Jane’s list which is the urban Greening factor and as we just start working through the slid so we’ll pop to the next slide really um pleased to be able to
Talk in a little bit more detail this morning about the purpose of an urban Greening fact and how it could be applied through planning and um provides a mechanism to start delivering all of those great facets or those green infrastructure components that Jane has just run through how can you go about
Ensuring that you can deliver uh that type of urban Greening and we’re particularly interested in the urban Greening factors benefit for Housing Development and that will be different types of housing development in tight urban areas as well as more rural settings or Green Field settings and what I want to cover in this
Presentation if we just pop to the next slide is to give you an overview its evolution of How It’s come about where where did the urban Greening factors start in the first place um and where is it starting to be used in the UK uh and particularly how it’s become established
As one of the key standards in natural England’s uh framework of infrastructure standards and then I’m going to dig into a little bit more detail about how it’s structured the components of that how you calculate an urban Greening factor of development and then also how you can
Tie that into planning policy so those are the six things I want to talk about uh and so we’ll move to the next slide and here we kind of understand in two simple images what we don’t want and what we do want and I think it’s very easy to
Aspire to the types of development such as Derwin Thorp which are nature rich but um very well structured synthesis of Housing and Development and Landscape in comparison say to the example on the left where green infrastructure provision perhaps comes late in the development process and fails to deliver
The types of uh communities and environments that we all seek to create and to live in and as we move just to the next couple of slides Urban Greening factors provide an opportunity to ensure um the delivery of good green infrastructure across different types of developments but particularly here
Illustrating the more low density types of developments in rural areas or um uh rural Brownfield or more tight urban areas such as kid Brook Park and you’ll see in the presentation here I try and reference all of the the examples so if you’re interested in finding out more about these locations they’re they’re
All named H and obviously you’ll have access to the material after this webinar and so as we move to the next slide um I really want to talk just very briefly about the origins of the urban Greening Factor they evolved in the late 199s uh in Berlin initially where they
Were looking to try and find ways to integrate better green infrastructure provision in tight urban districts and they had uh landscape planning Frameworks and a landscape planning program because the city of Berlin is tightly constrained and historically was constrained by the wall um but those districts meant that they were developed
Very much uh for delivering on Housing and Development uh with limited provision of of of green space and so what was known as a biotope area factor and and it has a much more complicated German name to it uh was introduced as a means to start requiring through the development process better green
Infrastructure provision and then I’ll just move uh across to the next example in the next slide this was then taken on board by Malmo in Sweden and uh at the part of the western Harbor which is on the periphery of the town the Regeneration of the docks they held the housing Expo
In 2001 and through the development of that process they were really interested to find ways they could demonstrate the provision of a a much stronger landscape framework both in residential communities but also public realm and public spaces around that so an integral almost landscape Le regeneration framework as part of the
Housing Expo and Malmo provides us with that second point of reference but as you go further a field and we’ll move to the next slide through the research that we’ve undertaken and the examples that are available um uh more broadly you can see that Urban Greening factors or Green Space
Factors uh um have been established in a broad range of different Urban centers including the likes of Paris Helsinki Toronto and most recently uh Melbourne and if you to timeline those out which we have done on the next slide you can start seeing that evolution uh from from Berlin working
Through to the beginning of the 21st century with Malmo and picking up across many European cities North American cities uh and then starting to be introduced also in austral Asia it was not until um the mid 2015s uh that the factors started to be um introduced into the UK with growing
Interest through uh research programs from uh the European Community funded uh and I’ll talk a brief uh bit about that in a minute but as you can see that without going through all of the names in in detail Southampton and satton and Islington were the forerunners before um
Policies for urban grining were picked up um by the city of London and started to be taken uh elsewhere uh in in other cities as a means to establish in planning policy um a framework tool to promote and improve Urban Greening and so as we move to the next slide examples
That we will hear particularly from Southampton in a minute from from Lindsay who’s going to be speaking to us after my slot um of looking at how in the city center with an area action plan that you could enhance The Greening of areas where that heat map or that green
Infrastructure map you can see in the diagram on on the slide the areas of red where there’s poor green infrastructure ision how can you get better Urban Greening and as we’ve seen uh with the great London Authority they have introduced an urban Greening Factor within the London plan uh and provided
Guidance for that and we’ll give an example from London shortly but also the likes of Swansea where they introduced an urban Greening Factor as part of their green infrastructure strategy so let’s just move on to the next slide if you are interested in digging deeper into the evolution
