Newsroom University of Manchester

Time to stop blaming bats and newts for blocking development?

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 13:08:00 +0100

For years, nature has been blamed as a blocker of economic growth. After some ministerial about not letting get in the way of growth ambitions, the UK government released more details of its plans to .

The centrepiece of its aspirations to balance both nature and economic growth is a , to be set up in England through changes to habitat regulations. This should allow developers to stay within their legal obligations towards nature through a payment scheme without delaying their projects.

The is that, as an alternative to relocating important species or improving habitats on the site of a proposed development, a developer could pay into the nature restoration fund. This would pay for larger, more strategically located schemes to protect the species in question.

The fund simplifies and streamlines the regulations while collecting funds to promote more, bigger, better and increasingly .

Protecting nature is not just about bats and newts. According to trade association the Home Builders Federation (HBF), there are 160,000 homes being delayed by what are known as measures. These rules were a response to growing public concerns about land and water pollution caused by nutrient loads – pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus – associated with livestock farming and spillages from sewage works.

Government agency 74 local authorities that they should not allow any more house building in their areas unless this pollution could be mitigated. But this has led to lengthy and expensive project-by-project reviews to identify potential damage.

How will a fund help?

The fund will build on some schemes that are already known to work. One such scheme works for the protection of . Another successful scheme is project, working to protect and enhance heathland sites where rare birds such as nightingales breed. Crucially, this scheme allows new development to go ahead in adjacent areas.

The fund will be run by Natural England, which aims to draw on these experiences to unblock development at a large scale rather than at single-site level, pooling contributions from developers to pay for mitigation measures when there is a risk to nature.

If a particular “blocking” issue is identified, experts from Natural England will produce a plan, which must be approved by the environment secretary. A levy on developers will then pay for mitigation measures “in perpetuity” (often 30 years), allowing the development to get under way.

Environmental experts have the general principles and approach of the nature restoration fund. But there has also been about whether the plan is well enough thought through. There are also questions on how well it will integrate with other schemes.

A widespread worry is for the future of – which includes measures for creating and improving using biodiversity units, effectively a form of “nature market”. This approach sets a target of 10% for biodiversity improvement based upon the combined distinctness, condition and significance of affected habitats over the lifetime of the development. But these measures are only just .

The concern is that providers of sites for these habitat banks – which might be councils, landowners, charities or private businesses, for example – might get cold feet and if they can’t be certain that their plans will be compatible with the nature restoration fund.

There is concern, too, about how payments from the nature restoration fund would be calculated. These will need to be locally appropriate and not pit nature restoration and biodiversity net gain against each other if, for example, landowners are forced to choose a particular scheme for their land that they are then . With two parallel systems in play, the relationship between them must be crystal clear, otherwise shared goals could be missed.

Another question is whether Natural England can be both regulator and financial beneficiary of the new scheme. There have been calls from some of those already involved in nature markets for some form of .

And it will also be vital that the new scheme respects what’s known as the “mitigation hierarchy”. This hierarchy aims to avoid, reduce and then mitigate any impacts on nature on-site in that order. Then developers should consider off-site measures in areas where there could be greater .

But a danger here is that this could disconnect people from nature even further by mitigating ecological loss miles away from the site of the damage. This disconnection is considered to be a critical underlying cause of .

There is much to like about the nature restoration fund, but there is a risk that little will be achieved without the government showing genuine ambition and allocating enough money and staff to properly monitor and enforce it over the long term. Only time will tell whether it achieves the government’s goal of speeding up development.

At the moment, it is not clear how the fund will complement similar schemes and there is a danger of creating a complex patchwork in nature restoration funding. But if it works well, it could provide a richer funding ecosystem for nature recovery – a much-needed boost for England’s nature-depleted landscape.

, Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning and , Senior Lecturer in Planning and Environmental Management
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Manchester planning expert appointed as ESRC Council Member

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:34:14 +0100

The - the UK’s largest funder of economic, social, behavioural and human data science - has appointed The University of Manchester’s Professor Cecilia Wong as a member of its Council.

Professor Wong brings a wealth of expertise and an exceptional track record to her new role. Her extensive research encompasses strategic spatial planning, policy monitoring & analysis, urban & regional development and housing & infrastructure planning.

