Hundreds of housing professionals this week attended the UrbanBuzz conference on ‘The Reality of Creating Sustainable Communities’ in London.

Speaking publicly for the first time as Chief Executive of the newly formed Homes and Communities Agency, Sir Bob Kerslake, spoke of the importance of place making.

He said: “It is not simply about good urban design, to get great places you have to look at issues in the round focusing on transport, communities and urban design."

The HCA is already having to adapt its mission so it can deal with the credit crunch. Sir Bob said that the downturn would be hitting places at very different stages of their regeneration journey.

“There is a very real risk in dealing with the credit crunch we may lose sight of our places," he explained.

"HCA will not fund schemes which are poorly designed. We will judge this place-by-place, scheme-by-scheme."

He stressed that while realism and adaptability in the short term are essential, a commitment to quality must not be lost and where development cannot be progressed, there is preparatory work which can be done.

Deputy Mayor of London Sir Simon Milton, meanwhile, praised the work of the UrbanBuzz projects as providing timely examples of what can be done to create sustainable communities.

“Many of the projects touch on the work we are doing at the Mayor’s office," he said.

He went on to talk about the sustainability challenges for London saying: “The 50% target for affordable homes is not helpful, in fact it could be damaging in the current market.”

Transport, the Deputy Mayor said, is key to keeping London’s growth sustainable.

“Building Crossrail will employ 14,000 people and is the centre piece of the TFL business plan. It will also enable regeneration of East London," he said.

“The Mayor wants to turn London into a ‘Cycle City’, starting with hire schemes which can be paid rented with Oyster Cards or mobile phones.”

This scheme, the Deputy Mayor said, would be supported by the development of “Cycle-Superhighways” which would make cycling safer and easier.

He also commented upon the UrbanBuzz project Abundance, an urban agriculture project based in Brixton, “Boris is particularly keen on urban agriculture”. The Mayor’s office has established a capital growth plan which will be looking for patches of land across London from which similar projects can be run.

A successful mix of plenary sessions, case studies and project exhibitors formed the basis of today’s event which highlighted the key lessons to be learnt from the outcomes of the 28 UrbanBuzz projects.

These outcomes alongside the thoughts and experiences of leading industry figures, ensured that the reality of creating environmentally and socially sustainable communities was at the core of the conference. 

For two years UrbanBuzz has pioneered projects that seek to bring together academics and practitioners in the built environment sector to convert research results into new practical tools and processes which will help build and maintain sustainable communities.

David Cobb, UrbanBuzz Programme Director said:  “The Reality of Creating Sustainable Communities Conference is the culmination of two years hard work by 28 projects which have sought to change the way we think about developing and creating sustainable communities.

"To have senior figures, who will be key to shaping sustainability policy in the future like Sir Simon Milton, and Sir Bob Kerslake, with us at the conference today demonstrates the significant impact the UrbanBuzz project has had on the sustainability debate."