The Department for Levelling Up Homes and Communities (DLUHC) did promise to publish the NPPF consultation before Christmas and, they were good to their word, the consultation was sneaked out on 22 December. The industry has until 2nd March to respond to the proposals. The Government really is between a …

It is difficult to remember a time when we did not have political turmoil – we had Brexit and COVID, the invasion of Ukraine, and then three leaders inside a few months. Hopefully, we will see a period of relative stability as we progress into 2023. The Conservatives have understandably …

This is true, and we have failed to meet their needs for many years. Local plans produced by districts, boroughs, and cities across the country rarely have provision for housing for older people, and where they do, it is usually unsophisticated and limited to care homes or sheltered accommodations. Councils …

Skills and training have been a problem in construction for decades. Many attempts have been made over the years to address this, but with only some limited success. As we come out of COVID and into a period where the Government is seeking to stimulate the economy through investment in …

In this issue of Planning Ahead we have five articles. We review the Conservative Party Conference, look at yet another local plan being delayed and provide insights into the new DLUHC ministerial team. We also have two interesting snippets from the Government on planning consents and the size of the green …

This month we have four articles looking at this week’s local elections, levelling up, planning gain reform and the current shape of the local plan system. We also have our local plan updates and an invitation to a seminar on Housing Policy and Older People. Please do feel free to get …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property It is that time of year again: tomorrow sees a plethora of district, borough, city and parish elections, together with all the London Boroughs and some other mayoral elections. The national polls are important in predicting outcomes as many voters do not distinguish between …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The Levelling Up white paper was published in February. It was not quite what everyone was expecting, and only partially explained what levelling up was and will be. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is likely to be in the Queen’s speech on 10 …