A distinguished academic, Professor Wong is a Professor of Spatial Planning and serves as Co-Director of . She also directs the Spatial Policy & Analysis Lab within the .

She is a Fellow of both the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Town Planning Institute, underscoring her significant contributions to the field.

She currently chairs the , an independent inquiry into city and regional inequalities in the United Kingdom. Additionally, she is a member of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Levelling Up Advisory Panel and has previously contributed to the Lyons Independent Housing Review.

Her advisory roles extend internationally, having advised the European Commission on the Urban Audit II and UN-Habitat on the City Prosperity Index.

Currently, Professor Wong is engaged in a five-year UK Prevention ��Ӱ�� Partnership-funded project addressing the root causes of health inequalities in urban planning decision-making. She also led a joint ESRC and China Natural Science Foundation project on eco-urbanisation, promoting sustainable development in metropolitan regions of China.

Her work continues to shape policies and practices, driving forward the agenda of creating sustainable, prosperous urban environments.

Experts call for urgent bus network reforms to reconnect communities

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:24:55 +0000

Leading experts have called on the government to make urgent changes to the UK’s bus network in an appearance at a Transport Select Committee inquiry. The group – including Professor Karen Lucas, Head of the Transport and Mobilities Group at The University of Manchester – spoke about the detrimental impact of poor bus connectivity and the need for immediate government action.

Buses are a lifeline for many communities, providing access to jobs, healthcare and education. However, when networks are unreliable, expensive or fail to meet demand, the most vulnerable groups - including low-income individuals, women, the elderly, disabled people and minority communities - are disproportionately affected.

Professor Lucas joined Silviya Barrett (Campaign for Better Transport), Stephen Frost (IPPR) and Paul Miner (CPRE) to give evidence to the committee, where they urged policymakers to address the growing transport inequalities across the country.

��Ӱ�� presented to the inquiry revealed that nearly 10 million people live in areas with a high risk of transport-related social exclusion, with the North East of England being the most affected. Poor public transport connectivity exacerbates existing inequalities, creating ‘transport deserts’ that leave residents isolated from employment opportunities, essential services and social connections.

To secure the future of bus services, the expert panel has put forward a series of recommendations including investment in more frequent and reliable buses, long-term funding settlements, a new statutory requirement to provide socially necessary services and continued support for affordable fares.

The panel urged the Transport Select Committee to ensure their report to the Government includes a focus on the ‘four As’ - Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, and Acceptability. Without addressing these key issues, they point out that millions of people will continue to face transport-related exclusion.

“Buses are an essential public service, yet too many communities are cut off from the bus network - this needs to change,” said Silviya Barrett from Campaign for Better Transport. “The Government must identify gaps in the current network, provide targeted funding to plug those gaps and introduce of a ‘bus service guarantee’ to ensure all communities have access to a good, affordable and reliable bus service in the future.”

“There is an urgent need for reform,” added Professor Lucas. “If the Government takes action now, we can create a sustainable, well-connected bus network that benefits communities, the economy, and public health.”

The government has revealed its plans to get Britain building again - some of them might just work

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 12:57:41 +0000

The UK government has published its , a cornerstone of its strategy for growth. The bill aims to and includes the hugely ambitious target of building in England over this parliament.

The bill is ambitious in scope – 160 pages long and very technical. But what does it promise exactly?

On , it outlines reforms to limit vexatious repeat use of judicial review to block development. There are also some measures for a stronger electricity grid to ease the move towards renewable energy. While the plan to reward people living with £250 off their bills grabbed headlines, just as important are measures for energy storage to level out peaks in demand and supply.

On the side, planning departments will be allowed to charge more to those making applications. This should speed up decisions by funding more planning officer roles. But there are no measures to increase funding for drawing up local plans. This is important because councils often fall behind schedule in producing these. And where there is no up-to-date plan, there is a danger that developers will push through controversial proposals.

The bill also provides for more decisions to be delegated to planning officials rather than planning committees – this means council staff rather than elected representatives. This already happens for smaller planning applications, so is not entirely new. But it does raise concerns about democratic scrutiny.

The government argues that local democracy will not be undermined, as planning officers will be making their decisions in the context of democratically approved local plans as well as national legislation. But this could be misleading, unless planning authorities have the funds to update local plans regularly.

