Hugh Ellis appointed Chief Planner of TCPA's new Climate Change Unit

Leading planning and housing charity, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is delighted to have appointed Hugh Ellis as Chief Planner working in the Association’s new Climate Change Unit. The Unit has been established to reflect the priority given to the planning system and climate change adaptation and mitigation in the TCPA’s new Manifesto for the 21st Century – Towns and Countryside for a New Age of Challenge – which sets out the Association’s new set of aspirations which directly address today’s challenges of climate change, globalisation and social justice.

TCPA Chief Executive Gideon Amos OBE said:
"Our new manifesto demands that the twin challenges of tackling social injustice and climate change will be central both to planning and to the TCPA’s vision for 2050. Today we establish this Unit to begin the work involved. The tasks faced by planning are daunting, from re-engineering our existing cities to provide benign energy, transport and green space networks, to new exemplar developments of all kinds of which eco-towns are one example. Throughout Europe the threat of damage to our communities from climate change is real - from rising sea-levels and flooding, to desertification and pollution. Planning can deliver much of the adaptation we will need and I am delighted Hugh Ellis will be leading and taking forward the TCPA’s work to do so.”

Diane Smith, Project Manager, GRaBS said:
“I am delighted that Hugh Ellis has joined our new Climate Change Unit, particularly for his valuable work on the TCPA-led INTERREGIVC project GRaBS (green and blue space adaptation in urban areas and eco towns). This pan-European partnership programme aims to develop Adaptation Actions Plans and transferable technology to enable municipalities to plan positively and improve policies and priorities to enable communities to adapt to the impact of climate change in existing and future developments."

Hugh Ellis, TCPA Chief Planner said:
"This is an exciting time to be joining the TCPA. As part of my role in the GRaBS project I will be leading a new coalition of public, private and voluntary sector organisations which is being set up to develop a renewed PPS on Climate Change. There is profound and growing gap between what we need to get done to tackle climate through planning and what is actually being achieved. Through this new coalition we will apply new pressure to get the debate moving and help promote a coherent and logical narrative which can help deal with the mass of government actions on Climate.”

Working in partnership with Friends of the Earth, the TCPA co-led a similar planning for climate change campaign in 2006 which resulted in the publication of a ‘mock’ planning policy statement (PPS) on climate change. The mock PPS was supported by more than 20 experts, businesses and campaign groups and much of it was incorporated in the Government’s official document published the following year.

The TCPA is hoping to bring together supporters of the original campaign along with other stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors. The new campaign will seek to combine and update the climate change supplement to PPS1 and PPS22 on renewable energy, creating a clear strategic pathway for delivering on our climate change objectives.