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The Peerless Reach of Online Video

The Peerless Reach of Online Video

Mark Kilgallon 29 Jul 2016
A few days ago I was listening to an interview with Sir Jeremy Isaacs about the lasting qualities and the enduring legacy of the TV series, ‘The World at War’. One particular caller commented that his son had learned more about the Second World War by watching this one TV series than in the entirety of his primary and secondary education.

This is true in my own educational experience; I’ve learned more about the world by watching the likes of TED Talks and VSauce than I ever did in school, college and university.This isn’t surprising. Moving visuals are in our DNA, hardwiring our brains to pay attention and quickly understand things that move and make noise, allowing us to pick up visual data 60,000 times faster than we can process something as visually complex as text.
In my previous blog about the use of infographics, I quoted the old saying, “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Not surprisingly, Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research wrote a report back in 2008 claiming that if a picture is worth one thousand words, then one minute of video is worth 1.8 million.

Video communication allows us to keep the visual complexities of text to a minimum and allows the more visual aspects that video provides to convey ideas quickly. Visual story telling isn’t anything new, we have been doing it ever since we started painting on cave walls. Visual story telling is very visceral, triggering an emotional response.This emotional connection can be a powerful communication tool, especially to businesses large and small. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to sell something, teach something, align someone to your vision or just wanting to create an emotional connection, video is the ideal tool.

Here at NLP, we have recently launched our latest video promoting our digital offer. Not only does it showcase what digital services NLP’s Graphic Design Team can offer, but also provides a perfect example of the quality and complexity of video communication we can produce.

Click here to view video
In a ’white paper’ published by the technology company Cisco, it is predicted that by next year, 69% of all consumer internet traffic will be video. Cisco are far from alone in this predication, as I struggled to find any similar predication about internet trends that doesn’t cite video as a rapid growth area.

So videos such as NLP’s are fast becoming essential for any business. Forrester Research for example found that a web site is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google search results if it includes video.

The sheer quantity of internet video success stories borders on the stuff of myth and legend. Take last year’s Sainsbury’s Christmas advert about Mog the Cat which reached over 30 million views on Youtube. Now, I’m not saying that NLP’s video, or others we produce have the potential to be viewed millions of times, however it does demonstrate the power of video to boost awareness. By engaging with viewers optimally, a message is more likely to be shared with others, and the viewer will spend longer interacting with a business.

NLP’s Digital Team can produce a range of digital material, including animated video, to help communicate messages, including the benefits of a development scheme. This, according to my research, could provide a platform, for it to be watched and shared by a far greater audience than traditional printed methods.



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Political change – how will planning and housing policy be affected?

Political change – how will planning and housing policy be affected?

Grant Swan 12 Jul 2016
A week is a long time in politics; two weeks is an eternity. After the UK voted to leave the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron felt his position was untenable and the process of finding a new leader began. Given how fast politics moves these days, it will come as no surprise to learn that the country will have a new Prime Minister by Wednesday evening – Theresa May. At the time of writing, the details of a May Government are yet to be provided, but do we have any indication as to the impact on planning and housing policy?
In her speech delivered before it was announced that she would become the new Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Theresa May provided an insight into her feelings on housing – one which surprised many commentators as to the breadth and complexity highlighted:

 

Unless we deal with the housing deficit, we will see house prices keep on rising.  Young people will find it even harder to afford their own home.  The divide between those who inherit wealth and those who don’t will become more pronounced.[1]

 

These are encouraging words – there appears to be: a recognition that we need to build more homes; that people are being priced out of owning their own home; and that some people are able to accrue assets while many others cannot.
May also makes a very interesting link between housing costs and economic productivity that could set the scene to better understand the link between housing costs and local economic performance:

 

And more and more of the country’s money will go into expensive housing instead of more productive investments that generate more economic growth.[2]

 

A strong supporter of Theresa May’s leadership bid has been the current Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis. Speaking before the announcement that Theresa May would become the next Prime Minister, he stated:

 

Whoever the Prime Minister is, we have to stay true to the manifesto we launched last year, which had two key housing policies: Starter homes and extending the Right to Buy to 1.3m people. There’s no reason that would change.[3]

 

This message should be unsurprising, for four reasons.

First, the Conservative Party continues to have a mandate to deliver on their manifesto promises from 2015 – there is no constitutional requirement for there to be another general election if the Prime Minister steps down, and maintaining substantial parts of its election manifesto helps to underpin the Party’s democratic and political rationale for not ‘going to the country’.

Secondly, the direction of travel for housing policy has been made very clear, and agreed by Parliament. The Housing and Planning Bill became an Act just in May this year; the plethora of consultations and regulations that need to be discussed, debated and agreed are already in motion and various housing policy objectives have been announced. There would be little incentive to change the direction of this complicated and wide-ranging policy reform now.

