By Ruby Burdett, Consultant  The hotly anticipated  planning reforms  were  announced  in  the Queen’s  Speech  today  as  one of  the  Government’s priorities.  This re-commitment to comprehensive reforms of the planning system  will be welcomed by the industry which  has long  asked for  removal of the roadblocks that  delay or prevent development and …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The Government has decided that legislation to hold council meetings virtually will not be extended. This means all future meetings will have to be exclusively physical in nature, held again in council chambers and committee rooms across the country.  The lockdown last year to …

By Ruby Burdett, Consultant  In March 2021, our client, Inspired Villages, hosted a workshop entitled ‘Housing-with-care’ at the Conservative Councillor’s Association (CCA) Local Government Conference. The presentation highlighted the current lack of provision of housing for older people, the limited choice and flexibility, and the impacts this is having on society.   Currently, living options for older people are limited: they can stay in their own home, they can move into retirement …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The elections in May will be complicated, and confusing for voters. In some areas they will have four elections at once, all with different candidates: county, district, Police and Crime Commissioner and referendums on neighbourhood plans. There are also various delayed byelections to take place. Voters will, apparently, …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property Rt Hon Chris Pincher MP, Minister of State for Housing spoke later last month at the Building Garden Communities Conference organised by the Essex and Kent developers groups in conjunction with the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP  Chris Pincher started by saying that …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The prospect of radical local government reforms emerged in the late summer last year resulting in a frenzy of activity around the country. A manifesto pledge in the 2019 General Election, this will involve dissolving counties, districts and boroughs into unitary and combined authorities with elected …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property Chelgate Local is working with partners to help create a developers group for Hertfordshire. Discussions are ongoing with the Hertfordshire Growth Board and founding members about creating the group, its structure, governance and programme. Developers groups have emerged in a number of counties recently to provide useful …

By Ruby Burdett, Consultant  In his budget in spring last year, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced the Government’s growth plans for the area connecting Oxford and Cambridge. Almost a year later, after near radio silence on the matter, the Government has revisited the subject and has announced their ambitious plans.  MHCLG’s recently issued spatial framework could potentially see out the …