The Planner Sept/Oct 2025

Golden isle How young people are reimagining the map of Anglesey

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2025

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Win this issue’s original cover art For this issue’s cover, which illustrates a pioneering youth engagement project in Anglesey, we invited planner, artist and RTPI member Vicky Payne to create a cover image for us. And we’re giving it away to one of our readers.

About the cover Our cover illustrates the feature on pages 26-31 about Lle Llais, a youth engagement project which has seen young people contribute to planning processes through a reimagining of the map of the island of Anglesey.

To illustrate this, we asked Vicky to create an original piece of art for our cover. Here’s an extract from her artist statement giving the background to the work – you can read it in full on the competition page.

“The feature that this piece illustrates is close to my heart, having grown up in North Wales and spent a lot of time on Anglesey. My art practice has recently moved from urban sketching and conventional illustration into more mystical, symbolic territory, inspired by female visionaries like Hildegard of Bingen.

Welsh culture is stuffed full of myths and legends, so this piece felt like a good opportunity to continue exploring that style, as well as loosely reflect some of the visual cues of historic religious Welsh art.

The radiating lines represent the sea,

sand and tides, but also the complex flow of data being captured by the Anglesey project.

In my research and inspiration mapping for the piece, I wanted to draw links between the digital nature of the research and the networks, systems and information flows of the landscape and community being captured.

“Overall, the piece is intended to symbolise the complexity of drawing meaning from the external chaos of the world into the civilising and hopefully illuminating container of a map.”

Enter here

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How to enter To win Vicky’s original artwork for this issue’s cover, scan the QR code to visit the competition webpage by 22 October, answer the questions and submit. It’s easy. We’ll announce the winner on World Town Planning Day, 8 November.

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SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER 2025

ENVIRONMENT | ECONOMY | SOCIETY

38

ANALYSIS 4

Fit for a changing climate?

Why we need to design for a hotter, wetter future.

10 News by nation

FEATURES

Stories from the countries of the UK and Ireland

26 Anglesey reimagined

Inside a pioneering mapping project

32

32 In conference

56

National Planning Conference speakers 38 Planner power

The RTPI’s new strategic plan, outlined

OPINION

62

16 Inside out

Reflections from The Planner’s writers

POLICY & PRACTICE 46 Appeals

Development decisions, round-up and analysis

17 Hippodamus

The inside track on the RTPI’s rebrand

52 Evidence base

Research, legislation, policy and guidance

18 Submitted for approval

Planning-related material and activity from across the media spectrum

54 Legal insight

Charles Mynors on the Planning (Wales) BIll

20 Steve Quartermain

56 Virtually perfect

Reflections on shop queues and consultation

Case study: Watford’s digital twin

21 Nicola Gooch

Water - the albatross around planning’s neck 22 Views from the sector

Speakers from the National Planning Conference preview sessions Cover Image: Vicky Payne

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26

INSTITUTE 62 RTPI activity round-up

Royal Town Planning Institute news and views September / October 2025 | The Planner | 3

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Online The Planner publishes daily at theplanner.co.uk

Fe Feature Dangerous game D How selling off play space is fuelling a children’s ch health crisis. b.link/planner0910-playspace b.lin

Event Young Planners’ Conference 2025 Previews, reflections and reports from the annual event b.link/planner0910-youngplanners

News Rayner down, Reed rises b.link/planner0910-stevereed b.link/planner0910-raynerresigns

Feature Can AI democratise planning?

Prof. Alex Lord on planning and rechnology.. b.link/planner0910-aiinplanning

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10

Expanding wasteline NI’s crucial wastewater upgrade

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Scots support

6/10 rural Scots back new housing

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Turbo powered

96 new wind turbines for the Irish Sea

ANALYSIS NEWS REPORT

DESIGNING HOMES AND COMMUNITIES FOR A HOTTER, WETTER FUTURE As the built environment sector looks to deliver on Labour’s housing plans, how do we ensure they are fit for a changing climate?

WORDS: LAURA EDGAR

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NEWS REPORT “[New town] design must be an iterative process involving developers, infrastructure providers, local communities, politicians, and planning authorities” – Chris Webber

y garden is baked; my home office is hot; and, as I write this, the majority of England is under either an amber or yellow heat health alert – and it isn’t the first heat health alert this summer.

Speaking of alerts, there were a fair few floods over previous winters, too.

With the government aiming to build 1.5 million homes this Parliament and deliver a programme of new towns, this raises questions.

Once in power, Labour was quick to establish a New Towns Taskforce.

The plan is for each new settlement to contain at least 10,000 homes and a shortlist of potential sites is expected soon.The task force’s interim report in February stated that the next generation of new towns “must be ambitious in meeting environmental targets, including to achieve net zero, support climate resilience and encourage biodiversity, to ensure they are fit for the future”.

Statistics illustrate the task ahead.

Provisional Met Office data suggests that June’s mean UK temperature of 15.2°C was the second-highest on record for the month, surpassed only by June 2023, which recorded 15.8°C. Heat stress is the leading cause of weather-related deaths and can exacerbate underlying illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health and asthma, said the World Health Organization last year. In 2023, a UK Health Security Agency blog in 2023 highlighted that flooding has “significant impacts” on health, including skin and gut infections from contaminated floodwater.

How, then, are we going to design these new homes and communities to keep us cool in summer, warm in winter, and dry when it rains?

M

Baked into the plan We must be ambitious from the outset,

says Katja Stille, director at Tibbalds, and bake climate resilience and net zero into new town masterplans.

Setting out “robust” urban structures with networks of natural space as the “backbone for healthy, climate-resilient neighbourhoods” begins with a sitespecific approach. Plans should work with topography, natural drainage and existing greenery to reduce flood risk, manage heat and improve biodiversity.

Spatial structures should encourage walking, cycling and public transport within compact, connected neighbourhoods, she continues, while “passive house, net-zero carbon and 50 per cent open space should be standard”.

Mandatory requirements and clear guidance “are essential to create a common framework that offers certainty beyond political cycles”, notes Will Edmonds, head of housing and land planning at Montagu Evans, while Stille says new town frameworks should be flexible. A successful masterplan, she adds, “balances structure with adaptability: setting clear principles for movement, landscape, and land use, while allowing for different forms of delivery and future needs”.

David Mountain, the RTPI’s research manager, highlights that the post-war new towns were initiated following “rigorous and thorough surveying” before the proactive planning stage. The issue with this methodology “was the lack of space for iteration within individual schemes following commencement”.

Hence, Mountain continues, “the rising demand for ongoing community engagement as part of the planning process, and the long-awaited cybernetic ideal (today ‘smart cities’) whereby ongoing data collection becomes the medium bringing together analysis, governance and development around accelerated timelines”.

His colleague Robbie Calvert, head

“Experience demonstrates that developer lobbying can dilute ambition” – ADEPT

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NEWS REPORT Solar panels are likely to become a standard feature on all housing as the temperature rises

of policy and public affairs, adds that “the careful integration of green infrastructure” in the masterplanning process “is going to be critical”. Elaine Toogood, senior director, concrete, at the Minerals Product Association (MPA) stresses that spaces between buildings should provide the necessary “‘sponginess’ and shading”.

“It is very easy to see the multiple benefits that nature-based solutions can provide, and more intensive green roofs and urban trees should be required. However, the reality is that these solutions must also be combined with some hardstanding and thoroughfares, including permeable concrete paving as part of SuDS.” For senior design manager at Trees for Cities, Grace Walker, it’s important to reuse grey water as irrigation and ensure that networks of drainage systems “are accessible and can be maintained, [and] installed from the beginning, rather than retrofitted”.

Alamy

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A blank canvas Design codes, says Stille, can translate a masterplan into clear, site-specific parameters that guide the character and sustainability of new places.

Edmonds agrees, adding that a “standardised playbook providing greater levels of certainty” means promoters and developers “know exactly what’s expected”. He argues that Homes England has an “important role” to play here.

Starting from scratch, as Walker notes, allows for street trees and green edges that harvest water from the road to be factored into the design, with set-back pavements integrated with small parks, and bike and buggyfriendly shaded spaces. Homes and offices, too, can have green screens and living walls.