Objectives of urban Greening factors I give you two really great references and these come out of the grabs and perfect programs um uh which were research Le uh programs of sharing experience on Urban Greening both in the UK and Europe um and those reports were LED and the
Research was led by the tcpa and these references provide you with two great papers research papers explaining in more detail about the evolution and the early uh introduction of urban Greening factors um so what I’m going to do now is dig a little deeper into how they’re
Structured and to how do you what what are the constituent parts of an urban Greening factor and then how do you start calculating that so we’re going to get into the sort of technical side now now we’ve looked at its Evolution so the next slide gives you a summary of the three
Key components of an urban Greening Factor firstly we have Target scores and Jane um uh intimated this in her opening slides where you’re seeking to achieve a certain level of Greening depending on the the land use type and so for the model Urban Greening factor for England uh that Natural England launched this
Time last year they’ve set targets of 0.3 for commercial development 0.4 for residential development and where residential development is within a green field site a nor .5 Target now this isn’t quite um uh clearcut as I’m going to explain but it’s almost like a percentage a 30% green infrastructure
For commercial a 40% for residential a 50% uh within the land take for uh Green Field development but the the Nuance of that uh is a little bit more sophisticated we’re going to explain that shortly so you’ve got targets of the proportion of green infrastructure for a development that could be
Established through planning policy and then you’ve got surface cover types and so the different types of green infrastructure and they are weighted and by that we mean they have a certain weight that reflects their environmental uh and social benefits so the higher the waiting the greater range of benefits those surface cover types
Offer and I’ll show you how that’s structured in just a moment in the next slide but the way to surface cover types cover vegetation tree planting green roofs and walls Suds water features and paved surfaces all of these Jane has kindly uh given us an overview just a moment
Ago um but some of these are better for delivering ecosystem services and better for climate resilience better for promoting uh biodiversity and better for amenity uh and social Recreation than others so we want to wait towards those types of green infrastructure that deliver more multifunctional benefits so that’s
The purpose of the waiting and then you have to decide where you’re going to apply an urban Greening Factory you applying it across an entire local Authority District are you applying it to all developments the recommendation through the model Urban Greening factor is that that should be for major
Developments and in planning policy as described on the slide that is uh a development of 10 or more dwellings or half a hectare in size and so let’s just have a look at those surface cover types in a bit more detail so the next slide gives the first half of 22 surface cover
Types that are included in the urban Greening Factor so from 1 to 10 here um you have factors for um the retention of green infrastructure under development site hanging on to the best bits of natural Capital that you have and then also the introduction of tree planting hedr planting which Jane emphasized the
The ecolog iCal value and biodiversity value particularly on that as well as food growing flower Rich Meadows all of these as you work down have a decreasing waiting because the ones at the tops having a factor of 1.0 or 0.9 offer greater biodiversity uh sorry greater ecosystem service benefit
Including biodiversity benefit and those weightings actually behind this simple Factor has uh reflected an extensive amount of research that Natural England has undertaken on the ecosystem service benefits from nature and so the uh waiting has been carefully worked through during its development and when and we’ll explain
How you you calculate it but you take the the the waiting for a surface cover type you multiply it uh by the area that is covered for that surface cover type so for example a flow perennial Meadow has a weighting of 0.7 and you multiply that by the area in the development
Scheme of that surface cover type and you add that to the other surface factors divide it by the surface uh by the site area and it gives you an overall Urban Greening factor and I’ll show you how that’s done in a minute the second of these two
Slides gives you that second half of the list of surface cover types that are included in the model um Urban green factor which includes different types of green roofs and they are weighted in relation to their benefits particular ecosystem service benefits so the Intensive green roofs um have a higher
Waiting to uh the very simplistic Sedum um uh substrate Le green roofs and as that works down Suds and water features a simple list of four elements there from Wetlands to open swes into water features and then paved surfaces and new work your way all the way down those
Sealed paved surfaces have no waiting because they deliver um no uh environmental benefit in terms of um uh managing natural systems or facilitating natural systems and services and so as we then move to our next Slide the urban Greening factor and the guidance that we provide unpacks all of
These surface cover types in more detail now it would be possible to create a very long list but we’ve tried to keep that list to 22 common surface cover types that one would expect to include in urban regeneration Urban Development particularly residential development and on this table on the left you have each
Of those surface cover types in this case one to six with a very simple summary uh description um that tells you a bit about that but then when you go dig further into uh the user guidance we unpack each of those surface cover types and provide extensive amount of guidance
