The 50 Shades of Planning Blog

If you were to talk about the three main things around AI and planning what would they be? This was a question posed in a WhatsApp group to which I am party and it prompted a thread that was so good that I asked the contributors if I could capture it. The consensus on those three main things was as following. Data AI is only as good as the data it uses, and the consensus seems to be that not only are we starting from a low baseline, digital maturity within LPAs is low as well. Plan-making, at all levels, offers the opportunity for a reset, but will that opportunity be taken? Efficiencies Within the plan-making process itself there might be, for example, opportunities in relation to identifying sites and their capacity. The greater opportunities to free up officer time within LPAs could though be using AI for PD and householder applications, many of which are more algorithmic. Objections & Engagement Any discussion about AI and planning either starts with or ends with the risks of A...

Episode 169 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. The role of local councillors in the planning system has been a familiar topic of conversation on the podcast in the context of, for example, overturning officer recommendations and the case for a national scheme of delegation. There is less talk about the role of MPs in the planning system, which is something that friend of the podcast Andrew Taylor wanted to remedy. This then is the first of what he and I hope will be five episodes exploring the role of a member of a parliament by way of conversations that Andrew records with representatives from the now five major parties. First, Labour, and a conversation recorded with Elsie Blundell and Mike Reader back in March. Andrew, regular listeners will know, is Group Planning and Sustainability Director at Vistry, Elsie represents Heywood and Middleton North and Mike represents Northampton South. Andrew explores with Elsie and Mike...

Episode 168 of the podcast is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. I was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity whilst there to catch up with friends of the podcast Charlotte Leach, Katie Wray, Claire Petricca-Riding and Paul Smith. Charlotte runs her own communications and strategic advisory business, Katie is a Director at Deloitte Real Estate, Claire is a Partner and National Head of Planning & Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell, and Paul is Managing Director at The Strategic Land Group and a Housing Today columnist. Our conversation, recorded at Reform Radio , was a good old fashioned 50 Shades-style ramblechat. We started with the local elections and then from Reform got on to planning reform and back again and before we knew it an hour had passed by.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, when two property professionals meet, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, their first talk is of the planning system. When two planners meet their first talk might not be of the RTPI, but very often, I find, conversations ultimately lead in that direction. For example, as you might have heard, during podcast episode 159 the point was made that, if the Masters required for chartered status burdens graduates with a year's more debt, and employers, certainly consultancies, do not in a tight labour market require such status, why would they stay at University for that final year or take on two years of part-time study? As another example, you might have seen recently that planners at Basildon were subjected to some pretty unpleasant behaviour by some councillors on the planning committee. Discussions with people about that led me to wonder how many planners within LPAs are chartered and so might expect to be able to rely on the RTPI for support were they to laun...