Good urbanism should transcend politics. Socialists and capitalists can walk the same neighborhood and agree it's a pleasant place to live. They can each appreciate the tree canopy, the corner café with people spilling onto the sidewalk, the mix of ages on bikes and on foot, the architectural details of older buildings, and so on.
I recognize that if we do the bread and butter stuff, we do the customer service, the customer delivery, then we get permission to do bigger things. This philosophy guides the commissioner's approach to balancing operational excellence with broader policy ambitions at the Department of Buildings.
It's like, 'Ok, where? Who do we call? What do you mean?' said Batan, of the Queensboro Dance Festival, which puts on free dance performances, parties, and classes 30 to 40 times each summer. Batan compares the city's complex permitting process - which features an alphabet-soup array of agencies and offices that set guidelines for everything from block parties and street festivals to the use of stages, tents, and speakers - to 'avoiding a bunch of trap doors.'
A solicitor acting on behalf of Rose and Chris Murray made an application today seeking for the demolition to be halted while they awaited a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Through Community Facilities Districts (CFD), Municipal Utility Districts (MUD), Public Improvement Districts (PID), Community Development Districts (CDD) and reimbursement districts (RD), builders can potentially shift infrastructure costs off their balance sheets and onto special districts that homebuyers ultimately absorb through property taxes without potentially adding debt to the builder's books.
Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.
Conservation area regulations aren't on the same level as those for Listed Buildings; however, they are still much stricter than in the average home. The most common legal consideration to make is understanding Article 4 Directions. Article 4 can essentially strip away your 'Permitted Development' rights, meaning you need full blown planning permission, even for minor changes, like front doors.
We're also now getting to this point where, despite all of those changes, we're still the slowest city to build. We have to now take a stab at the harder problems, including Charter reform, to enable us to be able to make those changes.
By focusing on what others aren't building, solidifying relationships on the ground, improving processes incrementally, and carving out a niche where they can stand apart from peers, private builders can achieve stronger margins, maintain brand value and grow sustainably despite the advantages held by large public competitors.
Rajinder Singh Pander, of Windsor, Berkshire, had been served an enforcement notice by Hounslow Council requiring him to demolish the unsafe building - but he ignored the order and continued to rent out the property on Worthing Road, Heston, west London. A young family, including a child, lived there for two years in "cramped and substandard living conditions, giving rise to serious concerns about their health and wellbeing", according to Hounslow Council.
Some even rented out the new additions as Airbnbs with applications for retention permission flooding in More than 11,000 applications for retention permission have been submitted in the last two years after thousands of people built extensions, garages, log cabins, apartments and gyms without planning permission. An investigation by the Irish Independent into the culture of "build first, ask for permission later" has revealed how more than half of all retention applications lodged since January 2024 have been approved by local authorities across the country.
A Dublin businessman has been given until March come up with a plan for the demolition of an extension at his beachside home after a judge ruled the development is "unauthorised".
San Francisco-based YIMBY Law sent a letter to the city yesterday saying that Senate Bill 330 would protect the project from the ballot initiative moving forward and comply with the Housing Element, a state-required housing plan. SB330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, was a law designed to speed up housing construction by limiting local governments' ability to block or slow down housing projects, prohibiting "downzoning," establishing development timelines, and imposing stricter objective standards for approvals
With just five months before landmark housing legislation takes effect throughout California, San Jose officials are racing to exempt broad swaths of the city from the law. Sen. Scott Wiener's Senate Bill 79, signed into law in October, aims to encourage denser housing construction around transit hubs. In San Jose, the law would cover 40,000 parcels of land, in many cases pushing up the maximum height and density limits for newly constructed residential buildings, according to city officials.
Unlike planning drawings that focus on external appearance and planning policy, building regulation drawings dive deep into the technical specifications-showing construction methods, materials, structural elements, insulation values, ventilation strategies, and safety features. These drawings serve as your blueprint for compliance, providing Building Control officers with the information they need to assess whether your project meets the legal requirements for structural stability, fire safety, energy efficiency, accessibility, and overall construction quality.
Tower Hamlets Council said in September 2023 it wanted to take down the LTNs and was challenged by Save our Safer Streets (Soss). The court said a failure to reconsult was among the reasons for its decision. Soss said that "thousands of local residents will be extremely pleased and relieved". Tower Hamlets Council, led by mayor Lutfur Rahman, said it was "disappointed" while London's mayor called it "good news for Londoners".
There are around five million leasehold properties in England and Wales, of which 70% are flats. At the moment, the freeholder of a property generally owns the building and the land beneath it, outright and forever. Leaseholders effectively buy the right to live in the property for a fixed period of time. Leasehold flats are found in all sorts of properties - from converted Victorian houses to purpose built skyscrapers - and tend to be concentrated in big cities.
We have clients who have looked at property in the city or town where they live, but simply can't afford what is coming onto the market. Instead, they are considering using the considerable equity they have built up with those soaring real estate valuations in recent years. Many of these people can invest money into their properties and still have equity left after a major remodel and addition.
The global average building utilization rate dramatically jumped in 2025 to 53%, the highest since before the pandemic, validating the effectiveness of hybrid strategies in driving more in-office activity, according to CBRE. Utilization rates were 38% in 2024 and 35% in 2023, compared to the 65% that most respondents to CBRE's global workplace occupancy benchmarking program identified as their target.