And how you go about measuring those and so for example the um semi-natural vegetation and wetlands that you obain on site it sets out the guidance with reference to British standards and other planning policy and this gives you a very helpful techy background to delivering those particular surface
Cover types and how they are managed and in addition as we pop to the next slide we provide links to all of the guidance that is referenced in uh the descriptions of those surface cover types so links to all the British standards but also links to good practice guidance um that uh is
Referenced as a means to um establish the scope and the specification of each of those surface cover types and I’ll give you a flavor of a couple on the next Slide the suds manual um gives you a detailed breakdown uh of different sustainable uh Urban drainage systems
And uh the green uh roof code also unpacks the difference on those different types of uh green roofs in a lot of detail so you have the surface cover type you have a summary description a detailed description and a signpost to all of the good practice guidance um which we feel provides you
With a really useful background uh for for uh establishing those surface cover types and then we say how do you measure and calculate an urban Greening factor and I’m going to give you a model example so here we have a theoretical development site and for maths it’s easy
Because the site is 100 square meters with 100 squares there but if you imagine a building and you’ve got a landscape scheme coming into it obviously you’d look at National guidance you would look at the national design code National design guide and you would start introducing a landscape
Scheme and so an example of that is in the next slide and this shows you the types of uh green infrastructure that you may want to include some Wetlands food growing areas formal Lawns trees HED RS Etc and as we’ve explained each of those surface cover types have a different weighting
And you multiply the area to give a cumulative total divided by the overall area site to provide an urban Greening factor and if you look at the the maths on this one you can see there is an urban Greening Factor score of this scheme of
0.31 and if you had a policy to set a target of 0.4 for urban Greening you’d be falling short so how would you go about through negotiation improving the performance and the uh Urban green infrastructure provision on this so let’s have a look at the next slide that
Could be achieved by the introduction of green roofs perhaps an extensive biodiversity green green roof or an intensive green roof and Jane had explained uh the difference and Illustrated some of those in her slot just before mine and if you add those to the mix your Urban Greening Factor enhances to a
Uh overall grening Factor score of 0.46 the mats is quite straightforward and uh the advantage in the with the um guidance is that we also provide a useful uh spreadsheet which if we look at the next slide is an a simple Excel formed spreadsheet so that uh uh design teams
Looking to establish an urban Greening factor and calculate that can plug in their figures on the different surface cover types they are using on their development and then it autoc calculates as Excel does to give you a an overall figure and so uh that is available also
On the Natural England website for you to have a an experiment will play around with and how’s that used in practice well let’s have a look at the next slide here is a planning application from meron where they have a landscape scheme Illustrated on the left they
Actually give you a pi diagram of the different types of surface cover types or green infrastructure provision in the middle and you can see the different weightings of that and then they calculate their Urban Greening uh Factor score from that uh process which in this case is a .54
Um factor which exceeds a 0.4 for urban residential development and so hitting that Target is important and establishing that Target is is a key part of your planning strategy and if we look at the next slide this just gives you an illustration of how the London plan has
Done that in their policy on Urban Greening and so youve got the London plan and the supporting guidance um on Urban Greening Factor both available obviously uh on the web through the GLA but as we look at that policy in particular and policy 5 a g5b it says the mayor recommends a
Target score of 0.4 for development at pred predominant residential and a Target score of 0.3 for predominantly commercial those are the same targets as we are we have set out uh for natural England’s um model Urban Greening Factor uh for England and the advantage of that
Is that it provides a comparable tool um uh with uh the use in in London and so as we move to an example uh in London that I really want to just sort of close with kid Brook Village was the Regeneration of the F state in uh grenage a
1960s uh modernist Housing Development that has been completely transformed particularly with a really strong um provision of green infrastructure and the delivery of network of new parks as part of a housing development of of more than uh 1,00 new homes and through the development process the negotiations with planning used an urban Greening
Factor to calculate and assess that level of green infrastructure provision uh within the scheme and as we look at the next slide that was very much part of the policy of the uh lead developer the Berkeley group in this case that has a very strong set of objectives of
Delivering good natural or nature-based um uh landscape components within the development and as we move to the next slide during the planning uh and design uh process the master plan then undertook an analysis of that level of grin infrastructure provision and a measurement to see how the um uh policy
Target from the London plan was was met and so in this scheme specifically the design and access statement on the left with the master plan included an analysis and calculation of the urban Greening Factor score and so the surface cover types are colorcoded for ease of
