Public-realm specification in 2026 is increasingly a coordination exercise between paving, drainage, walking and cycling routes, street furniture and protective security. Decisions that once sat in separate packages can now affect the same kerb line, pavement build-up or section of streetscape.
The change is visible across current UK guidance. England's revised planning framework requires development that could affect drainage to incorporate sustainable drainage systems, while national active-travel guidance sets detailed expectations for cycle infrastructure and the National Protective Security Authority is pushing hostile vehicle mitigation into the design of public spaces rather than treating it as a late security addition.
Public realm and active travel infrastructure in the City of London, with construction works continuing alongside the live street. Photo: London Construction Magazine.
SuDS now sits inside the landscape design
The September 2026 National Planning Policy Framework says development proposals that could affect drainage on or around a site should incorporate SuDS to control runoff rates and volumes. It also calls for multifunctional benefits including water quality, biodiversity and amenity.
That puts drainage directly into public-realm layout decisions. Permeable surfaces, falls, kerbs, channels, tree pits, planting and exceedance routes have to work together. The Government's national SuDS standards also call for drainage to be integrated from the conceptual stage of development and coordinated with planning, urban design, landscape and ecology.
A paving specification can therefore carry consequences beyond appearance and loading. Changing the surface type, crossfall or edge detail can alter how water reaches a drainage feature and how the wider system behaves during heavy rainfall.
Active travel changes the detail at ground level
The Department for Transport's LTN 1/20 Cycle Infrastructure Design covers the space allocated to cycling, transitions between carriageways and tracks, junctions, crossings, construction and maintenance. Those requirements reach directly into kerb profiles, paving, drainage, crossings and street furniture positions.
Active Travel England added further guidance in July 2026 with its Rural Design Guide for active travel, covering walking, wheeling and cycling routes and facilities. Although aimed at rural schemes, the wider direction is consistent: routes need to work as continuous pieces of infrastructure rather than isolated stretches of surfacing.
On an urban scheme, a single junction can therefore combine pedestrian movement, cycle segregation, tactile paving, drainage falls, utilities, loading requirements and vehicle access. Resolving one element late can force alterations to several others.
HVM is becoming part of the streetscape
Protective security creates another interface. The National Protective Security Authority's Public Realm Design Guide for Hostile Vehicle Mitigation recommends integrating HVM into planning and site design. Its examples include street furniture, planters, trees, changes to road layout and other features that can restrict or slow hostile vehicle approaches.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 has added another reason for project teams to consider physical security earlier. Government statutory guidance gives hostile vehicle mitigation, bollards, street furniture, walls, gates, bunds and planters as examples of physical measures that may be appropriate for qualifying enhanced-tier premises and events.
For designers, the foundation can be as important as the visible object. A security-rated bollard or planter may need substantial below-ground construction in the same zone already occupied by drainage, utilities, tree pits and pavement build-ups. Moving it late can mean reopening several coordinated designs.
London schemes show why coordination starts early
The issue is particularly visible on constrained London streets. LCM's analysis of the Fleet Street public-realm proposals found that pedestrian space, cycling, planting, servicing and construction access all have to be resolved within an existing historic corridor.
The same problem is emerging on Oxford Street as it moves towards permanent public-realm design. Surface materials are only one part of the job. Utilities, servicing, security, drainage, movement and long-term maintenance all compete for limited space above and below ground.
For specification teams, that makes the useful question less about choosing an individual paving slab, kerb or piece of street furniture and more about whether the whole assembly works together. Drainage needs a route, active travel needs usable clear space, HVM needs the right position and foundation, and every element still has to be installed, inspected, maintained and eventually replaced.
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Founder & Author, London Construction Magazine | Construction Testing & Investigation Specialist