Rain gardens and vegetated swales help manage floodwater, adds Ben Kite, director at EPR, whilst providing space for biodiversity.

He contends that streets should be designed to incorporate features that “encourage outdoor interactions with nature, such as edible hedgerows, espalier fruit trees, provision for nesting birds and roosting bats (which has incidental benefits in terms of pest control, which will become increasingly important in a warmer future where mosquitoes and midges are more abundant)”.

The concept of ensuring that buildings are well insulated against cold and heat with suitable ventilation to reduce overheating is not new, highlights ADEPT, the representative for place directors. It is “simply one that has not been insisted on” to date.

“It is not only necessary to provide good ventilation but to ensure it is competently installed and maintained by a competent workforce who are suitably accredited to evidence the fact – something that we lack regulation on in the UK,” says ADEPT. Enhanced ventilation systems that remove harmful pollution from the air “may be more important in a future climate more prone to wildfires (80 per cent of indoor particulate pollution can come from outdoors)”, ADEPT points out.

With the Future Homes Standard to be published this autumn, which will mandate that all new homes are zero-carbon ready, ADEPT says that “experience demonstrates that developer lobbying can dilute ambition”. It cites the cancellation of the Zero Carbon Homes policy in 2016 as an example that has cost homeowners an estimated £5 billion in energy bills.

“Strong and enforceable regulation is essential. But regulation alone won’t solve the problem. Developers ultimately respond to market forces and currently, house prices and buyer preferences don’t reflect the genuine social and environmental benefits of climateresilient homes.”

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NEWS REPORT “When empowered with a clear mandate for climate resilience, biodiversity and social value, development corporations can act as strategic vehicles for innovation” – ADEPT

Achieving all of this can only be realised through meaningful and sustained collaboration among all stakeholders, says Chris Webber, group planning manager at Barratt Redrow.

“Its design must be an iterative process involving developers, infrastructure providers, local communities, politicians and planning authorities. Larger developments and extensions to existing town and garden villages also require specialist skills.”

Furthermore, “genuine” engagement with the right stakeholders is “essential to ensure that what’s built reflects what communities truly want and need”, while “co-design from the outset is fundamental to creating places that foster successful, lasting communities”.

Transparency about decision-making is key for building and maintaining support from potential investors, residents, commercial tenants and other stakeholders, adds Mountain.

Material considerations Ninety million tonnes of concrete are consumed every year in the UK, and Toogood says its inherent properties are “essential for the design of climate resilient homes, buildings and infrastructure”.

Therefore, it is important to continue the transition to net zero that “has seen the industry deliver a 53 per cent reduction in absolute CO2 emissions since 1990”. On this, she says that the MPA and The Concrete Centre are “helping industry make informed decisions to use materials wisely and to specify the most sustainable mixes”.

She continues: “Concrete construction is able to support climate resilience through the provision of noncombustible, flood resilient structures that also offer a means of passive cooling through use of its high thermal mass... This includes use of concrete in permeable paving, which slows run-off,

or durable structures that are resilient to the impacts of water, and which can be used to support planting.”

The UK, Toogood says, is “blessed with the right minerals and geology to provide enough aggregates, concrete and cement to meet Labour’s housebuilding plans and future needs”. Local sourcing of materials also reduces economic vulnerability.

However, Calvert argues that, unlike the ‘concrete forward’ approach of previous new towns, less carbonintensive building supplies, including mass timber construction, need to be considered. “The country needs to scale up our production of timber, which is an interesting example of how land use and development are inextricably linked.”

Greener schemes Green infrastructure and planting must be considered at the planning stage, says Walker, using smaller fastgrowing trees and shrubs initially.

Agreeing, Kite adds that fastgrowing climbers can be added to wall trellises/green façades, to help intercept sunlight and improve the thermal efficiency of buildings.

Species-rich grasslands and wetlands can be established within one growing season, providing carbon sequestration, water attenuation and ‘evapotranspiration’.

For Webber, priority should be given to the “proper installation and ongoing maintenance” of trees and other greenery. “Too often, we see trees fail because they lack adequate root space or because maintenance plans aren’t followed through.

Ongoing success depends on getting the fundamentals right – planting with care and maintaining to the proper standard.”

Retaining existing hedgerows and trees gives immediate structure

and ecological value, notes Stille. “New planting should complement this, creating corridors and buffers that support biodiversity, offer shade and contribute to the health and wellbeing of communities. While new vegetation takes time to mature, early integration into the design allows it to grow alongside the community it serves.”

Such approaches may not only mitigate climate risk but also enhance wellbeing and community cohesion; but, ADEPT notes, they require long-term stewardship and upfront investment – costs rarely recognised at point of sale.

A corporate vision?

There are provisions in the English devolution and community empowerment bill for the establishment of mayoral development corporations, with Calvert saying, “it is very likely that they will play a considerable role” in new

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10/09/2025 16:48

A successful masterplan “balances structure with adaptability: setting clear principles for movement, landscape, and land use, while allowing for different forms of delivery and future needs” – Katja Stille

the House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee into new towns He said the designation of an NTDC solves a “series of problems inherent in our current speculative housing delivery model”, including setting detailed quality standards through masterplanning. New

Vegetative swales that soak up excess rainwater will become more common as the climate becomes wetter

towns or major urban extensions, “although whether these are led by national or sub-regional government is yet to be seen”.

The planning and infrastructure bill aims to make sure development corporations have “due regard to sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaptation” and enable “greater flexibility for development corporations in terms of the variety, extent and types of the geographical areas over which they can operate”.

Hugh Ellis, the TCPA’s director of policy, advocated for the New Town Development Corporation (NTDC) model used for previous new towns in written evidence to the inquiry by

How confident is the public in the next generation of new towns?

According to an RTPI and YouGov survey, the UK public has doubts about whether the next generation of new towns will meet future needs.

73%

of Brits are not confident that the next generation of new towns will meet community needs in 50 years.

74%

believe incoming residents should have the biggest say in how future new towns are planned, designed and funded over time.

82%

would prefer new towns to be built by a variety of organisations – not just large housebuilders.

59%

want to experiment with new ways of planning, designing and funding.

Getty / Shutterstock

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towns could help “solve multiple public policy problems, from housing supply to creating healthy and resilient places”.

For ADEPT, the new town governance model allows for coordinated delivery of infrastructure, housing and environmental goals across multiple stakeholders and phases.

“When empowered with a clear mandate for climate resilience, biodiversity and social value, development corporations can act as strategic vehicles for innovation – embedding nature-based solutions, low-carbon infrastructure and long-term stewardship from the outset.”

But there are barriers. The success of development corporations depends on alignment with local priorities, meaningful community engagement and the ability to operate flexibly in response to evolving climate and social needs, ADEPT continues. Ellis, meanwhile, said the NTDC model must be modernised to “bring their objectives and governance up to date and reflect the changing expectations on health, climate and participatory democracy”.

For Stille, new towns are a “longterm concept that needs to sit outside the political sphere to be truly effective, and national and local policies are too vulnerable to change”. The development corporation structure would mean that “vision statements can be enshrined in their governance and their purpose, and they will then be held accountable for delivering the vision”.

So that’s the task. As Ellis said in his evidence to the Lords’ inquiry: “The choice is not whether we build, but whether we choose to build well.

“In making this choice, politicians need to reflect that placemaking is a complex and long-term activity requiring a clear commitment to meeting the diverse human needs necessary to deliver places to support thriving lives and resilient communities.”

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10/09/2025 16:48

News by nation TOP STORIES FROM THE COUNTRIES OF THE UK AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

NORTHERN IRELAND

Wastewater upgrade at Bellaghy to support future growth Northern Ireland Water is to invest £3.6 million in improvement works to the Bellaghy wastewater network to unlock connections for additional homes and businesses across MidUlster.

The works are scheduled to begin in the autumn and take about 12 months to complete. NI Water then intends to take forward a second programme of enhanced base maintenance work at Bellaghy Wastewater Treatment Works at a cost of £2.6 million.

Completing both sets of works would enable NI Water to provide additional wastewater capacity to accommodate new connections in the future.

