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 …

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 …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property There have been a spate of local plans failing, being withdrawn or delayed in recent months. Most recent have been Basildon and Castle Point; the former withdrawing before the examination in public and the …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property Next week’s Queen’s speech is expected to include legislation to reform S106 payments and ‘affordable’ homes provision, replacing it with a flat-rate tariff, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph on 16 April …

The article was published in Placemaking Resource. Local plans and housing policies are failing to provide homes for older people and the most vulnerable, writes Michael Hardware. No one would argue with the fact that there is a housing crisis …

This is our first newsletter of 2022 and we have four thought-provoking articles looking at current government policies. Although the NHS reforms are in the process of being implemented, local government reforms are still being formulated or yet to be …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The 2021 housing delivery test results were published on Friday by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The test period covers the last three financial years, so from 2018 to 2021 …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The country has had a housing crisis for years: we have not built enough houses to meet demand for decades, which has resulted in a continually overheated market both for purchase and rent. Not …