Thirdly, with a great deal of high-level political attention to be focused on managing the process of Brexit itself, the fact that housing and planning policy already has its key principles established means that DCLG civil servants are in the encouraging position of being able to continue work on the details of implementation, through revisions to the NPPF, the PPG, and the regulations that will bring into force the Housing and Planning Act’s measures - all with a view to putting in place the changes over the coming months.

Finally, in the face of economic uncertainty, there is a strong case for the Government doing everything it can to maintain ‘business as usual’ for housing supply and investment. Indeed, as the Government saw these housing and planning reforms as crucial to stimulate development and drive economic growth before the referendum, they will now see them as an imperative to ensure economic stability.

It therefore seems that despite the political upheaval and looming economic uncertainty, Theresa May’s government will want to emphasise the role of housing, development and planning, ensure that policy reform continues to happen and do everything it can to promote stability. As this is a policy area that has seen huge change in the last few years, some stability would no doubt be welcomed by most in the sector.

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/11/theresa-may-launches-conservative-leadership-bid-as-andrea-leads/

[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/11/theresa-may-launches-conservative-leadership-bid-as-andrea-leads/

[3] http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/may-will-stay-true-to-key-tory-housing-policies/7016024.article

 

 

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Housing and Planning Act 2016: business as usual - wide-ranging measures to boost supply of new homes now one step closer

Housing and Planning Act 2016: business as usual - wide-ranging measures to boost supply of new homes now one step closer

Jennie Baker 12 Jul 2016

New Regulations set out additional Housing and Planning Act 2016 provisions to commence on 13 July, and others coming into force on 1 or 31 October 2016

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 (Commencement No.2 Transitional Provisions and Savings) Regulations 2016 provide details of many planning-related sections and subsections of the Act that are now to commence on 13 July 2016. They are in addition to those already commencing on the same day that were detailed in s216 of the Act itself (and that NLP covered in a previous blog). Other provisions of the Act are also confirmed in the Regulations as coming into force on either 1 or 31 October this year.

Here are the details of the provisions involved:

Chapter 2: Self-build and custom housebuilding

Section 12 is in force from 13 July and introduces further and consequential amendments to the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 and its schedule on registers, to pave the way for the Housing and Planning Act’s related provisions to come into force.

The new Regulations also specify that sections 9, 10 and 11 (setting out the local authority duty to grant permissions to meet the demand for self-build and custom housebuilding – and the exemption from that duty) of the Act will come into force on 31 October; by that time, all of the self-building and custom housebuilding provisions will be in force.

Neighbourhood planning

Section 141 comes into force on 1 October, giving new powers to the Secretary of State (SoS) to intervene and take over the neighbourhood plan-making role of the local planning authority. Section 142 will come into force on the same day, from when a neighbourhood planning forum will be able to request to be notified of planning applications in its area.

Local planning

Section 143 brings into force provisions to allow the SoS or the Mayor of London (if the LPA is a London Borough) to direct an authority to amend their local development scheme (setting out the content and timeframes for the preparation of development plan documents and supplementary planning documents), in relation to the subject matter of any document specified in a scheme.

Section 144 means that the SoS can direct, by notice, a development plan document’s Inspector to suspend his examination, to consider specified matters (included in the notice), to hear from specified parties, or to take other procedural steps in connection with the examination.

Coming into force on 1 October, subsections 145(1) to (4) further increase SoS intervention powers in local plan-making, this time relating to the Communities Secretary holding an examination. Likewise sections 146, 147 (with Schedule 11) and 148 extend the Communities Secretary’s and the Mayor of London’s default powers in local plan-making, as well as giving default powers to combined authorities.

Permission in principle

Subsections 150(4) and 150(5) introduce a new subsection into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (to section 333), to specify from 13 July that regulations made to amend the duration of permissions in principle (PIPs) granted either by development order (for 5 years) or local authority (for 3 years) have to be ‘laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament’. Schedule 12 of the Act also comes into force at the same time, to introduce minor and consequential amendments to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (and other Acts), effectively to add PIPs as another type of planning permission to which current rules apply.

Planning permission etc

Subsections 152(2) to (4) (‘Approval condition where development order grants permission for building’) come into force on 13 July and complete the necessary legislative amendments that facilitate the proposed office-to-residential ‘rebuild’ permitted development right in England. Subsection 152(1) of the Act, which inserts new subsection 1A into section 60 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, is already into force (from 12 May 2016), meaning that all s152 provisions are now commenced.  Section 152(2) specifies that the current s60(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is to apply to ‘any buildings in Wales’, differentiating this from the regime that applies to England only.