“There is no quick fix or easy solution to address the challenges faced by our ageing wastewater system, but this is an example of where we can take steps now to

improve things for the future,” said infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins.

Since last autumn, 5,300 additional properties in counties Derry, Tyrone and Antrim have been connected to the wastewater system. This is above the 4,500 properties NI Water had initially

planned for up to 2027.

Parts of Northern Ireland’s wastewater network date back to the mid-20th century. NI Water’s annual report for 2023-24 warned that more than 100 treatment works were at or near capacity, hampering the development of 25,000 homes.

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NEWS BY NATION

SCOTLAND

Report finds support for rural housing

WALES

Solar farm plans granted permission by Welsh Government The Welsh Government has approved plans for Alaw Môn solar farm, a controversial 660-acre development in the centre of Anglesey.

The scheme comes from Enso Energy, which says it will produce up to 160 megawatts of renewable energy – enough to power the entire island.

Residents, advocacy groups and MPs opposed the development largely on account of the site’s location on what is categorised as Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land (BMVAL), which Planning Policy Wales (PPW) states is “a limited and valuable resource that should be safeguarded from development”.

The inspector’s report highlighted this “fundamental policy conflict”, but noted that “during the time-constrained period of the development [40 years], the difference

in agricultural productivity between BMVAL with or without the development is a modest one in the context of national productivity”.

Rebecca Evans, economy, energy and planning secretary, challenged this point in her decision letter, saying she “remains unconvinced that the impacts on the land will be entirely reversible at the end of the operational period”. However, she argued that “the benefits of the scheme outweigh any harmful effects, including the impact of the proposal on BMVAL, and agree the scheme accords with relevant development plan policies”.

In response to the decision, CPRW, the Welsh countryside charity, said it was disappointed and stated that the development threatened the landscape, agricultural and tourism sectors.

iStock

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A report has found that 45 per cent of rural Scots believe the lack of available housing in their area is a key factor driving people to move away.

The Scotland’s Rural Voice report by research company the Diffley Partnership alongside organisations including Homes for Scotland (HfS), aims to make “a vital contribution to the Scottish research landscape by elevating the voice of rural communities and shedding light on the unique challenges that households face in Scotland’s countryside,” said Mark Diffley, director.

The report found that 61 per cent of residents supported new housing being built in their area, but this rose to 75 per cent for those living in remote rural areas.

Other findings cited include that 51 per cent believe economic growth is limited by the availability of housing, and 60 per cent say that homebuilding provides

work for small businesses in their area.

Jane Wood, chief executive at HfS, said that the report showed that “urgent action” is needed to support small and medium builders, “whose numbers have fallen 70 per cent since 2007 and are so critical to employing and training people across rural communities and delivering much-needed rural homes”.

Rural residents appear to experience greater challenges with their housing compared with their urban counterparts.

For instance, 29 per cent of rural residents struggle to keep their homes warm during the winter, compared with 21 per cent of urban residents.

“Building more new, high-quality, energyefficient homes for rural communities has never been more urgent if Scotland is to reverse depopulation and improve the social and economic wellbeing of every part of the country,” said Wood.

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NEWS BY NATION

ENGLAND

96 turbines granted consent in the Irish Sea Energy secretary Ed Miliband has granted a development consent order for 96 wind turbines in the Irish Sea. The Morgan Offshore Wind Project, which is being brought forward as a joint venture by JERA Nex bp and Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW ), also comprises offshore substation platforms and offshore interconnection cables.

The turbines will be located in English waters, 2.22km from the Isle of Man coastline, 37.13km from the north-west coastline of England and 58.5km from the Welsh coastline at Anglesey.

Granting consent is in line with a

recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate, the examining authority.

The secretary of state agreed with the examining authority’s conclusions and the weight it ascribed in the overall planning balance on several issues, including: commercial fisheries (moderate negative weight); seascape, landscape and visual effects (little negative weight); and social and economic (little positive weight).

They also agreed that the applicant met the requirements of NPS EN-1 and NPS EN-3 in terms of design and that it “adequately and appropriately” considered alternative sites.

According to the decision letter,

the secretary of state agreed with the examining authority’s view that the need for the development is “clearly established”, with the secretary of state recognising the contribution it would make to the established need and targets for renewable electricity generation and ascribing the need for the development substantial positive weight in line with NPS policy.

Overall, the energy secretary concluded that the public benefits “outweigh the harm identified, and that development consent should therefore be granted”.

IRELAND

An Coimisiún Pleanála overturns refusal in Wicklow Wicklow County Council’s (WCC) refusal of a development in the town of Kilcoole has been overturned by An Coimisiún Pleanála.

The scheme is for 61 homes, comprising three-bed houses and one and two-bed apartments and duplexes at Clover Lodge in Knockroe, just outside of Kilcoole. It includes the demolition of Clover Lodge and four outhouses. Changes to the main road are required to provide a new rightturn junction plus a new vehicular and pedestrian access opening.

The proposal received several objections from local residents and official bodies, based on concerns that Wicklow’s housing targets had already been exceeded; the design was out of

character; and that it would adversely affect traffic.

The WCC planning officer requested further information from the applicant, McGill Planning Limited, on design details for the vehicular access to the site, the internal access roads and car parking, and the layout and design of open space and play space.

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This was provided in February 2025, but a refusal was recommended primarily because insufficient information had been provided to confirm that the development would not give rise to a serious traffic hazard or impact on the free flow and safety of traffic on the main road (R761).

Overturning the refusal following an appeal, An Coimisiún Pleanála stated that “the proposed development would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity and would, therefore, be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

Thirty conditions were attached to the decision. iStock

10/09/2025 17:33

1 4 2 5 3 The Planner reports every week on planning news from across the UK and Ireland. Scan the codes for the latest news feed for each country, or to sign up to our weekly News By Nation newsletter.

More than 1,700 build-to-rent flats and student rooms will be built across six blocks on the site of Glasgow’s former College Street Goods Yard following approval by the city council.

1

The Welsh Government has reaffirmed its commitment to a flagship framework for protecting 30 per cent of land, freshwater and seas by 2030.

Belfast is to see an increase in leisure and tourist attractions after a selection of major development proposals were approved at a Belfast City Council planning committee.

2

5

3

4

Ireland’s development waiver fee, introduced in 2023 and initially planned to end in 2026, will be extended through €250 million in government funding.

A Strategic Place Partnership has been signed between Homes England and York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority aimed at speeding up delivery of housing and regeneration.

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Something new is coming…

Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment Townscape Assessment Expert Witness, Public Inquires & Appeals Strategic Land Promotion Local Plan Representations Green Belt Assessment

We are evolving how we communicate.

Sensitivity and Capacity Appraisals

Still proud. Still purposeful. Just clearer.

Urban Design, Public Realm and Masterplanning

Minerals and Waste Development

Regeneration and Renewal

Discover more in this issue.

Heritage Landscapes and Restoration Landscape Design and Implementation

P.24

Ecological Consultancy and BREEAM

Mark Flatman - mark.flatman@lizlake.com Head of Landscape Planning

01279 647 044

www.lizlake.com Stansted | Bristol | Nottingham

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17

Behind the brand

Hippodamus has the intel on the RTPI’s rebrand

Q on queue

20 Steve Quartermain on shopping etiquette

22

In conference

Speakers preview the National Planning Conference

OPINION The Pied Piper of... King’s Cross?

Ben Gosling recounts an illuminating walking tour (p16)

Shutterstock

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Inside out earned while In which our writers reflect on what they’ve learned creating stories for The Planner over the past two months.

T

he Pied Piper of Hamelin: a cautionary tale for local authorities about the pitfalls of outsourcing environmental management? Lester Hillman’s Pied Piper-themed study tour around King’s Cross was the culmination of an excellent first day of the Young Planners’ Conference 2025.

Lester’s tour was fantastic – unsurprising, given his 50-year-long association with the area. It spanned the area’s medieval history to the more modern, ending at the regenerated Coal Drops Yard.

