By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property Despite being pushed into the long grass last year, local government reforms have certainly not gone away. Originally in the 2019 election manifesto, there was a brief reveal in the summer last year but this resulted …

By Kasia Banaś, Account Director  Conservative gains  Last week’s local elections were hailed as a big success for the Conservatives who took control of a dozen councils and gained more than 200 new Tory councillors. Local elections and by-elections are traditionally a trying period for a governing party …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The Conservatives had a good night generally in the south east last Thursday, although tempered somewhat by growing support for the LibDems, the Greens and for resident candidates, all perhaps an indication of future trends. Labour had an excellent night in London.  …

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  …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …