This chapter sets England's current poor performance in the wider context of European experience of policy on the built environment, including in relation to the other nations of Britain. There are many examples of utopian thinking and no perfect model; however, an exploration of the diversity of international approaches to placemaking and to the values that underpin these approaches, not only starkly highlights how far England has fallen behind, but also some of the possible ways we can put the nation back on track.

World-leading rhetoric

England used to be at the forefront of utopian thought and, until relatively recently, the nation prided itself on being a world leader in a number of key areas. Let's take the 2008 Climate Change Act as an example. It set the world's first legally binding climate change target, requiring the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, as compared with 1990. Jim Watson highlights that one of the reasons why it was so successful and ambitious was because of the ‘level of cross-party support it received. It was enacted by the Labour government, under pressure to do more on climate change by opposition parties and NGOs.’ The Climate Change Act demonstrated the power of cross-party consensus and the NGO community's being unified around an important goal.

The Act established an independent Committee on Climate Change to advise the government on emissions targets and progress on other aspects of the Act. To set a pathway to 2050, the Committee on Climate Change proposed a series of five-year carbon budgets that were legislated for by Parliament. In 2009 the first three carbon budgets were set, covering the periods 2008–12, 2013–17 and 2018–22. In 2011 the fourth budget was set for the period 2023–27, committing the UK to reduce emissions to 50% below 1990 levels.

In 2013 the Committee on Climate Change reported in its fifth statutory report to Parliament on progress towards meeting the UK’s carbon budgets, that ‘The UK has met the first carbon budget and our assessment is that we are likely to meet the second carbon budget. However, we are not currently on track to meet the third and fourth carbon budgets’.