In the final scrabble to 6th May RIBA members questioned candidates in the Oxford East seat last night. With all three main parties putting Oxford East as one of their target seats they are vying for the favour of the Oxford people. This will be a seat to watch on election night.
Questions posed focused around how to provide housing in Oxford with the numbers in need of housing at a very high level; what might happen if Regional DevelopmentAgencies were to be abolished; the role and future of CABE; problems with the planning system; whether the private sector should adhere to minimum space and environmental standards for housing. The panel were challenged as to how they would end ‘boom and bust’.
With support from the candidates for in-house architects for Local Authorities; a need for either design standards or some way to improve design quality and an agreement that retrofitting and the carbon agenda were going to be a high priority for the next Government it was clear that the built environment is seen by the Oxford candidates at least as an election issue.
Centre for Cities released polling results from Ipsos Mori this week which showed how the urban vote might influence the outcome showing differences between struggling cities and what they termed buoyant cities. With many of our main cities sharing power between parties what might be crucial is how successful this is seen to have been working and whether the public thinks based on local experience a hung parliament might be a good thing.
Following in the wake of the first leadership debate last week the RIBA challenged candidates contesting the Plymouth Moor View seat to present their views on housing and the city in a debate chaired by RIBA past president, George Ferguson CBE. How would the parties fare with all three main parties polling within spitting distance of 30%?
Retrofitting homes was high on the agenda with all of the candidates acknowledging the need to improve home energy performance as part of any future government’s plan to combat climate change. The need to bring back into use more than 5000 empty homes across the city and develop schemes to encourage private sector renovations was also a challenge for Plymouth.
Design quality was also a hot topic, candidates were challenged as to whether design and space standards in the private sector were merely a tax on development or a worthwhile investment. The candidates supported such standards which reinforces the RIBA’s manifesto calls for similar minimum space, design and environmental standards for both private and publicly funded housing.
You can listen to an audio of the hustings Plymouth hustings
The RIBA are holding a hustings in one of the most interesting constituencies for pollsters in the 
country - Oxford East. The seat is thought to be winnable by the three main political parties Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat and was highlighted today at a meeting with YouGov chief Peter Kellner as a seat to watch out for on the night, particuarly as the recent advances that the Liberal Democrats have made with today’s YouGov poll showing Conservatives on 33%, Liberal Democrats on 31% and Labour on 27%.
And today is the last day you can register to vote.
Details of the debate if you would like to attend:
General Election Hustings Debate: Architecture and the Built Environment
Tuesday 27th April 2010, please arrive by 6:15pm for a 6:30pm start
Council Chamber, Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate’s, Oxford OX1 1BX
Philip Waddy (Chair), Chair of RIBA South Region
Ed Argar, Conservative candidate for East Oxford
Sushila Dhall, Green candidate for East Oxford
Julia Gasper, UKIP candidate for East Oxford
Dr Steve Goddard, Liberal Democrat candidate for East Oxford
Andrew Smith, Labour candidate for East Oxford.
Come and pose questions to candidates from these political parties about the future of the built environment and the issues which underpin it, from housing and planning, to climate change and government procurement.
Free event, booking essential. To book email RIBA South
With a week that sees the publication of all the manifestos and the start of the leaders TV debates, it is full steam ahead for the election. So far Labour have used their manifesto to focus on ‘a future fair for all’ with pledges for targets for affordable housing, green jobs and high speed rail as well as confirming their commitment to architecture and minimum design standards for all public buildings. The Conservatives published their hardback tome to focus on the economy, dealing with the deficit and changes from central targets to a localist approach, for example, local parents and community groups able to set up their own schools. And the Lib Dems today focus too on the idea of fairness, costing their proposals with savings they identify so that they can reduce class sizes, tackle the carbon targets by loans for energy performance for homes and lowering VAT on home maintenance and repair.
Labour manifesto
Conservative manifesto
Liberal Democrat manifesto
Let us know what you think by posting comments here.
The RIBA has been testing out candidates views with hustings in Brighton and Bristol. In Brighton candidates debated how to deliver for Brighton balancing the needs for conservation and preservation and the increasing requirements for more development of new homes and the need for retrofitting and green measures which might change the look and feel of Brighton as a city. Candidates were challenged as to which cities were their inspiration - they ranged from Copenhagen, Sydney and Amsterdam to Sutton and BedZed but none were as bold as to suggest that Brighton itself was their inspiration!
