Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Spectators podcast.

I'm Kate Andrews.

COVID-19 has put a spotlight on housing in Britain, the inequalities and challenges, but also the opportunities.

As what we want out of our homes, office

spaces, and even the high street changes, public policy will have to follow suit. So how do we

create a sustainable planning system that ensures quality and access for all? Joining me today to

discuss these ideas are Kath Fontana, president of the Royal Institute of Charter Surveyers,

housing minister, the right Honorable Christopher Pinscher, and Dr. Iqbal Hamaduddin,

lecture at the Bartlett School for Architecture at UCL. This podcast is kindly sponsored by the Royal

Institute for Chartered Surveyers. Iqbal, perhaps you could start by explaining what we mean when we talk about sustainable

building.

That word sustainable is often associated with the environment, but there's more to it, isn't

there?

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Kate.

So in the built environment, when we're talking about sustainability, we're talking,

of course, about buildings themselves, but we're also talking about the context of buildings.

So environmentally it can be to do with the materials, the construction methods, thermal

performance, but also the way that people use the building, the way that people travel from the

building to other places as well. So the whole, if you like, sort of ecosystem surrounding the building.

And then, of course, socially, we're talking about users of buildings.

So housing, you know, to do with the social mix of different developments,

the opportunities that people have also within an area.

...