Spotlight on Prof Ben Clifford

What is your role and what does it involve?

I’m Professor of Spatial Planning and Governance at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning. This is an academic role with a bit of a mixed portfolio of responsibilities. In general, I teach undergraduates and postgraduates and conduct research related to the planning system in the UK, particularly in relation to general aspects of planning reform, seeking to better understand how we govern the built environment and the relationship that has with outcomes. I also direct our MSc Spatial Planning and MSc Spatial Planning Degree Apprenticeship programmes.

How are you improving the health of the public?

I’m currently the Chief Investigator for a major NIHR funded research project, “Investigating potential health and health equality impacts of planning deregulation: The case of permitted development housing in England”. This project seeks to understand the health and wellbeing impacts of a planning deregulation introduced in England since 2013 whereby commercial buildings such as offices can be converted into housing without needing the full scrutiny of a traditional planning permission. From previous research, we know this can lead to some extremely poor quality housing being developed in terms of things like space standards, window arrangements and location. We’re now trying to better understand the impact this has on indoor environments, who the residents of these schemes are and the impact on their health and wellbeing, within a frame of housing being a key social determinant of health.

What do you find most interesting or enjoyable about your work?

I find research that leads to discovering new things about the world around me inherently interesting. I really enjoy the way my work involves a variety of different tasks which bring me into contact with such a wide range of people, helping me understand the diverse life experiences people have.

How have cross-disciplinary collaborations shaped your work?

I’m a geographer who works in urban planning within an inherently cross-disciplinary Faculty. Colleagues include architects and scholars from across the social sciences so cross-disciplinarity has long been at the heart of my own academic experience. My current research project brings me together with building physicists, epidemiologists and other health researchers. It’s really interesting to understand different ways we can look at the same issue, and the different types of data we think will most help address our research questions.

What advice would you offer to others interested in developing cross-disciplinary work?

I think it’s important to know who is out there and the type of research they do to be able to open your eyes to the different potentials of cross-disciplinary work. UCL is such an enormous institution, that it can be a challenge to know who is where and where you might go to find collaborators, but when you look there’s such great opportunity here for cross-disciplinary work.

What's next on the research horizon for you?

I’m really interested in more international comparisons on the issue of urban planning reform, and the governance contexts and drivers for this. I’ve been very UK-focussed in my work to date but think different insights can come from comparative work.

If you could make one change in the world today, what would it be?

Just one change is a real struggle, but at the moment I think in multiple ways it’d be good if more people could find the inherent humanity in trying to better understand each other and live together in peace.