Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities

The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms both the seriousness of the climate change challenge and the deep carbon emission reductions that are needed to avoid the worst consequences. A large fraction of those emissions come from existing buildings, and the special issue of Building Research and Information entitled ‘Climate Change: National Building Stocks’ (2007) (volume 35, number 4) describes both the range of buildings and emission reduction measures being undertaken in a number of countries. The challenge for the UK is set in an international context. Based on this information, a number of measures are suggested on a national scale that might achieve an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050. Le récent rapport du Groupe d'experts intergouvernemental sur l'évolution du climat (GIEC) confirme à la fois la gravité du défi que pose le changement climatique et l'ampleur de la réduction des émission de carbone qui sont nécessaires pour éviter les pires conséquences. Une partie importante de ces émissions provient du parc de logements existant, et le numéro spécial de Building Research and Information intitulé « Changement climatique: les parcs de logements nationaux » (2007) (volume 35, N° 4) décrit à la fois l'éventail des logements et les mesures de réduction des émissions qui sont mises en œuvre dans un certain nombre de pays. Le défi qui se pose au Royaume-Uni se situe dans un contexte international. Sur la base de ces informations, il est proposé un certain nombre de mesures à prendre au niveau national, qui pourraient permettre d'obtenir une réduction de 80% des émissions d'ici à 2050. Mots clés: parc de logements, réduction du dioxyde de carbone (CO2), intensité carbone, changement climatique, politique publique, Royaume-Uni

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between expressed emotion (EE) and outcome in family-based treatment (FBT) for anorexia nervosa (AN). METHOD: Eighty-six adolescents with AN participated in an RCT comparing two doses of FBT. Seventy-nine of these patients and their parents participated in a structured interview, from which EE ratings were made at baseline. Parents were compared on five subscales of EE as well as overall level of EE (high vs. low). RESULTS: Overall EE levels were low with 32.9% of families presenting as High EE at baseline. Ratings of baseline warmth for both mothers (p = .014) and fathers (p = .037) were related to good outcome at end-of-treatment. DISCUSSION: EE in parents of adolescents with AN is remarkably low. Notwithstanding, parental warmth may be a predictor of good outcome.

The pervasive use of drugs in the general population and the clearly established relationship between drug abuse and psychological disorder emphasizes the importance of diagnoses and treatment in both the mental health and the drug abuse service systems. Therapeutic community (TC) research findings on psychopathology are highlighted on the prevalence, trends, and impact of treatment, which indicate that TCs have evolved a potent model for modifying drug abuse behavior and reducing psychological symptoms. Although its success has been most evident with the primary substance abuser, the TC has much to offer the increasing numbers of dually diagnosed individuals who manifest their dysfunctionality both through drug abuse and psychological maladjustment.

Geographically referenced user generated content provides us with an opportunity to, for the first time, gather perspectives on place over large areas by exploring how very many people describe information. We present a framework for analysing large collections of user generated content. This involves classification of descriptive terms attached by users to photographs into facets of elements, qualities, and activities. We apply this framework to two contrasting photographic archives — Flickr and Geograph, representing weakly and strongly moderated content respectively. We propose a method for removing user-generated bias from such collections though the user of term profiles that can assess the effect of the most and least prolific contributors to a collection. Analysis and visualization of co–occurrence between terms suggests clear differences in the description of place between the two collections, both in terms of the facets used and their geographical footprints. This is attributed to the role of moderation/editorialising of content; to the role tags and free–text has on descriptive behaviour and on the geographic footprint of content supplied to the two collections.

This article examines the City of Santa Ana's responses to a changing urban landscape. We explore how the rapid growth of the Immigrant neighborhoods called into question traditional ways of municipal governance and city planning. We pay special attention to how the local government used land‐use policy to protnote urban revitalization and bring substandard housing up to code. Initially the urban policy choices fueled neighborhood‐based protest and exacerbated racial and dass tensions throughout the city; however, more recently the neighborhood activism has created a space for government reform.

This paper sets out the UK Government's perspective on sustainable development. The construction strategy published in 2000 is outlined and the paper touches upon how sustainable construction is influenced by regulations, codes and standards— including the new part M of the Building Regulations. The paper sets out the various ways in which the Government has sought to ensure a plentiful supply of high-quality water and outlines some of the technical issues related to the redevelopment of brownfield sites. Finally, it considers the strategic plans underlying the development of integrated transport, and in particular the road network, with reference to biodiversity, sustainable construction and accessibility.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine social sustainability effectiveness of eco-cities through the case of Masdar City’s strategy for urban sustainability in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Design/methodology/approach Using a case study approach, the paper is an exploratory, qualitative analysis, which investigates the social, environmental and economic performance of Masdar City, a purported carbon-neutral, zero-waste urban development. Findings Though Masdar City substantively contributes to innovation in sustainable urban development within environmental and economic contexts and has been effective in capital circulation in green technology markets, the impetus as a commercially driven enterprise is most evident. Successful sustainable urban development requires greater consideration for the social imperative. Practical implications Eco-city mega-projects, such as Masdar City, have the potential to fuse achievements in innovation, technology and economic enterprise with the social imperative of functional urban habitats. Originality/value Eco-cities are of increasing interest given the growing need for sustainable, energy-efficient living. This paper contributes through a novel case study, exploring how the concept of the eco-city has been developed and understood in the Masdar City context and discusses successes and deficits in its strategic implementation.

