By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property In our last newsletter we talked about the Housing Delivery Test and the 100 or so local authorities which failed it. The test looked at housing need and housing delivery over the last three years and represented it as a percentage. Those …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property, Chelgate Local Michael is also an Essex County and Harlow District councillor, vice-chairman of the county Development and Regulation Committee and sits on the district Development Management Committee. Quality design in all its facets and ‘place’ are key streams in the new …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property Using excerpts from ‘Later Living: Are we planning for our future?’ published by Barton Willmore, we take a look at the changing profile of the later living population and what challenges and opportunities this poses for the market.  Barton Willmore’s full report …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property Castle Point council this week voted its draft local plan down. As the council is on the Secretary of State James Brokenshire’s ‘naughty list’ it looks likely that the Government will intervene and the south Essex authority will become the first in the …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property We have all at some point come out of a planning committee wondering what had just happened. A perfectly reasonable policy-compliant planning application had been unexpectedly refused for vague and perhaps spurious reasons, or on an issue which you were not aware of. …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The dust has finally settled from another entertaining 2018 party political conference season, with plenty to mull over. One unforgettable highlight this week saw an unconventional podium walk from the Prime Minister at the Conservative conference in Birmingham. Aside from that, the past three weeks has also seen Labour coming out strong …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The Cambridge and Peterborough Mayor has been critical of some of the planning authorities in his region for standing against greater growth. Speaking at the Built Environment Network event in Cambridge on Tuesday evening (25th September), James Palmer said that he had been …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property This article was published in Housebuilder magazine on September 7, 2018. You can view it here (registration required). The role of county councils in planning appears to be changing. Hertfordshire County Council last year called for more planning powers to be able to …