Reference and if we pop into the next slide we see that table with those elements and the calculation through uh and then the uh summary assessment that demonstrat ated that the urban Greening Factor score for this part of uh kid Brook Village uh regeneration met uh or
Achieved a Target score of 0.46 a compliant Urban Greening scheme but as you can imagine the ability of the urban Greening Factor provides you with a basis to not only negotiate with developers the proportion of urban Greening but to measure that negotiation so during preapp and design development
You can see what green infrastructure provision is provided you can put a Target to a figure to that and then through design development look to increase that Target and through the waiting that we provided on those surface cover types we believe we understand and it’s demonstrated that the schemes are delivering a greater
Range of environmental social and biodiversity benefits um through enhanced Urban Greening and as we just move to the last couple of slides I have before I have on to L Lindsay um this is really just a reminder of how you can integrate Urban Greening factors into planning policy
And so it is a matter of setting Target scores the model has those figures uh that we’ve described um during Jane’s and my presentation but there may be a choice to vary those depending on the setting and the location and then you want to look at where you’re going to
Apply that are you going to apply Urban Greening Factor across an entire local Authority District as is done through London plan and then adopted by London bars or are you going to Target it as uh we will see in Southampton for the urban center the city center or are you going
To use an urban grening factor in a particular development zone or site perhaps a garden village or garden community and they can an urban Greening factors as policy can then be included in local plans supplementary planning guidance or even in a green infrastructure strategy as we saw with the example of
Swansea a while back and so just to finish there is this um interest uh and and an understanding as we move to the next slide of just the relationship between urban Greening which by name is focused particularly on uh the provision of green infrastructure in urban areas and that relationship with biodiversity
Net gain and obviously as we know uh biodiversity net gain is now mandatory the requirement to achieve at least 10% net gain in biodiversity as measured by the biodiversity metric uh is becoming uh imminently live as a um established uh requirement and we um have developed the urban grining Factor as a complementary
Tool particularly in urban areas where often the Baseline of biodiversity is low and so that 10% net gain may be quite modest an urban Greening Factor allows you to enhance Greening and through the weighting of those different surface cover types deliver a broader range of benefits uh for
Biodiversity and so whil there is a requirement to undertake a um biodiversity net gain calculation for uh major developments an urban Greening Factor provides you with a policy in urban areas to ensure not only you delivering broad Urban Greening benefits but also Associated biodiversity benefits to achieve and and and we
Anticipate exceed the the 10% net gain and uh that process can be strengthened by additional design guidance as you see here with the London Wildlife trust guidance that was produced with the GLA um for uh establishing um biodiversity net gain as part of an urban Greening uh mechanism so the relationships are
Complimentary and particularly in urban area Urban Greening factors deliver a broad range of uh Greening benefits but particularly benefits for biodiversity because of the waiting and so I’m going to finish at this point uh my closing slide includes a QR code so if you’re Speedy with your uh camera you could
Pick that up and um it gives you an immediate link across uh to uh natural England’s user guidance for urban Greening factors and the broader um green infrastructure framework of standards and that link is also going to be available uh in the chat um and I thank you very much for your attention
I’m really pleased to be able to pass on now to Lindsay mulluk who is a natural environment manager at South Hampton City Council She’s Been instrumental in establishing what has been the first urban Greening factor or in their case a green space factor for the city of
Southampton so um Lindsay over to you thank you thank you thank you Peter and good morning everyone next slide please um very briefly this is the S of the contents of of my talk this morning and on the right hand side is a picture of the centinary key development um it’s
A major development on the Eastern Bank of the itchin it’s actually Outside The City Central and wasn’t subject to the Green Space Factor um however it is my Benchmark for green infrastructure that you can deliver within a city uh an urban setting um it has multiple green
Roofs on it and biodiverse planting at uh the lower levels so next slide please so basically why did Southampton city council go to the effort of developing a green space Factor tool well fundamentally it was a frustration at the lack of objectivity when requesting habitat mitigation and green infrastructure enhancement measures um
In particular being able to answer the questions how much do we need to provide and why do we need to provide that much which um the developers were asking regularly there was also a desire to better understand the distribution of ecosystem service benefits across Southampton which we instinctively knew
Was not even but we couldn’t demonstrate objectively um we also had the confidence that we knew what could be achieved in terms of new green infrastructure if you had a willing developer supported by good ecological consultancy so in the K centinary key it was Chris Nicholson as the developer and biodiversity by Design