In Bristol aboard the SS Great Britain candidates from the Bristol West seat focused on housing too - how to deliver affordable and social housing in Bristol. What to do about the need for retrofitting the cities homes and non domestic buildings, thoughts on environmental standards and the role of local communities in development.
Listen to the audio of Bristol Hustings.
To download the download the mp3 (96MB, 1hr 45 min), right click and select ’save target as’ then save as mp3.
Next up Plymouth on Friday 16 April. Email publicaffairs@inst.riba.org for more information.
Before an election time the final pieces of legislation need to debated in a much shorter time - this is termed wash-up. The RIBA has been an unlucky loser in the process as the digital economies bill amongst others is to be debated on Tuesday during the time when our architecture spokespeople were due to be answering questions from architects and others in the built environment industry.
Please post comments of questions you would have liked to ask the three parties here.
The RIBA’s election season got underway last night with the RIBA West Midlands question time debate “Buildings Matter”, held in conjunction with partners form the construction industry. Staking a claim for David Dimbleby’s crown was RIBA regional Chair Dhiran Vagdia, who chaired a lively and wide-ranging debate between the three main parties. Dhiran was joined on the stage by Labour candidate for Birmingham Erdington Jack Dromey and two candidates vying for the Solihull seat – the sitting Lib Dem MP Lorely Burt and Conservative candidate Maggie Throup.
The underlying theme for the evening was the economy: how and when to cut public spending and the merits of “growing Britain out of recession”; pleas from the floor to provide economic stimulus with a cut on VAT for refurb and a general feeling that the UK had to invest in improving its skills base in order to come out stronger from recession. Localism and the role of government was touched on too – Jack Dromey arguing that the Conservatives housing and planning proposals would spark nimbyism, whilst Maggie Throup countered that her party’s plans would encourage greater community buy-in for new development. Meanwhile, Lorely Burt set out the case for a National Infrastructure Bank and her party’s plans for cutting the deficit.
All in all a great taster for what is to come. Next up is the RIBA’s hustings in London on April 6th, followed by two events in the Westcountry; Bristol on the 9th and Plymouth on the 16th April. For further details on the RIBA’s election activity and information on how to get involved, visit our website at www.architecture.com/manifesto or follow the RIBA Twitter stream at http://twitter.com/riba
How we encourage, coerce or insist that homeowners improve their homes to help the UK meet our carbon targets is an issue that seems to be gaining pace with politicians and those of us lobbying them. All three parties have committed to a variety of loans and ways of paying so that we make improvements to our homes which currently account for 28% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. And yet no party seems to be proposing enough to tackle the situation on a large scale. The RIBA, in our manifesto, has called for the next Government to retrofit 4 million homes within the lifetime of the next parliament. The latest Government announcement last week appears to say it will meet that commitment by eco-fitting seven million homes by 2020. It’s clear that to get people to take up any kind of retrofit offer however, we will need a combination of carrot and stick.
The ‘Cut the VAT’ coalition (RIBA is a member) proposes a cut in VAT on home maintenance and repair to 5%. The coalition asserts that by lowering VAT, more homeowners will take up the offer of eco-fitting their homes particularly if at the same time they are putting in a new kitchen or bathroom. A new report commissioned by the coalition reports that a cut in VAT would create more than 24,000 jobs in the construction sector, as well as an extra 31,000 other new jobs in the wider economy in 2010 alone and contribute more than £1.4 billion to the UK economy in 2010, rising to £17 billion by 2019. So the drop in VAT could be the carrot. But there might need to be a few sticks as well. This week the UK Green Buildings Council called for mandating for higher levels of energy efficiency for homeowners carrying out extensions (consequential improvements) and for properties to be upgraded relating to their Energy Performance Certificates. Both measures are certainly the stick.
The RIBA is hosting a hustings in London on 6 April, come and pose your questions to the architecture spokespeople of the three main political parties. More details.
In the final scrabble to 6th May RIBA members questioned candidates in the Oxford East seat last night. With all three main parties putting Oxford East as one of their target seats they are vying for the favour of the Oxford people. This will be a seat to watch on election night.
