Episode 184 of the podcast is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. As you will be aware, planning fans, the previous Government’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 introduced the legislative framework for a new system of local plan-making and in March this year the current Government introduced the regulations concerning this new regime. The headline changes are that local authorities will be required to complete plans within a condensed 30-month period; conduct three public consultations rather than the two currently required; and pass through three mandatory gateway checks on the way. As you may be less aware, 39 authorities, those that had submitted, but not adopted, a plan for examination on or before 12 March 2025 that proposed meeting less than 80% of local housing need, had to publish a Notice of Intention to commence plan-making by 30 June 2026 and will have to publish a Gateway 1 Self-Assessment by 31 October 2026. Authorities not intending to...
Episode 173 of the podcast is available now via this link or from the usual platforms. I was in London recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friends of the podcast Simon Ricketts, Andrew Taylor and Mike Kiely. Simon is a Partner at Town Legal, Andrew is Group Planning and Sustainability Director at Vistry and Mike is a former Chief Planner, now independent planning consultant working mainly in the public sector as well as chairing the board of the Planning Officers Society. In a conversation recorded at Brazen Studios in Southwark, which we enjoyed visiting for the first time, we kicked around a few of the issues exercising the planning profession at the minute. Our ramble chat took in evidenced unmet need; the pause to local government reorganisation; housing targets; Reform’s planning teal paper; the importance of next month’s budget; and reports from the RTPI of increasing use of its professional conduct complaints process as a way of people seeking to challenge L...