Explains the option of employing a professional facilities management (FM) consultant with expertise in all relevant areas to audit current facilities policies, operations and attendant costs. Considers the procedure of the audit, which is said to be based on the business process reengineering (BPR) concept, and provides a bottom‐up evaluation of critical operating processes at work in a company. Suggests reasons for the growing popularity of FM over the past ten years, and provides an example of Tarmac FM as one of the new multidisciplinary FM companies.

Nearly one quarter of Zambians lack access to sanitation facilities. In rural communities, the government of Zambia adopted community-led total sanitation (CLTS) to address this problem. One year after the implementation of a mobile-to-web monitored CLTS intervention, Chiengi District, Zambia, was verified as open defecation free with complete 100% coverage of household-level latrines. Chiefs and traditional leaders led the achievement. Impacts on individual health are yet to be measured in a robust way.

The number of people on the move internationally is increasing, and a sizable number of these individuals are migrating through and to the WHO European Region. The UN Sustainable Development Goals demand that we leave no one behind and ensure equitable implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), regardless of immigration status. In the WHO European region, some of the migrants in the most precarious situations are undocumented; defined as those who may have been unsuccessful in asylum applications, born to undocumented parents, continued their residence in a country after their permit or other means of stay expired, as well as those who have entered the country irregularly. These undocumented migrants face some of the biggest challenges to accessing UHC and are often left behind by systems that exclude and stigmatise them. This paper examines the literature on access to healthcare for undocumented migrants in the WHO European Region and calls for urgent action towards ensuring UHC for all migrants regardless of immigration status by 2030.

Abstract Nature conservation and social equity issues have been approached in a myriad of ways by conservation, humanitarian, and development practitioners. The rapid and shifting urbanization of the globe makes the interaction of these issues paramount and it is imperative to articulate pathways to harmonizing these relationships readily followed by conservation practitioners. We describe the processes and compare the resulting social equity and conservation objectives of two initiatives purposefully integrating these approaches. A private nonprofit seeking to develop an urban conservation program in the Atlanta metropolitan area purposefully engaged residents from surrounding communities and self‐identified local and sector leaders to identify communities where social equity and conservation objectives could be created together. A public agency, built on a century‐long history of environmental stewardship for migratory birds and pollinators, integrated 20 years of participatory action research to engage the surrounding communities using methods suggested and developed by the communities themselves. In both cases, community‐based research approaches have helped establish cocreated objectives and flexible monitoring and evaluation baselines. Both initiatives found a need to appropriately resource and train staff to remain open to learning and evolving new objectives as additional perspectives emerge and the impact on conservation and equity objectives is assessed.

Research into the barriers of getting evidence produced by academics into policymaking processes has often highlighted the lack of research on academics and what they do, as compared to what policymakers do. This was most recently highlighted in a systematic review of the literature (Oliver et al, 2014). This paper reports on research carried out with academics who were tasked with producing evidence reviews for the UK Department for Communities and Local Government based on research funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. Using a novel co-produced methodology the academics were interviewed by an academic and a UK civil servant, with the analysis carried out by both. Using an interpretive approach, the findings identify specific meaning-making stories or practices that were enablers or barriers to producing evidence suitable for policymakers. The paper identifies three areas that affect academic behaviour at the nexus with policymaking: career biographies; disciplinary background; and the contradictory institutional pressures on academics. We conclude by arguing for a more collaborative approach between academics and policymakers. The co-produced approach also allowed us to identify the need for policymakers and civil servants to learn more about the different drivers of academics and the ways in which they work.

Abstract: Drawing on criminological, communications and marketing theory, a booklet containing facts about the criminal justice system (CJS) was designed and delivered to over 2,000 members of the public in three different ways. Knowledge of, and attitudes toward, the CJS were tested before and after receipt of the booklet and the results compared with a control group. The experiment provides evidence, based on a rigorous research methodology, that effective presentation of national and local crime statistics and other CJS information can have a positive impact on public confidence. The findings also demonstrate that the delivery mechanism of information is also important.

ABSTRACT A propositional temporal logic is introduced whose operators quantify over intervals of a reference time line. The intervals are specified symbolically, for example ‘next week's weekend’. The specification language for the intervals takes into account all the features of real calendar systems. A simple statement which can be expressed in this language is for example: ‘yesterday I worked for eight hours with one hour lunch break at noon’. Calendar Logic can be translated into propositional logic. Satisfiability is therefore decidable. Since the translation is exponential, a tableau decision procedure for checking decidability is presented as an alternative.