As we stopped in and around St Pancras for Lester to point out a rat-shaped gargoyle (or is it a grotesque?) or explain a little about John Betjeman’s association with the station, I noticed some nearby travellers shooting a glance over, and surreptitiously eavesdropping.

It serves to illustrate a point that might be both a comfort

and a frustration to the sector: the general public is often very interested in planning – they just might not realise it.

As the RTPI stated when it was conceived more than a century ago, planning is both ‘a science and an art’ – it’s a broad church of ideas and disciplines, many of which have a ready-made and receptive non-planning audience. The concept of ‘planning’ might therefore need to be presented as a conclusion, rather than the first point of introduction for the uninitiated. Lester’s approach is an effective one: begin with familiar themes that have broad appeal, such as history or health or art, and illustrate how these concepts are some of the many strands that make up planning and placemaking.

Ben Gosling is senior writer on The Planner - ben.gosling@ theplanner.co.uk

“The general public is often very interested in planning – they just might not realise it”

“The retrofitting ing of existing stock ock [is] a nationall infrastructuree priority”

A

s I sit here writing this, the rain is providing a pleasing pitter-patter on the skylight, a very different backdrop from when I was writing the news report (pages 4-9).

It’s cooler, and I’m not watering the pot plants and the strawberries every day.

But there are notable signs of weather-related stress in my surroundings. Leaves are already turning orange and falling off the trees, and the blackberries littering my beech hedge have just about gone. Farmers across the UK have seen early harvests, with some crops struggling in the heat.

According to the Met Office, this summer is on track to be one of the warmest since 1884, when records began.

Planner commentators outlined how we can plan our future homes and street designs so our communities can stay cool, warm and dry.

We know what we need to do; masterplans must be clear but flexible, the climate is not going to stay as it is, it hasn’t over the last 10 years, and changes have been going on for much longer than that.

But what about our current homes and communities?

My home is neither new nor old, but it is built out of older stone to be in keeping with the surrounding homes, and it’s built into a hill, which helps to keep it cool; but my mum’s home, my brother’s home – wow! – these remind me of being back in my endof-terrace 1970s home in London. Unbearable.

Most of our homes already exist, making the retrofitting of existing stock, as ADEPT told me, a national infrastructure priority, not just the building of new ones.

Laura Edgar is news editor of The Planner – laura.edgar@ theplanner.co.uk

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LEADER

Hippodamus Our correspondent within the RTPI

A clearer voice in a time of change E

volution, not revolution, is the order of the day at the Royal Town Planning Institute. After extensive consultation and coordination, the RTPI has proudly launched its new brand and strategic plan – dubbed Empower 2030 (page 38). Both set out a clear statement – continuity in a busier, noisier world.

First, Empower 2030, which builds on the corporate strategy first set in 2020, turning five years of progress into a roadmap for the next five. The Institute’s objective remains unchanged: to equip planners to deliver places that are more liveable, sustainable and fair. The framework aims to raise the profession’s profile, strengthen the planning systems, and invest in member skills. We want to grow the profession, too, from 27,000 RTPI members today to 30,000 by 2030.

But it’s not because bigger is better, but because a stronger profession has a louder voice.

That voice is also getting a iStock

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polish. The brand refresh is less vanity than vocabulary: inclusivity, approachability, professionalism and a visible commitment to championing planning. After extensive consultation through workshops, surveys and interviews with more than 1,500 stakeholders, plus the 2023 Member Value Proposition survey, the verdict was clear. The RTPI should mirror the values and ambition of its members and speak more clearly and more confidently, not differently.

If members feel prouder and better

recognised, it will have done its job.

Timing shows us now is the time for change. Planning has moved up political agendas across the UK, Ireland and beyond, driven by housing shortages, infrastructure backlogs, and netzero commitments.

In such conditions, the profession needs a confident, common banner under which it can be heard.

Now that the refreshed identity has rolled out across RTPI channels, the next stage will take place over years, rather than days.

Over the course of the next five years, Empower 2030 will help planners do what they aspire to do: make places better for the communities they serve.

Here, the RTPI isn’t pivoting; it is doubling down.

Strategy and style now point in the same direction, towards a betterresourced system, and a profession confident enough to say, plainly, what good planning is for.

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11/09/2025 10:39

OPINION

Submitted for Approval A digest of planning-related material from across the media spectrum. Educational, entertaining, useful or simply amusing, The Planner humbly submits the following items, but if you think you’ve something that should feature here, let us know.

Brutal Scotland To be published on 13 November November, Si Simon Phipps’ collection of images is described as the fir first major photographic collection of Scottish modernist, post-war architecture. It features more than 200 striking photographs, from public buildings to suburban and rural architecture.

The Waste Commons

Inside London’s most ambitious pedestrianisation plan

Next City

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A non-profit source of journalism all about cities for an audience of planners, financiers, architects and so on, Next City carries the tagline ‘Solutions for Just and Equitable cities’. If you like your urban reporting spiced with a hint of activism and progressive thinking, this could be for you.

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Plans have been revealed to pedestrianise streets across London’s West End. Here, YouTuber CityEd runs the rule over the proposals, which would see some of central London’s most iconic – and busiest – areas transformed.

A 60-minute documentary that’s featured at an array of film festivals, The Waste Commons explores the impending closure of the city waste dump in Dakar, Senegal, and how this will impact the communities that have sprung up around these marginal spaces as modernisation chafes against more idiosyncratic lifestyles.

Compelling.

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11/09/2025 10:27

Why London abandoned this brutalist estate A “symbol of urban failure”? The Thamesmead Estate in East London was bold and ambitious when it was built in the 1960s, but for many, it now represents the failure of a utopian brutalist dream. Crime and decay are problems for the embattled estate, explored in this short documentary by The Design Concept.

It’s freezing in LA This UK-based independent magazine about climate change describes itself as a “critically-acclaimed platform for climate writing and images”. Be ready for a blend of art, politics and science in its biannual, 60-page collection that promises to tackle “difficult environmental questions”.

Urbanist on a Mission at the Young Planners’ Conference

SFA ONLINE Links to all these items

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Green Light to Green Belt Developments

Mahsa Ige, the eponymous @UrbanistonaMission on Instagram, has been posting content from the recent Young Planners’ Conference, where she led a session on ‘Planning for mental health resilience through climate change’. Look out for a walking tour of the Earl’s Court development in the company of RTPI president Helen Fadipe and interviews with the young planners who took part in her session.

Women changing cities Coming 1 October 2025, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett identify some of the female mayors, planners, advocates and policymakers they think are providing “peoplefirst solutions” to the mounting crises faced by the planet, from climate change to growing inequality.

Published by RIBA Books.

Another book – one that identifies the green belt as key to solving Britain’s growing housing crisis. Ufuk Bahar and Nicole I. Guler offer a history of the green belt concept and explore how homes can be built and the countryside preserved.

This new edition includes coverage of the new ‘grey belt’ policy.

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11/09/2025 08:55

OPINION

QUARTERMAIN “But the wee man did have a point...” ow then. was not first in that queue, was he?

I walked into my local To be honest, we had words. I supermarket the other stuck to my point that he had now week, as I wanted a joined a different queue, and he was Lotto ticket. There were people at clear that he had been there first, and the automatic pay points and two there was now a new opportunity for people waiting behind them, one of him to pay. The shop assistant took whom was a small man in a hat. As I the easy way out and served him wanted a Lotto ticket, quickly to resolve the I asked security if issue. The wee man “I felt that the kiosk was open. in the hat looked the logic of He said he would get suitably smug. someone there, and I was pretty cross. the argument I wandered across to Not because of the favoured me wait. three extra minutes I Soon, the kiosk waited for my ticket and someone person arrived, and I to a life of unbounded had decided was about to ask for riches, but because my pathway to a life I felt that the logic differently, of luxury when the of the argument irrespective of little man with a hat favoured me and my view” stepped forward and someone had decided said he was there first. differently, irrespective Now, technically, of my view.

I could see his point. He had been After one rejected card payment, waiting, but I also felt he was in a being chased down the street by the different queue from me – let’s call very same security guard to come it queue 2 – and I had started a new back and do it again later, and it not queue, which we’ll call queue 3. And being my lucky day, I reflected on the I was at the head of queue 3, so if event and recognised that my Lotto he wanted to leave queue 2 and join queue experience was a metaphor for queue 3, that was his choice, but he many a planning situation.

