By Kasia Banaś, Account Director  Chiltern and South Bucks (CSB) Local Plan is the latest victim of a failure in the duty to cooperate process and the latest hotly anticipated reform of the planning system. Bruised by some damming comments from the Planning Inspectors and the impact of COVID-19, the Buckinghamshire Council …

By Liam Herbert, Chief Executive Officer It would seem that plans by No 10 and MHCLG to bring root and branch reform of local government have quietly fallen into the very very long grass. Following a robust reaction from many councils and districts Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government …

This article was published in Place Making Resource on the 23rd of September and can be found here (subscription required). By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property  County-wide collaborations between players from housing and the public sector are the way ahead, argues Michael Hardware. Several counties have seen the emergence of developer …

  This month we bring you our series of online seminars on forthcoming proposals on reorganisation of local government and planning reforms. Read on for news on the Sevenoaks and St Albans Local Plans, Maidstone’s gamble to keep housing numbers down, the future of Cambridge, and much more…   Chelgate …

By Ruby Burdett, Consultant  The UK government have recently laid out a plethora of radical reforms to the planning system and local government. The planning reforms, which aim to modernise and speed up the planning process, are within the Planning White Paper published in August, and the local government reform white …

By Alia Khan, Consultant  Cambridge has experienced high rates of economic growth for decades, with a particular emphasis on business research centres that lead the world in science and innovation.  It does, however, face an historic challenge in being able to provide affordable housing despite the city thriving economically. The …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property  Not usually associated but these two districts are currently on a similar path: planning inspectors have found both wanting in their duty to cooperate with adjoining authorities. Sevenoaks was in the High Court earlier this month with a judicial review of its inspector’s …

The Government has embarked upon ambitious reforms both of the planning system and, at the same time, local government structure. A step too far? Perhaps not as proposals for both do seem to complement each other. It is clear, however, that we have to prepare ourselves for a period of …