Anna Scothern

Anna is Director of the National Centre for Excellence in Housing, based at the Building Research Establishment.

Anna joined the NCEH in August 2006, and successfully launched the joint venture partnership in December that year, at an event attended by the industry's key influencers and decision makers.

Prior to joining the NCEH she was the head of Residential Buildings at The Concrete Centre. There she worked on promoting the voice of the concrete sector in many areas, but principally on sustainability in the residential housing industry, focussing on energy efficiency, sustainable communities, "Modern Methods of Construction", and the reduction of carbon emissions.

Anna began her career in construction working for RMC Ltd, now Cemex, initially lecturing on cement and concrete technology. Later she was engaged in preparing and implementing strategic marketing plans for new and innovative product development, together with developing brand positioning and direction strategies.

Website: www.homein.org

e-mail: scotherna@homein.org

14.00 to 15.30 on Friday 18 May 2007

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Summary

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The National Centre for Excellence in Housing was formed by a joint venture business partnership between BRE and the National House Building Council. The NHBC works to raise the construction standards of new homes, and provide protection for new home buyers. Today approximately 180,000 new homes are registered for NHBC Buildmark warranty cover each year, and approximately 85% of new homes are covered by the warranty in the UK. The NCEH is also supported by the NHBC Foundation, which undertakes housing research and development in partnership with BRE Trust.

The National Centre for Excellence in Housing aims to drive up standards across a range of issues in the UK housing market, including design, customer satisfaction and sustainability. It was established to consult with government, the construction industry, and a wider set of stakeholders outside of the industry, to provide a central focus for the provision of best practice, knowledge-based information on the major issues facing the industry today, and in the future.

The work of the NCEH is currently centred around four priority areas:

• Sustainability
• Quality
• Efficiency
• Land use and planning

The work of the NCEH stretches across all types of UK housing, be it new build or part of the existing stock, including refurbished housing and housing maintenance and repair.

What priorities do we want reflected in land use planning?

Has the notion of a distinct town and country become unsustainable?

Can planners reconcile government policies with where and how people actually want to live?

Is it justified to describe policies based on constraining building activity as "planning"?

Introduction

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