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People feel they have a view that is ‘right’ and there is little space for collaboration and logical analysis leading to an agreed outcome (in ‘your’ favour, of course!), and this is why planning gets bad press and why committee members (in this case, think kiosk person) have a responsibility, too.

It would be easy for me to suggest that, as planners, we should remember to assert our evidence-based logical opinion and reject all other views as being rooted in nimby small person, hat-wearing smug righteousness – but the wee man did have a point.

It’s important that we remember that these views are held as dearly as ours and at times we will not prevail, but if we do our jobs well, then for the most part we will.

STEVE QUARTERMAIN was formerly chief planner of England and is now director of Quartermain Ltd

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10/09/2025 16:52

NICOLA GOOCH is a partner in the planning and environmental team at Birketts LLP

long time ago, in secondary school, I studiedThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a cautionary tale about the dangers of getting stuck talking to boring wedding guests and shooting seabirds.

One passage in particular stuck with me: “Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink” This stanza now comes to mind with increasing frequency – for issues relating to or caused by England’s water infrastructure have become a metaphorical albatross hanging weightily around the planning system’s neck.

Water neutrality. Nutrient neutrality.

Lack of wastewater capacity. Sewage overflows. Water scarcity. The list of water-related issues that crop up in my professional life has been growing almost by the day.

Sometimes it feels as if we’re stuck in an endless game of whack-a-mole – where the planning system is expected to police problems which it did not cause and does not have the power to solve.

The situation is, frankly, maddening.

As such, it probably won’t come as too much of a surprise that I spent a chunk of my summer break trawling through

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Cunliffe’s review of the water sector, connect – could prove controversial. published in July (and considerably In a written ministerial response, longer than Coleridge’s epic poem). then environment secretary Steve Reed It’s a compelling, if slightly depressing, promised not only to create a new water read – highlighting the failures of a regulator and move to a catchmentcomplex and disjointed system of water based planning model, but also to regulation that has persisted over many publish a white paper in the autumn, years. Of particular setting out proposals interest was the graph for further reforms.

“Sometimes it feels This is to be closely on page 21, which evidenced what many as if we're stuck in followed by a new of us have suspected: reform bill. an endless game of water the two sectors How much of a responsible for the whack-a-mole. The solution these reforms greatest levels of water provide depends situation is, frankly, will pollution, agriculture on the detail, but maddening” and the water industry goodness knows we itself, sit largely outside need to do something. the control of the The failures of our planning system. This water system are will be deeply frustrating to all of us an albatross that planners have been trying to put together nutrient neutrality carrying for far too long. We need to solutions or discharge foul drainage be allowed to put it down, soon, or conditions in the face of what can feel the government's pledge to build 1.5 like overwhelming odds. million homes may, much like my early The solution, according to Cunliffe, impressions of Coleridge, become yet is root-and-branch ch reform of our another cautionary tale of dashed hopes, entire water system. wildlife. em. It’s no small task regret... and vengeful wil ldlliffe. e.

– setting up a single ngle water regulator is nsiderable time. Other likely to take considerable ns, which directly impact recommendations, velopment – new planning and development opment rights for water permitted development d reviewing the right to infrastructure and

& Gooch “The failures of our water system are an albatross that planners have been carrying for far too long”

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10/09/2025 16:52

The Planner is the official media partner for this year’s National Planning Conference, taking place in Manchester on 9 October. We invited some of the speakers to give us a preview of their session.

Read interviews with conference speakers on pages 32-37.

Towards a regenerative policy framework?

Reforming planning: Why this conversation matters

Tara Gbolade is co-director of Gbolade Design Studio and a Mayor’s design advocate

Scott Alford is head of business development at Planning Portal

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he UK’s statutory commitment to achieve net zero by 2050 requires planning to evolve beyond incremental sustainability measures into a systemic re-imagining of how places are conceived, designed, and delivered.

As an industry, we have often needed to be cajoled into designing and delivering new towns to meet even the bare minimum of sustainable performance standards. We often rely on ‘sustainable’ policy frameworks (where they exist) to minimise harm.

Yet the urgency of the climate, biodiversity, and loneliness crises compels us to go further: towards regenerative policy that actively restores ecological and social systems.

While this sometimes seems complex, as sociologist Richard Sennet says, that complexity is not a barrier but an opportunity – embracing systemic complexity enriches our experiences.

Regenerative planning reframes development as a catalyst for environmental and community repair:

planning policies that promote carbon-positive buildings; neighbourhoods that restore ecosystems; limitations to urban sprawl; green roofs.

Rather than promote low-emission vehicles and public transit, we could redesign urban mobility systems to reduce car dependency altogether.

We could create walkable, biophilic cities that improve human health and actively sequester carbon.

Having worked on sustainability guidance for major growth areas, I understand how hard planning authorities work to champion good, providing both carrot and stick to enable futureproofed development.

Encouragingly, some developers are aligning projects with internal ESG goals that exceed policy baselines. These pioneers show what is possible.

Sustainability can no longer suffice. If planning is to deliver net zero and beyond, our frameworks must be regenerative: restoring ecosystems, repairing communities, and reimagining development as a force for good.

11.45am Panel: Building our future: Navigating the impact of environmental legislation

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or more than 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with local authorities across England and Wales, helping to shape national digital planning at Planning Portal.

I know the pressures planning teams face – high caseloads, resource constraints and the frequent need to adapt to new policies and approaches.

What has always impressed me is the resilience and commitment of planners and planning teams, even when the system around them is under strain.

This panel is a great opportunity to step back and look at how recent reforms are shaping the system in practice. Labour has set out an ambitious strategy for planning and housing, and since last year, the Planning Portal has made our tracking of application stats publicly available every quarter.

This provides a useful indicator of the progression and efficacy of reforms and delivery, and it’s something I’ll be reflecting on during the discussion. What I’m most interested to hear is whether these policy shifts are beginning to make a difference on the

ground – are they reducing bottlenecks, building confidence, and giving local authorities the tools they need, or do challenges remain much the same?

I’ll be speaking alongside Abigaile Bromfield from ATLAS, Louise Morris from Bath and North East Somerset Council and Craig McLaren from the Planning Improvement Service. With Simon Wicks of The Planner chairing, we’ll have a conversation fuelled by an editorial perspective on current narratives and priorities. It’s a discussion that bridges policy intent with delivery reality, and explores how both can be improved through collaboration, innovation, and practical support.

That mix – policy, practice, and improvement – makes this a valuable opportunity to reflect on what’s working, what isn’t, and where the sector goes next. For me, this is about collaboration. No single organisation can solve the challenges of planning reform alone. It’ll take local authorities, government, industry, and partners together to ensure the new strategy translates into realworld improvements.

11.00am Panel: Reforming planning: Progress, performance, potential

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11/09/2025 10:28

BLOGS

Are we ready for the new era of BIG planning?

Now is the time to change the way we work with communities

Tom Venables is planning director for Prior + Partners

Catherine Anderson is director (environmental consents) with WSP

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trategic planning, new towns, digital innovation and a focus on delivery are at the top of the government agenda, putting planning at the heart of national priorities and a commitment to delivering 1.5 million homes. But is the sector ready?

Early in his term, prime minister Keir Starmer made planning reform a central part of his strategy for economic growth. This ambition was clearly articulated by minister of state for housing and planning, Matthew Pennycook, at last year’s Labour Party Conference.

Following the conference, consultancy Prior + Partners, together with Catriona Riddell, established the Strategic Planning Group. Driven by the belief that visionled, strategic planning should be a force for good, the group held a series of expert-led workshops, culminating in the highly anticipated report, Planning Positively for the Future.

A year on from the party conference, many changes are already in motion, from the reintroduction of housing targets and definition of ‘grey belt’ to the measures contained in the planning and infrastructure bill. However, the reforms have also sparked criticism and resistance from environmental groups, local communities and political opponents.

