The conference season ended with the Conservatives in Birmingham. Shadow Culture Minister Ed Vaizey MP and Ben Page of Ipsos MORI made very enthusiastic contributions to a rousing RIBA/Urban Hub debate on Happiness and the built environment. Vaizey stated in the strongest terms that design isn't taken seriously enough and expressed  his wish to see the creation of a Government Chief Architect post.

Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps MP and Shadow Communities Minister Jacqui Lait MP spoke to a packed venue at the Climate Clinic. The event "Eco-towns: White Elephant or Green Solution?" was the perfect chance to hear relevent Conservatives outline the Party's view on the project. Shapps said that the Government had taken "a good idea and screwed it up". Lait said that the whole programme was typical of the Government's top-down approach.

Matters of Security and Resilience were next to be debated at what proved to be a very informative, focused debate with Baroness Neville Jones (Shadow Security Minister), London Assembly Member Roger Evans were on a panel chaired by RIBA President-Elect Ruth Reed. Neville-Jones outlined the shift from securing solely important landmarks to thinking about protecting people and the systems that serve them. Evans highlighted the grave risk of serve flooding that London is facing. 

All the RIBA's fringe events were followed by key meetings between our President-Elect and the Public Affairs Team and relevant shadow ministers and other built environment stakeholders present at the conference.  

For more information please contact: David Plaisant, Policy and Public Affairs Co-ordinator, E: david.plaisant@inst.riba.org|