There are also changes to existing legislation, to support the building of new towns. Particularly welcome is the responsibility on development corporations – government organisations dealing with urban development – to consider climate change and design quality. This is in order to hit net-zero targets and avoid cookie-cutter housing estates.

Other measures are aimed at ensuring appropriate infrastructure is built to serve these new towns.

There are changes planned too on when orders can be used to buy sites that are broadly to be used for the public good. This could be for affordable homes, health or education facilities, for instance. It would work by reducing payments to the actual value of the land rather than its “hope value” (when landholders hold out for price rises once planning permission is granted).

There is also a commitment to creating a fund, which the government hopes will overcome some of the delays to approving new housing caused by potential threats to wildlife.

The fund will aim to unblock development in general rather than specific sites, as happens at the moment, and will pool contributions from developers to fund nature recovery. Where there are concerns for wildlife, experts will develop a long-term mitigation plan that will be paid for by the fund while allowing the development to go ahead in the meantime.

Will it work?

As a professor of urban and environmental planning, the question for me is will the bill encourage development to progress more speedily? Almost certainly – probably mostly in terms of bringing forward improvements to critical national infrastructure schemes such as the electric grid. For residential development, some incremental speeding up is likely as developers crave certainty in planning decisions.

But on their own, these measures are unlikely to be enough to provide the 1.5 million new homes set out in the government’s target. They offer nothing to tackle critical bottlenecks in terms of both . It is also difficult to see the target being met without much more government involvement – by building social housing in particular.

Will the bill result in better quality development? There is surprisingly little in the plans about improving design quality, other than in areas. This is disappointing, and a missed opportunity to ensure that developers raise their game in residential building and neighbourhood quality.

And might it override local democracy? Arguably yes, but in practice not as much as some critics might argue. Most of the reforms are finessing existing practices, such as delegated powers to planning officers. Much depends on what the national government guidance turns out to be.

The biggest concern is that it might increase invisible political pressures on planning officers by councillors and senior officials. It would have been good to have seen more measures to protect their independence and professional judgement.

Hopefully the bill will speed up delivery of nationally important schemes for critical infrastructure. This means things like modernising the electricity grid and removing repeated use of judicial review to block a development. These elements should create jobs sooner and support economic growth.

Where the bill will make absolutely no difference is in improving living standards for people with older homes. This bill is focused on new builds and has little to offer those hoping for support in retrofitting ageing housing stock with more energy-efficient features or creating green spaces in areas where new development is increasingly in demand.

Despite some of the ministerial bluster about , much of the content of this bill is not about removing planning regulations. It is much more about improving them. Some measures will work better than others, but overall, given the government’s electoral mandate to deliver growth and protect the environment, this is a reasonable balancing act.

It’s unlikely to deliver much growth in its own right, but as an enabler of growth, it is promising. More worrying is whether it will lead to poor-quality housing built at pace and massive scale to inadequate energy-efficiency and design standards. This would fail to deliver on net-zero and biodiversity ambitions. It is very much a minor win for facilitating growth, but for nature it is nothing more than maintaining the status quo.

, Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning,
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Manchester expert appointed as Chair of UK2070 Commission

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 14:30:21 +0100

The - an independent inquiry into city and regional inequalities in the United Kingdom - has announced the appointment of Professor Cecilia Wong as its new Chair. Professor Wong brings a wealth of expertise and an exceptional track record in urban and regional development to the prestigious role.

Professor Cecilia Wong is a distinguished academic and a Professor of Spatial Planning and Co-Director of Policy@Manchester at The University of Manchester. She is a Fellow of both the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Town Planning Institute, highlighting her significant contributions to the field. In addition to her academic achievements, Professor Wong has served different assessment roles for the Economic and Social ��Ӱ�� Council (ESRC), including as the Chair of the ��Ӱ�� Approvals and Data Acquisition Committees of the Urban Big Data Centre and the UK ��Ӱ�� Excellence Framework assessments.

Her extensive experience extends beyond academia, having worked closely with various UK government bodies, the ESRC, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Homes and Communities Agency, and the Lyons Independent Housing Review. Her advisory roles to the European Commission on the Urban Audit II and to UN-Habitat on the City Prosperity Index underscore her global influence and commitment to sustainable urban development.

