Renewal?

Any party that suffers an electoral defeat goes through a period of reflection and renewal.  The crushing reality of leaving government must be a painful experience and it is perhaps not surprising that few parties get back to power at the first attempt.  

Labour, this week, was trying to demonstrate that the wreckage of the 2010 election defeat is in the past, that the process of renewal is well advanced and that they have the ideas to govern.  Commentators will doubtless write tomes on this over the next 48 hours offering their assessment of progress.  The ultimate test will, of course, come in May 2015 when the voters get to decide.

So, it has been interesting watching, listening and talking to people within the party this week.  As an environmentalist, it was good for me to see Ed Miliband recapture his passion for the environment in his speech yesterday - someone who had a leadership role on climate change in government became surprisingly muted when in opposition.   Yesterday's speech must not be a one-off.  As I wrote recently, we need to hear more about the environment from political leaders.

It was equally good to hear from others about the importance of integrating environmental considerations (including nature) into sectors such as housing and farming.  This is the right direction of travel for all sectoral policy development and for all parties.

Having set out their vision and ambition, people will quite rightly ask how the parties plan to achieve their ambition.  The parties need to be convincing and we're happy to help any party come up with ideas that we think will work based on our experience.

So, for example, if you want to build 200,000 greener, affordable homes without trashing the environment, you need to do, at least, four things:

• recognise biodiversity value on both greenfield and brownfield site
• consider introducing a spatial national planning framework and establish institutions to make this happen
• ensure building regulations drive down greenhouse gas emissions
• design biodiversity into new development by bolstering local planning standards

We'll say more about these issues in the coming days through our Saving Special Places blog.  And, more importantly, we'll continue to share our thinking with any party that is prepared to listen!