With big thinking and a focus on vision returning to the sector, the panel I’m speaking on at the National Planning Conference will explore whether we are prepared to implement this ambitious agenda.

A new generation of planners will need to adapt and adopt new skill sets, especially in using digital tools and data to drive innovation. Meanwhile, as the government faces considerable political challenges, the planning sector must unite to present a positive and forward-looking vision for the future.

3.55pm Panel: Responding to the new era of strategic planning

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e need to transform how national infrastructure engages with affected communities.

The HOW: As a major infrastructure consents lead and environmental impact assessment (EIA) practitioner, I’ve always been keen for proportionate EIA, aimed at the non-technical reader living down the road from a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP). The proposed removal of the need for a preliminary environmental information report in the planning and infrastructure bill should not be seen as a sign of relief but an opportunity to focus on non-technical summaries which disseminate what is likely to be a significant effect, as well as expanding the use of digital EIA, flythroughs and virtual reality.

This is an opportunity to tailor communication of environmental information appropriately.

The WHAT: We need to separate what’s important to local communities from the more technical aspects suited to regulatory engagement.

By distinguishing the

socially important from the scientific, this will avoid the drafting of unnecessary materials for consultation and focus on the matters important to the local communities hosting NSIPs. The WHEN: Avoiding consultation fatigue is important. Not just between projects in competition but also within the applicable major permissions processes.

For example, for nuclear energy, it’s not only the development consent order (DCO) process that requires public consultation – other regulatory processes do as well, and this presents a clear opportunity to streamline engagement during pre-application.

The WHO: Not all engagement is possible digitally. Traditional methods such as printed documents will still be required in remote areas, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for innovation. I’ve heard of projects in Scotland which had a travelling exhibition in a van.

I am incredibly excited to be on the session panel at the National Planning Conference and look forward to discussing these highly topical issues.

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11/09/2025 10:28

Planning deserves a stronger voice.

Here’s ours.

We’re refreshing the RTPI brand. Not because we’re changing direction – but because we’re TV]PUN MVY^HYK ^P[O JSHYP[` JVUÄKLUJL HUK connection. Ready?

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01/09/2025 12:41

LISTEN NOW

EP:03

ZERO SUMS, STORYTELLING AND THE GRID WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Rob Shaw MRTPI, Third Revolution Projects HOSTED BY: Simon Wicks, Nicola Gooch, Ben Gosling

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11/09/2025 10:31

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A map for all

Anglesey’s inclusive mapping project

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In conference

Interviews: National Planning Conference

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A plan for planners

The RTPI’s new strategic plan in the spotlight

FEATURES Safety first Dame Judith Hackitt on planning’s part in regulating building safety (p32)

Julie Kim / Construction Management

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10/09/2025 16:57

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

Anglesey reimagined A pioneering project in Anglesey is engaging young people in creating maps that feed previously overlooked data into planning processes – and it’s set to roll out across Wales, as Isabella Kaminski discovers ILLUSTRATION: VICKY PAYNE

t’s one of the hottest days of the summer, and the car park at a popular Anglesey beach is heaving. Behind the rows of cars, in the shade of trees on a carpet of cool grass, there’s a collection of cream-coloured canvas tents with a festival vibe.

Groups of children are playing, painting, listening to stories and laughing. Some are gathered intently around tablets or focused on writing and drawing on cardboard tags, which they weave into a series of huge wooden structures. A huge painted map of Anglesey looks like it might hold the secret to buried treasure. At the back, there is a quiet space for reflection and getting away from the hustle if it all gets too much.

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It’s certainly not your standard planning process. But then, it’s not designed to appeal to the standard respondents of a planning consultation.

The event is the culmination of two years of work on Anglesey by academics at Wrexham University, Cardiff University and the University of Cambridge.

The researchers had been creating a community plan with young people in Grangetown, a low-income area of Cardiff, when their work caught the eye of the Isle of Anglesey County Council’s children and families team.

The island has seen a rise in child poverty, lower average incomes than the rest of Wales and lingering problems with childhood obesity. And although it has strategic plans to tackle poverty and to encourage active and healthy living,

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YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

the authority describes its own financial outlook as “bleak”

Layers of information Kimberley Coll was at the time mapping the authority’s early years resources as part of its Early Years Integration Transformation Programme, and she was optimistic that an injection of resources and better access to technology would help. The council and academics wrote a joint bid and secured £4.6 million from the Arts and Humanities Research Council under its Green Transition Ecosystem.

The resulting project, known as Public Map Platform, has been built on the premise that the data that informs planning decisions is obscured, biased, incomplete and inaccessible, that not all public voices are being heard, that resources are being wasted, and local leaders are not fully trusted.

Bethan Jones, Anglesey’s supporting families manager, says the project started as asset-mapping, revealing a huge amount of existing resources and activities already going on over the island that had not been captured elsewhere, whether run by public bodies, communities or businesses.

To that has been added a huge amount of data, such as on deprivation and birth rates, as well as more creative information gathered during events such as the week-long Lle Llais (Voice Place), which was visited by nearly 300 year 5 and year 9 pupils from schools all around Anglesey.

One layer of the map shows in pictures and words how young people see the island. Instead of typical boundary markers or sites considered important to adults, such as churches, the map is now

Shutterstock

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alive with animated GIFs of dancing trees, a snapping crab, a lighthouse, a football pitch, a swimming pool, beaches, a McDonald’s. One image of two children coming together in an embrace, representing friendship, is overlaid over the whole island.

Not all the input is visual.

Guided by bards, children wrote their personal responses to the location, which ranged from the prosaic to the poetic.

The idea is that this narrative process reflects needs and desires that might not otherwise be articulated. “If you ask a kid what they want in their area, they say: ‘A theme park’,” says Flora Samuel, professor of architecture at the University of Cambridge and Public Map Project’s principal investigator.

“But what do they really want?

More animals or affordable housing. The data that comes in is real. It’s about capturing that.””

All these endeavours are beingg uploaded to the Public Map Platform, like “a very big cake with different layers,” says Jones.

Mapping the future Putting all that information together in one place is making the public more aware of what is available. And it could help the council make better decisions on issues such as the placement of schools and playgrounds, and the protection of green spaces.

Coll, who now leads on the expansion of childcare provision for two- and three-year-olds across the island of Anglesey, says it has helped her identify gaps much more easily, avoiding duplication of work and resources.

“I think it will help us strategically identify how best to invest in certain areas, possibly how to consider where best to place the budget and get the data to support any applications we need to make as an authority or to support our

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11/09/2025 08:58

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, passed in 2015, aims to find a way of satisfying the wellbeing needs of people currently living in Wales without compromising those of future generations.

The law requires all public bodies in Wales to carry out sustainable development, using an internationally recognised definition that balances the ‘three pillars’ of environment, economy and society. They do this through their local public

community and town councils to make the grant applications, such as the [National] Lottery,” she explains.

A major aim of the project has been to get more young people involved in the planning process. Scott Orford, professor of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial planning at Cardiff University, says only a tiny proportion of people ever get involved in planning consultations. And those that do tend to be the ‘usual suspects’; older retired people with time on their hands.

That’s even though the impacts of planning decisions may last for decades.

And when it comes to the green transition, says Orford, the major benefits will fall in the future. “Everything from net-zero to flood defence to house building… is operationalised through planning,” he stresses.

To help address this, the project employed 17 local people as mappers.

They use open-source mapping software to add information to the

services board, of which there are now 13 across Wales.

The law required the Welsh Assembly to set seven long-term goals for sustainable development, including developing an “innovative, productive and low-carbon society” and maintaining and enhancing a “biodiverse natural environment with healthy functioning ecosystems”.

It also strengthened the existing role of Wales’s re generations. commissioner for future

Public Map Platform, work with young people in schools and teach older people digital skills. And they’re each tasked with a passion project; examples include reducing waste through slow fashion.

“Children's participation in planning has just shot up,” says Jones.

Lesson plans for various age groups have been developed to fit in with the Welsh curriculum and are now available for any schools to use.

The project is also feeding into Anglesey’s local development plan, which is currently under review.

“It's been useful for them to consider children and young people in the forward planning,” says Coll. “The information collated and collected… is going to help them to build a much more worthwhile plan.”