Section 154 also comes into force on 13 July, introducing the new ‘planning freedoms scheme’ where specific planning provisions will be dis-applied or modified (for a specified period), so as to support an increase in the amount of housing in the planning area concerned. Details of the working of this new scheme are yet to be specified, although mentioned in the Locally-Led Garden Villages, Towns and Cities prospectus (published in March 2016) - thus the ‘freedoms’ could potentially contribute to the delivery of new garden settlements.

Coming into force on 1 October, section 156 requires a report on a planning application or a PIP to set out how the neighbourhood plan for the area was taken into account in making the recommendation, and to identify any conflict between the plan and that recommendation.

The Act’s review requirement of planning legislation, government planning policy and local planning policies for sustainable drainage (s171) comes into force on 1 October; there is no timescale requirement for the review however.

New towns

The legislative framework for new towns and development corporations is amended on 13 July by the commencement of sections169 and 170, which specify that the SoS has to consult extensively before making an Order to designate an area of land in England as the site of a proposed new town, and that a development corporation must aim ‘to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development’ – and have regard to ‘the desirability of good design’.

Part 7: Compulsory purchase etc

New compulsory purchase provisions regarding the Right to Enter and survey land come into force on 13 July, as sections 172 to 179 commence (together with Schedule 14). The Regulations set out a series of saving and transitional provisions relating only to s179 and Schedule 14, for activities authorised before that date.

Section 182 brings into force a new time limit for giving notice to treat and for a general vesting declaration (3 years from the date the Compulsory Purchase Order becomes operative), while s190 abolishes the alternative possession procedure following notice to treat. Sections 201 (power to quash decision to confirm CPO), 202 (extension of compulsory purchase time limit during challenge), 203-206 (power to override easements and other rights), and Schedule 19 also come into force on 13 July.

 

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EIA Brexit

EIA Brexit

Cardiff office 06 Jul 2016
Okay so I thought it would be close but I did not think it would be that close. And I also did not think that a majority would actually vote to leave the EU… Having slightly recovered from the shock – like most people – I have entered a stage of acceptance and I want to know more about all sorts of things, including how the vote for Brexit might affect NLP’s (‘EIA’) team, whose very existence is defined by an EU Directive.
In terms of the requirement or otherwise for EIA, nothing changes for the foreseeable future. The EIA Directive still remains in force, as do the current separate EIA Regulations for England, Scotland and Wales. And the requirement for the ‘new’ Directive 2014/52/EU to be transposed into UK law by 16 May 2017 also remains. This is because, even if notice is given soon to leave the EU under Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, the UK has 2 years to complete the process (unless an extension is agreed), with EU legislation remaining in place until departure.

The Government is likely to need every single second of those two years, if not longer, given the estimated 80,000 pages of EU agreements that someone needs to decide whether to keep, amend or repeal and the renegotiation or replacement agreements with Member States individually or in groups. During the two years, the primary focus is also likely to be on the process of leaving the EU and governing the UK, as well as stabilising the economy and trade. EIA and environmental protection will remain important but are unlikely to be top of the agenda. So where does that leave EIA?

Legal experts fully expect that we will see primary/emergency legislation passed that retains current legislation and case law in the immediate future and intervening period, until possible replacement. The Government may also introduce legislation with a mechanism to deal with issues arising on an ad hoc basis, until we know the full consequences of leaving the EU. If or how this actually plays out is unknown, but legislation along these lines will certainly be needed if there is to be any clarity for EIA – and the many other legal matters currently covered by EU legislation.

One benefit of the UK’s EIA Regulations is that they are a standalone set of regulations that can continue to remain in force for qualifying development projects. However there will inevitably be gaps in some policy areas as a result of referential drafting (where the UK has adopted skeleton legislation that relies on EU legislation to fill the gaps) and technical standards and targets currently set at the EU level (such as the UK’s international climate targets, which are currently negotiated as part of the EU block). There has also been a vacuum in UK environmental policy for some years because EU legislation has been so active in this area and the UK Government has left it to EU legislation to do the job.

So what can be done in the meantime? The Government is certainly going to need a bit of help from people with the right knowledge and expertise. In a period of austerity, where jobs have at worst been cut and at best not been replaced, the necessary people may not be in place to ensure that the best arrangements are established going forward. It is therefore important that dialogue channels are open with policy-makers to ensure that important legislation is not lost and any new or amended legislation is forward-thinking and robust.

With regards to the 30-40 years of case law on the interpretation of EU Directives which influences our work on an almost daily basis, legal experts suggest that a cut-off date is set to clarify when matters should be referred to which court and to define the applicability of existing case law. Even after the cut-off date, European Court cases will still be relevant and should still be binding – although a litigious movement may emerge that seeks to challenge decisions made by a different decision-maker, under different law.

Ultimately it seems that in a time of uncertainty, there is actually quite a bit of certainty about EIA. It is not going anywhere soon and NLP’s EIA work will continue unaffected; the Company is ready and poised too, to input into the review process as and when required.

 

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