As the ecological consultancy so just on this slide um I won’t go into great detail well won go into detail because Peter has already explained mechanics of the tool but just to say that southampton’s tool uses infiltration as axy for a range of ecosystem services on the right and the
Scoring system is the same with zero for the most impermeable surfaces and one for fully permeable so next slide please so where did Southampton come across a green space Factor tool well that arose um as a consequence of our membership of the grabs project um back which started
Back in 2008 um the project was led by the Town and Country Planning Association and was created in order to develop tools and policy approaches to delivering climate change adaptation in urban areas so a key piece of the work again previously mentioned by Peter was um malmo’s Green Space Factor tool and the
City of Malmo were one of the projects within uh one of the members of the project and were able to explain it to us in detail um as mentioned by Peter it was it took a lot of elements of the Berlin’s uh biotap area um methodology there was another partner in
The grabs project the Mery Forest um up in the northwest of England who were also very interested and and did some work on the the tool themselves so next project next slide please so as I mentioned our initial interest in in the grain space Factor
Tool was was as a means of helping us understand the spatial distribution of green infrastructure across the city um and we basically developed a GIS version and as you can see from this Ward map um you can very crudely get an idea of of which are the greenest Wards and which
Are the least green W across the city but we were unaware we were aware that actually the distribution was more uneven than that so next slide please as you can see from the lower super output area um there are some significant areas with h green infrastructure and and areas which are very well
Provided along the southern edge of the city you can see the docks and the dense housing areas the flats in the city center in the middle of the that red area you can see our formal Parkland so that’s the Brown the sort of the orange areas so although they’re Parks they um
The permeability in those Parks is not brilliant and then towards the North and in the center of the city you have the uh the common Southampton Common which is 125 hectares of semi-natural green space and then that leads up to our Outdoor Sports Center golf course and
Woodlands in the Southeast corner of the city you can see where we have a wooded stream Corridor um where it’s the pale greens that that’s it’s one of our Greenways so very quickly we can explain to people um where the benefits which communities are receiving the benefits
Of on which benefit uh communities are going to miss out and that was very good uh means of explaining to our counselors uh and other sort of a non- technical audience so next slide please so over a two year two to threee period um we were fortunate to secure
The services of a number of students from the University of Southampton um they have an environmental science Master undergraduate Masters course um with some very talented young people on them as I mentioned we developed a GIS tool and that used um an area basis and that used mastermap layers and we also
Used um site based approach and for that we had an Excel spreadsheet so to develop the the gis tool we combined Master map layers with our own Grounds Maintenance uh layers and that gave us some really detailed um plotting of um green infrastructure across the city and then essentially the student involved added
A column of scores for the different surface types to the attributes table of the uh Master map layers uh for that we were able to calculate sort of scores for large areas so we produced a score for our city center and that was came out at 0.1 n
And then we did a comparison with our more Suburban areas and that had a score of um 3 the previous slide um also showed a number of um sort of one hectare squares and we basically generated 300 random plots and calculated scores for those 300 plots
Just to get an idea of the um the range of scores across the city which we used in order to decide what would be an appropriate Target score within our Green Space Factor tool we then decided to play around with the Excel sheet and added green roofs to
All the buildings in the city center that had flat roofs and we were able to see that um by doing that we could um multiply the the the green infrastructure the the Green Space Factor score by about five times so we saw that there was actually there was
Benefits from having a tool because there was definitely scope to increase the green infrastructure in the city um and fundamentally the testing sort of indicated that yes we did have a significant deficiency of green infrastructure in the city center um and that achieving an imp an improvement wouldn’t be disproportionately um
Challenging we also had a couple of other students who looked at the use of um whether infiltration was a good proxy for other ecosystem services and also use of the leaf area index um for calculating the benefits uh provided by trees and the results of their studies
Were that actually in both cases yes those were good parameters so next slide please so as I mentioned the mercy Forest um Team were involved in the grabs project and they also did a lot of work on green infrastructure and basically um they developed a good Excel
Sheet uh they they set out they they tested all the the scoring for uh the different surface types and produced an Excel sheet which we um basically adopted so next slide please so having got our tool we then realized that we would need to incorporate um the tool into the local
Plan Vira policy so we then um developed a policy for our city center action plan um unfortunately at that point we were a little bit chicken and we only set a score of about of 0.1 because because it was a novel tool at that point we didn’t actually want to scare
Anybody off so that City Center action plan was adopted in March 2015 and the policy concerned is ap12 green infrastructure and open space so it basically sets out that that um we would expect an increase in the quantity and improve the quality of of open space in the city center by requiring all