A ripple effect In addition to generally improving planning processes, the project is helping public bodies fulfil their statutory duties to take future generations into account (see above) and to assess and ensure that they

have ave enough opportunities for children to play.

The research project has shifted over the years, often in response to young people themselves. One example is the large curved wooden structures that make a ‘rural roaming room’. The idea started as a caravan, but children spontaneously started to weave a structure that developed into a mobile version of a village hall. The structures arrive on a flatbed truck, slide out of each other like Russian dolls and can be wheeled into place to make a pop-up consultation space where no suitable place exists.

I am repeatedly told how important this project is for Wales in particular, where there is such a strong sense of place. And participants say the fact that the project is fully bilingual is crucial too, because the Welsh language uses very different words for nature and planning from English, and that changes how people respond.

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Images from Lle Llais, where young people are encouraged to express their feelings about the island of Anglesey

“The island has seen a rise in child poverty, lower average incomes than the rest of Wales and lingering problems with childhood obesity”

Uwchradd Caergybi in Holyhead, brought a group of 92 year 9 pupils to Lle Lais and had been unprepared for what was in store.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how engaged they were and how much they enjoyed it,” he says.

Public Map Platform: https://publicmap.org/en p p

Coll admits the open-ended nature of the research project has made it hard to get some people on board, and how it gets used in future remains to be seen. Jones also anticipates there might have to be two separate versions of the map: a public one with the majority of information and an internal one for the local authority to avoid data protection issues.

But Coll believes it has already proved to be a useful resource, and says other councils have expressed an interest in doing something similar, albeit on a smaller scale.

Isabella Kaminski

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While I am there, the researchers get the news that they have just been granted £3.2m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for the next phase of the project, and they whoop and hug with glee. They plan to deepen the mapping exercise in Anglesey, working with a larger number of community groups, and also expand into other parts of Wales.

Back at Lle Llais, researchers describe the positive responses from children to the project, including a group of challenging high school boys. Dave Bailey, a teacher at Ysgol

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11/09/2025 09:02

NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

e all require that we deliver the right outcomes, right, and that’s what matters – getting the right buildings in the right places that are fit for purpose and endurable and meet everyone’s expectations. And whilst the planning process sets that off, if the rest of the process that then follows does not deliver that, then we’ve all failed, right?”

Right. Judith Hackitt is the very definition of straight and direct. No wonder the former chair of the health and safety executive was chosen to lead the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety in the wake of the Grenfell disaster.

Her ensuing report, Building a Safer Future, has comprehensibly reconfigured the way that fire safety is handled in the design, planning and development of ‘high risk’ buildings – those at least 18 metres tall or with at least seven storeys.

Following recommendations from the report that were enacted in the Building Safety Act 2022, these buildings must now pass through three ‘gateways’

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before occupation. The first of these is planning, where the material failings that led to Grenfell were tragically overlooked. Now, a full fire statement has to be submitted alongside an application, and this has to be checked by the Health and Safety Executive before a planning committee can make a decision.

“My recommendation said this had to go back to the planning stage, not just once the building processes started.

And it was because so many people told me that when I was doing my review, that by the time we got into the build stage too many things had already been locked in to how a building would be situated, where it would be situated – all of those things,” Hackitt recalls.

“People like the Fire and Rescue Service in particular were saying things to me like ‘We’ve expressed concerns, but no one listened’. Or ‘If someone had asked us, we would have said, Don’t do that.’ Right?

“So this whole process of ‘gateway one’ is designed to ensure that the right people are involved and are able to offer up that advice to the planning authority to say ‘You need to be aware of this’.”

Hackitt’s vision is of a building safety system founded on collaboration between the various disciplines and trades involved in the design, planning and construction of buildings. The three stage gateway system is intended to bring their expertise into play in at the appropriate time.

But there have been a few trips and falls along the way – the reluctance of some parts of industry to embrace change, for example, even though everyone agrees that it’s necessary.

“The overwhelming feeling in the immediate aftermath of Grenfell was that the system has to change. We have failed. We have collectively failed, and we should all be ashamed of what’s happened. I encountered that a lot in

In conference Simon Wicks and Ben Gosling catch up with three of the speakers from this year’s National Planning Conference and hear what they have to say about their topic for the day.

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“What I think we’ve been able to show over the last few years is that this is a collective responsibility”

11.30am, Q&A : Exploring Building Safety Regulations with Dame Judith Hackitt Dame Judith Hackett joins RTPI chief executive, Victoria Hills, for an onstage Q&A about evolving building safety regulations.

Julie Kim / Construction Management

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11/09/2025 10:39

NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

those early days,” Hackitt reveals.

“However, there was also a sense, even back then, of ‘But it’s not my fault. It’s someone else’s’, right? ‘It’s some other part of this system that’s failed, not the part that I’m responsible for’. What I think we’ve been able to show over the last few years is that this is a collective responsibility.

“Yes, the regulatory system was not good enough, and it allowed people to take all sorts of shortcuts, which were unacceptable, and there were no penalties, no enforcement in the system.

We have rectified that, but also we need industry to step up and recognise their poor practices, their lack of competence, their lack of joined-up collaboration in all of this, and see the need for delivery of a building that is fit for purpose.

“What we’ve seen over the last eight years is some people moving very quickly because they could see that, and they wanted to be in the vanguard of that. But there is a large proportion of the industry that is still quite reluctant to change…”

But change is happening regardless. The Building Safety Regulator has recently been moved into MHCLG to bring “all aspects of building safety regulation together as a single regulatory function”.

Then there’s the recently convened Independent Building Control Panel chaired

by Hackitt. One of this body’s chief tasks is to consider whether the existing regime – in which commercial organisations can oversee building control – is fit for purpose. Should it not be solely a state function, to avoid conflicts of interest?

That’s one of the “key questions”, she concedes.

“The reality is that we’re not unique in that here in England. In fact, it’s more common around the world for that mixed economy of both public and private sector to exist than to have it wholly public. I don’t necessarily think it’s a public/ private commercial interest question.

“It’s about conflict of interest.There is as much of a conflict of interest between public sector building control acting on buildings that belong to local authorities, as there is in the private sector looking at a building in the private sector.

“For me, it’s much more about having robust codes of conduct, and that the people who work in professions like building control are very, very clear that their primary purpose is acting in the public interest.”

10am, Panel: AI, digitisation, and a more connected built environment Discover how artificial intelligence is reshaping planning decisions, the role of the golden thread of data, and why cross-sector collaboration is vital to a smarter planning system.

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11/09/2025 09:18

“It’s creating order where there was less order” ata. It’s both a curse and blessing. You can’t make plans without it, but what do you need to collect? Where do you find it? And store it?

How do you present it?

Accurate, up-to-date data is piviotal to local plans in particular. But the state of local authority data and data collection is a bit of a mess.

At least that’s the impression given by Stefan Webb, principal partner for place and infrastructure at TPXimpact.

Webb knows as well as anyone the data challenge facing local authorities in 2025.

“For the last three-and-a-half years, we’ve been the delivery partner for MHCLG’s digital planning program. So we’ve been working helping to build out the planning data platform,” he explains.

“We’ve been working on standardising the local plan making process and making it hopefully quicker, more understandable and more digital in its output – so, more standardised digital plans, as well as working with local authorities on things like a digital planning register that improves the accessibility of data and citizen engagement in planning applications.”

There are, as ever, hurdles to overcome. “Candidly, if you were to have previously looked at, as a local authority, ‘How do I make a plan?’, there’s 30+ pieces of guidance or content that sit in different bits of the internet,” Webb observes.

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Richard Lea-Hair

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“So a lot of it is kind of creating order where there was less order but also putting the local planning authorities in the driving seat to a certain extent, like having the perspective of ‘It’s day one of the plan making process, what do I need to know?’ and structuring information around those needs.”

Webb’s work is geared towards giving local authority planners a clear framework in which to operate and the tools to gather the data they require.

It may be dogmatic but, he argues, many local authority planners welcome being told what to do andhow to do it by central government.