Currently, Professor Wong is engaged in a 5-year UK Preventive ��Ӱ�� Partnership funded project of tackling the root cause of health inequalities and urban planning decision-making. She was also the Principal Investigator of a joint ESRC and the China Natural Science Foundation project on eco-urbanisation, promoting sustainable development. Her work continues to shape policies and practices, driving forward the agenda of creating sustainable, prosperous urban environments.

Professor Wong's appointment as Chair of the UK2070 Commission marks a significant milestone for the organisation. Her leadership and vision are expected to further the Commission’s goals of addressing regional inequalities and promoting a more balanced and equitable development across the UK.

The Commission says it looks forward to the strategic direction and innovative approaches that Professor Wong will bring to the role, building on its existing work and expanding its impact.

The new Labour government plans to build 1.5 million homes – here’s what’s needed to make it happen

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:30:23 +0100

Written by , Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning, , Professor of Urban Economics & Real Estate, and , Professor of Urban Planning and GISc.

The UK’s new Labour government has set itself the bold target of in five years to deal with the critical shortage of housing.

To achieve this, it will have to deliver 50% more than the previous government managed over the same period.

Can it be done, and if so, what obstacles need to be overcome?

Labour has made it clear that reform of the planning system is an important element of plans to foster growth in the economy, and at the same time deal with issues that have been slowing down the pace of new development.

The party also made , including re-introducing local housing targets, recruiting more planners to local government, promoting social housing, prioritising brownfield sites and allowing development on so-called “grey belt” areas, such as wasteland or disused car parks, within the green belt, including a new generation of new towns.

This week’s king’s speech is expected to contain proposed legislation to enable these policies.

As planning and property professors at the University of Manchester we applaud the ambition to boost housing supply that has been lower than ; however, we urge caution about looking for quick wins by reducing planning powers and reforming planning in a rushed way.

For a start, this scale of development is pretty much unprecedented, so there are questions about whether it is achievable without recruiting many more skilled construction workers, building inspectors and local authority planners, as the government recognises.

Many infrastructure pinch points need to be resolved, too, not least upgrading the electricity grid, but also in transport and flood protection.

There are dangers, too, in giving the impression that large-scale proposals for new housing will automatically be looked favourably upon without adequate scrutiny around housing quality and neighbourhood design, flood-risk reduction and biodiversity.

New towns in particular must not be rushed. Instead, they need to be phased in over decades so they can grow organically rather than create townscapes that reflect a particular era of building styles.

While there is something to be said for releasing grey-belt land in the green belt, there is a danger that, if poorly devised, this proposal could create a perverse incentive for those farming productively in the green belt to allow their lands to convert to scrub so it can be sold off at higher prices.

The UK needs to build more houses quickly, but must address the known risks of future climate change. As we know from , increased temperatures, more extreme weather and rising sea levels will affect the how and where of house building in the UK. It will require choosing building materials and designs that withstand changing conditions, avoiding areas of heightened flood risk while using durable materials and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.

Poorly conceived reforms to bulldoze planning regulations in order to expedite new development, could result in poorly designed communities and poor-quality homes not fit to meet the UK’s net zero ambitions, passing on the costs to future generations, and specifically to home owners needing to .

Getting high-quality developments put forward in the first place should reduce public opposition and the need to engage in months of negotiating. Arguably then, more and better planning regulations are needed, not least to create high-quality, sustainable communities.

Building blocks needed first

For planning reforms to work well, other building blocks are needed first, such as expanding training for construction workers, building inspectors and planners. Reform of building regulations to address climate change, particularly energy performance in new buildings, is required as well as ensuring adequate water and sewerage infrastructure is in place, and improving electricity distribution networks.

The danger of not getting these building blocks in place early is that the scale of proposed house building will derail other policy goals, such as controlling inflation, reducing energy costs and achieving net zero targets.

For instance, if in the next two years, homes are built at the rapid pace as proposed, it might contribute to diverting skills from other growth sectors (such as vital retrofit work for heat pump or solar installation). It could also potentially fuel labour shortages and some regional and national wage inflation, mainly in the south-east where the gap between housing demand and supply is severe, and affordability are such serious issues.

While some increase in wages would be welcome after several years of stagnation, it is important to avoid returning to earlier periods of regional skill shortages and wage costs, especially now it is no longer possible to rely so much on attracting labour from EU countries.