Developments to use the green space Factor Tool uh and to demonstrate that increase in that score so next slide please before we um went out to consultation on our city center action plan we thought actually we ought to do a little bit of training because this was a novel concept um we
Developed a workshop and we invited some local Architects and some SEC planners um we Pro provided them with an explanation of the tool um we then got out the Lego and we had set up a little scenario where the teams had to create a development that increased provided an increased score in
Their uh their Green Space Factor score and they had to uh create a development as well and we left them up to ear devices as to what arrangement they came out with initially um all the participants were just obsessed with detail they hadn’t really grasped the fact that we
Were looking at the site as a whole first um which I think is still a problem after we stopped and reminded them to look at the whole site people quickly gathered the uh the concept behind the tool um and came up with some really good Solutions um and we managed to get
I think some scores of about 04 which was quite an achievement because we were looking at a very we’d set a quite a challenging specification um they also threw up identified some shortcomings for the tool which we were able to identify as well um one of those being around permeable uh Paving which
I’ll mention later so next slide please so this is our tool as it currently exists um we have a spreadsheet on our website which can be downloaded um and we can provide the link to that next slide please we also have a guidance document um we basically replicate the the Lego
Workshop but without the fun of the Lego um and just very simply explain to people what uh what the a of the tool is and how to go about filling it in but with with a a diagram which I think uh is a lot easier to understand than than
Text so we have a step-by-step guide to completing the spreadsheet we also suggest some different scenarios um or try to suggest that people try different scenarios to optimize the score and then we provide a detailed description of each of the different surface types so people can understand what uh what we’re actually looking
For so next slide please so the Tool’s been in used for eight years now and we haven’t had any major objections to it however we have um learned a few lessons so firstly um where there’s some flexibility developers will stick to the minimums score needed so you do need to
Be ambitious with your score the picture on the right hand side is a picture of the Southampton Park Hotel development um and the Green Space Factor score for that went from 01 to 23 which is good however as you can see from the photograph there is still a
Large extent of green roof uh roof available which could have been a green roof but wasn’t um so the next point was good supporting policies are required um you can have your green space factor in policy however if you haven’t got supporting policies requiring particular features to be provided such as green
Roofs then you can’t insist on them and developers will probably um wriggle out of that as I mentioned previously some surface types such as peral behaving are not particularly great particularly in terms of the range of ecosystem Services they provide however they are simple options and have proved popular with
Developers we’ve also found whether there’s a specific requirement to deliver flood reduction um it will be necessary to provide to to rely on specific provision agreed with the flood risk management team because again um some of the features the permeable Paving and the blue roofs sometimes come in as a minimum
So the Green Space Factor School score another Fe point we found is the Green Space Factor score isn’t automatically good for biodiversity a lot of the new Landscaping that we’ve had in the city center has been ornamental species with no recognized value for wildlife we do provide some flexibility and we asked
Developers to demonstrate that the ornamental species they’ve used have got um accreditation from SC schemes such as the rhs’s plants for pollinators but a lot of landscaping still doesn’t have that we’re also finding that there isn’t a lot of communication in between Landscape Architects and the ecologists
Use on schemes so a lot of the time the landscape schemes will come in without the native planting or the other mitigations that the ecologists would have suggested and then finally the city we’re currently working on our new local plan and we were thinking about dropping the green
Space Factor policy because of the commencement of biodiversity net gain however we’ve had some discussions with other people who have been looking at the Green Space Factor tool and they’ve pointed out um some gaps between the biodiversity net gain and the green infrastructure and we’ve come to the
Conclusion that actually the two are sufficiently different to Merit separate approaches in particular you can get a lot of benefits from Fairly basic green infrastructure which would not necessarily meet the biodiversity net gain standards so we are looking to have a green space Factor policy and then next slide
Please so these were just a few comments that came out of our um Workshop um so they were really good points um and in response to the comment that you need to have some expertise I would definitely agree with that um the tool is a starting point and it has to be
Combined with your planning policies and a participatory design process and some ecological input to come up with a good quality scheme um and essentially yes it’s absolutely essential to have dialogue between all the different stakeholders um because if you stick rigidly to a tool it uh it can be very prescriptive
And thank that’s where I’ll finish now thank you thank you everyone what a great presentation from you all we really appreciate your time we’ve had so many questions in the chat um what I’m going to do is I’m going to go through the ones that we hope think have been