Abstract Hundreds of thousands of adults participate in book discussion groups, satisfying lifelong learning needs informally and in community.

Measuring parent satisfaction with services is essential in the evaluation of early intervention programs. However, there is a paucity of satisfaction measures specifically developed for this purpose, and the psychometric properties of existing measures have not been widely examined. The aim of this study was to further investigate the internal consistency of 1 such measure, the European Parent Satisfaction Scale about Early Intervention (EPASSEI). A slightly modified version of the EPASSEI was completed by 112 carers (mainly mothers) of children with physical disabilities receiving early intervention services in Queensland, Australia. Internal consistency of the measure was examined using the Cronbach α. Internal consistency among items was very high (the Cronbach α = .98), with little evidence of item redundancy. Individual subscales were also shown to have a high degree of internal consistency and internal consistency was similar across the 3 service provider organizations participating in this study. The present study examined the internal consistency of an instrument measuring parent satisfaction with early intervention services. While additional examination of the validity of the measure is required, this study lends further support to the use of this measure in evaluating early intervention services for children with physical disabilities.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees were introduced in England and Wales in the Local Government Act 2000 that ended the role the full council and its committees as the locus of decision‐making for most local authorities. Overview and scrutiny committees composed of councillors not on small decision‐making executives were tasked with holding these to account. The performance of scrutiny committees is variable. Generally they work best where they concentrate on reviews of policy and practice, with recommendations following from well‐researched reports. The paper reviews the difficulties which arise when scrutiny committees endeavour to hold powerful executives to account, and suggests that to strengthen this new legislation is required, in particular to institutionalise scrutiny committees as agencies of the full council, the representative body for the area, comparable to the way in which the select committees at Westminster are the agencies of the Parliament.

BACKGROUND: postbiotic, derived from yeast fermentate, has been demonstrated to improve immune function in adults, reducing the incidence of cold/flu-like or allergy symptoms. As such, studies are warranted in children as available pharmaceutical options have unwanted side effects. METHODS: Two-hundred and fifty-six children aged 4-12 years attending school/daycare were randomized to either EpiCor or Placebo for 84 days during the 2022-2023 flu season in Ontario, Canada. The Canadian Acute Respiratory Illness and Flu Scale (CARIFS) and study diary assessed the incidence and severity of cold/flu symptoms and the use of cold/flu medications. Adverse events were recorded. RESULTS: Total CARIFS severity scores, 'sore throat' and 'muscle aches or pains' symptom scores in the EpiCor group were significantly lower compared to Placebo during incidences of cold/flu (P ≤ 0.05). Participants taking Placebo were 1.73 times more likely to use cold/flu medication compared to those receiving EpiCor (P = 0.04). The incidence of cold/flu symptoms was not significantly different between groups. EpiCor was found to be safe and well-tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: EpiCor supplementation resulted in significantly lower cold/flu symptom severity and less cold/flu medication usage than Placebo demonstrating a beneficial effect on immune function in children. IMPACT: postbiotic derived from yeast fermentate had significantly lower overall cold/flu symptom severity, and severity of sore throat and muscle aches or pains over the 84-day supplementation period. EpiCor supplementation resulted in decreased use of traditional cold/flu medication. Daily supplementation with 500 mg of EpiCor for 84 days was safe and well tolerated by healthy children aged 4-12 years attending school or daycare.

Commodities have long been viewed as the poor cousin in the investment universe, and often for a good reason. Unlike equities, commodities do not offer a so-called market beta with prices drifting higher over time in line with economic activity. In contrast, they present a collection of unique price returns that reflect the underlying supply and demand dynamics of physical assets that serve as the global economy’s building blocks. This article takes a new look at commodities as an asset class and at their uses in a portfolio, which historically have been diversification and inflation protection. The authors analyze different commodity beta allocations and identify alternative investment uses of commodities. Such uses include building blocks to express particular investment themes, tactical trading tools, and multiasset risk premia allocation components. <b>TOPICS:</b>Commodities, portfolio construction, financial crises and financial market history <b>Key Findings</b> ▪ Although investors have rightly questioned the benefits of commodities in a diversified portfolio over the past decade, there may still be some validity to the diversification and inflation protection arguments touted by long-only commodity advocates. ▪ Evidence suggests a positive relationship between the level of inflation and returns of a broad basket of commodities. The contemporaneous nature of this relationship can make it difficult to capture unless exposure is held continuously, which may be an unjustifiable drag on the performance of a diversified multiasset portfolio. ▪ The commodities market is well suited to risk premia strategies. It is a unique market in which participants with different objectives interact on a futures curve, thereby creating persistent and harvestable risk premia.

This chapter contains sections titled: Context Value from innovation Promoters of innovation Managing the innovation process Example innovations from professional practice Conclusion Postscript Comment to Innovation in the construction sector by Jeremy Watson References References to Postscript Comment