Training enough new construction workers, re-training existing workers and attracting back those who have either left the labour market or moved into other sectors, will be key.

Finally, in creating new solutions to the under-delivery of new housing, it is important to acknowledge the value of public consultation on new plans and development proposals. So let’s focus first on getting the necessary building blocks in place and reform planning by making it efficient and better for all.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Royal Town Planning Institute speed networking event links students and industry

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 20:05:50 +0100

As part of an ongoing programme of activity by the department of to increase student exposure to industry voices and employment prospects, the department hosted members of the for an afternoon of speed networking.

The popular event, on the 5 June, co-designed by RTPI and PPEM welcomed national and local employers across real estate, planning, and environmental management sectors to The University of Manchester to talk with students on a one-to-one level.

In contrast to more traditional career fair events, the afternoon took a more innovative and interactive approach to recruitment, with the speed networking format facilitating interaction between all attendees, on a ten minute rotation between tables. This encouraged students to consider additional career opportunities and employers to those that they might have expected.

The approach was welcomed by students, with feedback on the day that the event was ‘a fresh approach to targeting students’, allowed ‘real engagement and interaction’, and ‘was fun’. Industry attendees were equally enthused, both by the format and by the calibre of students, with two offers of short-term placements secured immediately after the event, and valuable connections made for others.

Following the success of this event, the second in a series, it is now hoped that similar events will be held in both the autumn and easter period of the 2024/2025 academic year.

The department is grateful to Beverley Watson and Ben Teague of the RTPI for co-ordinating this event, alongside University colleagues Ushma Khadir, Bertie Dockerill, and Ian Mell.

Dr Vaidehi Tandel, Lecturer at the University of Manchester, was interviewed for a new documentary on the water mafia in Indian cities

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:28:10 +0000

features in a new documentary taking an inside look at India's vast black market for water.

'Water Mafia' produced by Vice Studios and DocuBay explores the political economy of water provisioning in two of India's major cities, Delhi and Mumbai.

The film explores the various methods employed by the water mafia to regulate water access for urban residents through interviews with individuals connected to the water mafia, whistleblowers, and victims. It also provides insightful perspectives from investigative journalists, economists, and urban planners and sheds light on the role of government corruption in facilitating and sustaining this operation.

The trailer for the documentary can be found .

The documentary was released in January 2024 and is available for streaming on the .

As an urban economist who researches the political economy of urban governance and planning in Indian cities, Dr Vaidehi Tandel was approached by the documentary makers to provide insight on the causes and magnitude of the problem of access to water in the city of Mumbai.

Describing the challenge of providing adequate water to the nearly 40% of the population that lives in slums, Dr Tandel notes in the documentary that “with the planning process, we did not do a good job of forecasting the number of people to come into the city…rather the focus was to try and de-densify. But the people came because of opportunities. The housing stock was not affordable for them…and there we saw a lot of slum settlements come up.”.

Dr Tandel has previously been quoted in the Financial Times ( and ) and appeared on two BBC podcasts ( and ), where she discussed the impact of COVID-19 and the future of cities.

View Dr Vaidehi Tandel's research .

PhD graduate receives prestigious Peruvian Association of Architects award

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 14:14:09 +0000

Dr. Jessica S. Pineda Zumaran, a PhD graduate from The University of Manchester, has been recognised with an award for Outstanding Contribution as a Planning Academic and Practitioner by the .

The award recognises Dr. Pineda-Zumaran’s outstanding professional and academic contribution to the field of urbanism and planning, and particularly the contribution to Peruvian cities. took place as part of a wider event to mark World Urbanism Day, with architect Álvaro Ugarte and economists Álvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort also honoured.

Dr Pineda-Zumaran achieved her PhD in Planning and Environmental Management in 2013, with support from two doctoral scholarships - the Overseas ��Ӱ�� Scholarship programme by the School of Environment and Development (now School of Environment, Education and Development) at The University of Manchester and the FINCyT Doctoral Scholarship Programme, awarded by Presidency of the Council of Ministries of Peru. During her studies at Manchester, Dr Pineda-Zumaran also acted as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Since leaving Manchester, Dr Pineda-Zumaran has held postdoctoral positions in Japan and Chile, before returning to Peru as lecturer in planning and urban development at the National University of Saint Augustine. Now ��Ӱ�� Director at , a ��Ӱ�� Centre in Urban and Territorial Theory, Dr Pineda-Zumaran works on issues such as urban informality, inequality, and the impact of neoliberalism on urban and territorial development, in the Peruvian and Latin American context.