Like the most um and any other ones that what we what we can do is we can go backwards and uh try and reply to you so what I’m going to do is um Peter if I can come to you if you come back on screen hello yeah I’m here so yeah put
Put you on the spot um so you covered at the end of your presentation there’s been a lot of questions about the interaction between the urban Greening factor and biodiversity net gain is there any more than you can say on this on the balance between the
Two uh well B net gain is mandatory and so there is a a formal requirement um to uh under take uh measurement of biodiversity net gain and for developments major developments to deliver a 10% net gain um and the biodiversity metric um is there to calculate that so that’s a a specific
Focus on biodiversity um Urban Greening factor is complementary now the tools don’t fit together perhaps in the future there may be um further research to interray biodiversity metric and urban Greening Factor Urban Greening Factor’s uh structure is designed as a simple approach to trying to promote better Urban Greening um
Through development process and particularly in urban areas and so it delivers a broader range of benefits um which include biodiversity um in comparison to uh the biodiversity metric which focuses particularly on the delivery of biodiversity units the two tools are beneficial because an urban Greening Factor um is a means to achieve better
Greening in in particularly urban areas where the Baseline is low and you set a factor which might be a 0.3 sort of 30% or 0.4 for for residential development and allows you to achieve probably a greater net Improvement than if you were just relying on your 10% net gain and if
You’ve got a very mod modest biodiversity Baseline a 10% of a modest Baseline is a modest Improvement and so I think it’s a urban Greening factors provide a tool to supplement net gain but to strengthen Greening and strengthen biodiversity benefit because of the surface cover types are weighted for biodiversity and
Ecological benefit in particular Urban Development and Jane may also want to to come in on that uh the detail is a more techy discussion on waiting and ecosystem services but in summary they’re complimentary tools that can work well together particularly uh in in urban environments yeah no thanks Peter I
Think you’ve covered it really well thank you great good it’s okay Jane stay on camera because I’ve got a question I’ve got a question for you um just just thinking in terms of the longer term so we can put all of these things in place through planning but how do we effect ensure
That there are effective long-term management and arrangements and also the funding to keep these Urban green spaces yeah yeah I mean it is a really important question and um it’s essential to have that long-term sustainable funding and also those management and maintenance arrangements and to help with that I think the mandatory
Biodiversity net gain that comes in on the 12th of February um that will re require uh management and maintenance and monit and monitoring of b& and of course that will include a lot of GRE infrastructure so those features have to be uh managed and monitored for
30 years which I think will make a big difference um and in the Urban Fringe in terms of funding uh defra has introduced the uh local local nature recovery Partnerships projects and strategies and there’s funding uh Within in those areas long term for 20 years so that’s a funding
Scheme that areas can bid into um but there’s also a lot of interest in looking at how big Finance institutions can contribute to Green infrastructure funding and long-term maintenance and we know that those uh you know insurance and pension and so on institutions are looking for a really big pipeline of multi-million pound
Packages of green infrastructure and and you know it sounds like a really exciting opportunity and the question is you know how how could we make that happen um you know what are the opportunities for stakeholders to get together and put together these large packages so that’s something that we’re
Really interested in exploring with stakeholders um but hopefully there’ll be other opportunities through um sustainable drainage you know as defa reviews uh schedule three of the floods and Water Act that may off also offer some opportunities there thanks very much thanks J that’s great Lindsay one for you um as an affordable housing
Agency you know we need to hold the mirror to ourselves and say how do we kind of produce the affordable housing that we want to do and what’s the tradeoff between urban green and and other priorities as well how do we balance that all I think this is where you need to
Look at the design of developments from the at the very earliest stage it’s you have a capacity of development you need to deliver and you have limited space to do it in and of course there is the cost as well uh if you integrate green infrastructure right from the start then
You’re going to get it’s going to be delivered more cost effective ly trying to shoe horn measures in at the end adds expense and clearly with affordable de um housing that’s is a big challenge it’s I I think there also needs to be engagement with probably
Wider sort of agencies if you have a Greener environment then you’re going to hopefully have a better quality environment for people to live in so better for health support for health and well-being um and I’m not you know I’m not sure if you’re able to get sort of tradeoffs or
Contributions in from other agencies that you know are looking to deliver health benefits um and feates like that you know I think it’s on the the centinary key development that there was affordable housing integrated into that and I suspect that actually it was the private housing that bore a lot of the
Cost of of the green infrastructure measures that then provided the cross subsidy although interestingly with that development they they went above the their Baseline they agreed two or three green rofes I think they’re up to about eight or nine now so again I think it depends on the developer as to what they