Planning academic wins prize for excellence in online teaching during pandemic

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 11:40:36 +0100

won the 'Excellence in Teaching' award for an online module that used her engagement toolkit, Ketso ��Ӱ��, to build key skills in inter-disciplinary and critical thinking.

The AESOP competition recognises and rewards innovation in planning schools and the theme for 2021 was Planning Education in the Digital Space.

Dr Tippett’s winning module, Designing Sustainable Futures, introduced first-year students to sustainability challenges and asked them to find ways to tackle them, using the hands-on toolkit to help them visually structure their arguments and ideas during the teaching sessions, group work and assignments.

The toolkit Ketso ��Ӱ�� was designed by Dr Joanne Tippett during the pandemic to maintain a sense of community during online teaching. It allows users to ‘grow’ ideas using its sticky, colour-coded ‘leaves’ that can be written on and placed on a felt workspace, helping to capture thoughts and ideas and to prioritise them. These toolkits were posted to all students taking the module.

To further encourage engagement, students were asked to share pictures of their toolkit work in progress via a digital noticeboard, combining the value of individual time for reflective thinking with shared ideas and discussions. The judging panel praised the way this interactive approach provided an innovative way to teach large classes remotely and supported student-orientated teaching.

“When the pandemic physically disconnected students from their peers and lecturers, I created Ketso ��Ӱ�� to bring engagement and a sense of community back to teaching. I was genuinely surprised by the amount of positive feedback from students about how using the toolkit helped structure their thinking and helped them make sense of their learning both during and between the teaching sessions” said Dr Tippett.

“I am now really looking forward to using this tool in my future dual and face-to-face teaching, as it allows me to interject short bursts of active learning and discussion into sessions, no matter what the class size or setting.”

To share their expertise in student engagement and study skills, the winners of the 2021 AESOP awards will be hosting a series of webinars in August and September 2021. Find out more information and register:

Find out more about .

Manchester graduate named RTPI Young Planner of the Year

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 15:48:56 +0000

University of Manchester graduate Robyn Skerratt has been named the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Young Planner of the Year for 2020.

Robyn, who studied MPlan Town Planning and Urban Regeneration at the University in 2009/10, currently works for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and, among other achievements across numerous planning roles, oversaw the delivery of the UK’s first Voluntary National Review of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, presented to the United Nations in July 2019.

The judges commented: "Robyn embodies the idea of what an ambassador should be, for not only Young Planners but the profession for many years to come.

"Her confidence and passion for planning, and the future of the profession, shone through; it was all-encompassing and reached beyond the conventional realms of planning.

"Her work on developing the SDGs within Government and with the UN was particularly impressive and noteworthy.

"The judging panel were in awe of what she has been able to achieve in her career to date and are excited to see what she achieves as the Young Planner of the Year, and beyond.”

SEED finds success in Making a Difference 2018 awards

Fri, 04 May 2018 09:35:00 +0100

The Making a Difference Awards for 2018 were announced at a ceremony in the Whitworth Hall on Tuesday, 1 May, with six School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) colleagues recognised for their commitment to social responsibility.

The School's six successes came in three categories, highlighting the breadth of support our colleagues have shown to social responsibility over the past year. Congratulations to the following winners:

Outstanding benefit to society through research

Winner - and the HeadStart learning team (Manchester Institute of Education) for HeadStart learning
Winner (emerging impact) - (Geography) for Everyday Austerity

Outstanding contribution to social innovation

Winner - (Geography) for #Huckathon: Mapping hidden homes in post-conflict Northern Uganda to deliver medical care
Highly Commended - Seyedehsomayeh Taherimoosavi (Planning and Environmental Management) for Tackling fuel poverty with artificial intelligence techniques and blockchain technology

Outstanding local engagement

Highly Commended - Craig Thomas and team (Geography) for The Old Abbey Taphouse: A STEAM hub in a pub
Highly Commended - Caroline Boyd and team (Global Development Institute and the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute) for Be//Longing