Feel it is that their their scheme can cope with and what actually adds to their scheme so probably not the most effective answer but um it it is a it is a big challenge um we can see that from the chat yet Lindsay it’s not you know we we we
Understand that that it’s it’s it’s it’s not an easy it’s not an easy answer um we’ve probably got five minutes to the end of the chat and I’m going to ask this question to the panel so I’ll just throw it out to all of you um there’s been a few comments in the
Chat about about the challenges of negotiating with developers to deliver schemes that maximize opportunities for green infrastructure particular particularly in places of challenging Avail availability so so viability sorry so um given the current economic climate development and development viability is a challenge for us we feel that gap between the two of them
Um what what are just your comments on how we make sure that these are included in all of those things anyone can answer I I’ll U make a startler then I’ll I’ll pass the bat on to my to my colleagues here on the panel uh I think setting the target scores is
A really uh important exercise in in pitching an approach appropriate level of green infrastructure Pro provision so we talked about commercial development being a 0.3 Target residential development 0.4 um and those targets were established uh and tested um within the London plan and planning inspector scrutinized London plan and they
Undertook a viability assessment as part of that London plan scrutiny and so that was tested and considered the measures that were included within Urban Greening are often common green infrastructure requirements and should be form part of good uh development practice and we’re not considered to provide too greater um
Uh onus uh on on the developers however there is the flexibility with the urban grening factor of setting your target scores in a way that provides a bit of a stretch and schemes some schemes may not quite reach that Target other schemes we hope would exceed that and this was a
Point I think Lindsay was was making in terms of developers only getting to the Target but not going beyond that um some locations I think Portsmouth requires an increase not necessarily a significant um higher Target I think Southampton when they first set it I’ll pass across
To Lindsay in just a moment um because I think they set that um modestly in in the um city center and so I think setting your target scores to your uh economic climate and the development Market is a real art of analysis of get getting that right but not underplaying
It and so developers will always just reach it uh and so there’s flexibility in setting the target scores but they should be set am with a level of ambition to achieve Greening for all sorts of reasons that we need to address in health and climate change resilience and biodiversity um
Improvement um Lindsay you probably from your direct experience at South can add to that yes certainly we didn’t put in a very challenging score um in the city center action plan because of issues around you know viability um but we’ve seen that on as centinary key site which
Was uh Redevelopment of an old industrial site with lots of expense around remediation things like that that a good standard is possible I think what we try to get developers to think about is all the policies that can be delivered through the green infrastructure so whilst there is a specific policy around green
Infrastructure they also have to deliver the biodiversity policy they have to deliver against uh flood risk management um they have have to deliver for landscape now you can achieve all of those policies meet all of those policies through the green infrastructure so it’s a very cost effective um form of infrastructure so
They it B you know they need to maximize the the financial benefit from you know one piece of green infrastructure delivering against multiple policies um and that’s you know clearly is where they they then if they know the the requirement at the start of the process is crucial because springing stuff on
People when they part the way through the design process is clearly going to add to costs so as long as they are clear at the very start the the standards the policies they have to meet and how to use the green infrastructure to deliver multiple benefits to save themselves money
Then we find that most of the the bigger ones particularly will engage and actually do really understand um sort of green infrastructure and you know and how to use it on their developments Jane if you’ve not got anything to add we can probably go on to
The um end of the session and clo close there just a huge thank you to all three of you it’s been an amazing session it’s really spoken to all of us I am not a techy person but I’m really kind of invested in this and it kind of we’ve
Had so many technical questions and we’ve had a lot of people who just are interested to know more and it’s been like a really easy session to understand for all of us so thank you all very much for your time we’ve got um a few take-home messages here on our next
Slide so this we will share these with everyone um but you know if if you want a really think about think about what you want to take away these are our big takeaways I’m going to really have a look at my own life and see what I can
Do in a personal capacity to make to make things things different so thank you huge thank you to um all our all our guest speakers but also I can’t go without saying um a huge thank you to our local government capacity Center here at homes England and all the people
Behind scenes who have made this happen there are a brilliant team there are so many of them and they are so committed to makeing sure that our local government Partners have all of the topics and awareness of the things that make a difference to people’s lives and
We get the homes out the and the right sustainability to the people where it really counts so I’ll end this session now and thank you to you all bye-bye