Take the governmentbacked Extract project, which is investigating how artificial intelligence can support planning. “That’s increasing the role where MHCLG is trying to, in some cases, specify what data should be collected and how it should be collected, and helping in that”.

More broadly, Webb contends that perhaps local authorities shouldn’t be responsible for the collection of data for their local plan evidence base at all.

“Something around that needs to change. Technology may be able to help, but if you look at healthcare, there’s a commissioning body that does all the data collection for the local areas. Might, over time, combined, authorities just be the data collectors? And could you nationalise some of the data collection?”

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NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

anchester broke the mould”.

Danny Collins is explaining the link between economic growth and housing, and why Manchester is a bit of an outlier in this regard.

“There’s this really interesting pattern of places that have done it extremely well, where housing growth has gone hand in hand with economic growth, and places where it hasn’t happened, and you’ve had lots of housing growth, but haven’t had economic returns at the same rate,” the director of economics at Iceni Projects elaborates.

“Manchester is a great example of that, where there’s been an economic strategy alongside a housing strategy, and it’s been very focused on certain demographics and sectors.”

There was, he says, a concerted effort to lure high value professional services and life science industries to the city, and it was ensured that there would be suitable housing for this purpose. The result has been rapid economic growth of a kind that has eluded other regional cities where housing has not translated into economic activity.

Economic strategies and housing strategies, he says, must be formulated in concert. Many places have potential for growth but a lack of alignment has held them back, he argues. Take

“M

Birmingham, for example.

“All the indicators would suggest it has the potential and opportunity. It’s just whether it will. We do a lot of work in places like Digbeth, where you’ve got HS2 coming in, one of the only HS2 stations outside of the capital. The purpose of HS2 is to rebalance the national economy, and if it doesn’t help transform Birmingham, then HS2 is a complete waste of money.

There’s an imperative that these places actually capture the economic opportunities that come along.”

“There’s an imperative that these places actually capture the economic opportunities that come along”

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12.15pm, Panel: Building prosperity through housing and planning This session explores the critical relationship between housing delivery and economic growth in regional cities.

National Planning Conference 2025 Smart Growth – Advancing our profession, enriching society 9 October, Hilton Deansgate, Manchester

Read more Scan the QR code to view the programme and book tickets.

National Planning Conference 2025 – official media partner

That said, Collins does concede that there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

“I think if you ask anyone in Birmingham, they’ll say ‘Well, we don’t want to be a Manchester’. And there’s a point around what the growth looks like – I don’t think it needs to all be very high density, shiny glass skyscrapers. The answers to ‘What does our place look like? What does it feel like?’ can be different, but it can still lead to the same outcomes in terms of economic and housing growth,” he explains.

Collins cites Hartlepool, which has identified film and TV studio development as an area of rich potential. A lot of industrial towns lost their raison d’etre when factories and mines closed, he explains.

“Places are now thinking again, ‘Well, what are we?

And who are we? And what do we need our towns to be?’. We should recognise the diversity within our communities and the diversity of opportunities that we need to have.”

The Planner is the official media partner for the 2025 National Planning Conference, jointly hosted by the RTPI and Planning Portal.

Between now and 9 October we’ll be previewing the conference on our website and social media. Laura, Ben and Simon will be at the conference in a reporting capacity throughout the day and we’ll be happy to hear your views on the panels and presentations.

Simon will also be chairing a discussion on planning reform.

Post-event, we’ll carry reports, reflections and snap interviews on our website which we hope will give you a flavour of the event.

Read more

Scan the QR code to read our previews, blogs, interviews and reports from the conference.

Raw Architecture

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11/09/2025 09:19

RTPI STRATEGIC PLAN

“It gives a definite set of objectives and aims to work towards”

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iStock

10/09/2025 17:28

t's important that our members can see what we do,” explains Meeta Kaur, chair of the RTPI’s board of trustees.

“What our mission is, what our values are. [Because] a huge amount of the importance of a strategy is actually the making of it and the consultation that goes into it.”

Empower 2030, the newly published strategic plan for the Institute, arrives at the midpoint of the previous 10year corporate strategy published in 2020. To get here, the Institute consulted a healthy 1,500 members (drawing also on its 2023 Member Value Proposition Survey) on everything from the organisation’s purpose, to its underpinning values and the trends that are influencing the profession in 2025.

The new strategic plan replaces the previous 10-year corporate

"I

strategy with a more focused five-year plan, which drives the RTPI to the symbolically important 2030 date.

The strategy also appears alongside a comprehensive rebrand of the organisation (see page 43) and a new website.

But why create an entirely new strategy when you already have one?

The answer lies in a blend of forward planning, a degree of overachievement to date and, significantly, change to the context in which planning operates.

“What had always been built into the 10-year strategy was the ability to do a comprehensive review of what had been achieved by the midway point and then, if necessary, seeing whether some things needed to be adjusted, whether some new things needed to be brought in,” says Kaur.

“A lot has happened in planning in the last five years. So it was considered to be an appropriate thing to do in this instance. One of the other reasons for

Planner power Empower 2023 is the name of the RTPI’s new strategic plan, which promises to ‘empower planners to deliver positive impact’. Simon Wicks casts an eye over the Institute’s blueprint for the next five years September / October 2025 | The Planner | 39

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RTPI STRATEGIC PLAN

doing this was that there were a lot of things that have been achieved in a shorter space of time than perhaps had been originally envisaged.”

Or, in the words of Victoria Hills, the RTPI chief executive, launching the consultation in a blog in 2024: “As we approach the five-year mark since the strategy's inception, it's time to reflect on the journey, assess the impact of both domestic and global challenges, and consider whether adjustments are needed to stay on the right course.”

Hills herself cites several initiatives and campaigns launched since 2020 (It Takes Planners &, the CHANGE diversity action plan, the EXPLORE work experience scheme, the BALANCE outreach programme) that support that strategy’s aims.

Empower 2030 adds more to this list, noting particularly that the Institute

“A lot has happened in planning in the last five years” was well ahead of its goal of increasing membership by 10 per cent by 2030.

That goal has now been reset to 30,000 members by 2030 (from the current 27,000) and is a central plank of the new strategy.

But the new plan also notes that the world has changed considerably since the 2020 strategy was published.

A new government has arrived in the UK, stressing that planning is central

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to economic growth. The climate crisis, a key pillar of the 2020 plan, is accelerating. Equality, diversity and inclusion, another 2020 pillar, has started to come under attack in some quarters. The L7 planning apprenticeship, a big success arising from the 2020 strategy, has been dealt what may be a fatal blow. Planning’s resourcing crisis continues more or less unabated. The development of AI is accelerating exponentially and already changing practice.

These are all pressures that are shaping the refreshed outlook for 2025. While Empower 2030 retains the same vision and mission as its predecessor (see page 42), this is now supported by an explicit statement of the Institute’s purpose (“to empower planners to deliver positive impact”) and a values-led approach that explicitly states the RTPI’s guiding

RTPI

10/09/2025 17:29

Victoria Hills, RTPI chief executive, takes the stage at the 2024 RTPI Excellence in Planning Awards

“For more than a century, the RTPI has championed, advocated for and protected the planning community”

principles – in effect, it's a promise to the RTPI's members.

Elsewhere, the strategy has, in broad terms, been recalibrated, although its substance remains similar.

Where the 2020 strategy was built on four ‘pillars’, the 2025 strategic plan is underpinned by five ‘core elements’.

These restate commitments to climate action and EDI, but now bring to the fore the principles of good governance and the growing influence of digital communications.

The strategy also considers the “key trends affecting the profession”, putting “talent attraction and retention” front and centre. The profession’s human resources challenge is only becoming more biting as the weight placed on planning's shoulders by the government becomes heavier.

“The key trends are really instructive

in terms of illustrating what the real preoccupations of the strategic plan are,” states Kaur. “And they’re really why that five-year reset was actually triggered. They’re global, they're internal, they're external… all things the Institute has to think about [in relation to] its planners and planning.”

She continues: “So, yes, that whole issue about getting more planners, because we need them right now, particularly with the government's emphasis on planning and development [...] it's attracting people into planning, it's making sure that there’s funding to get them through planning education, that there are jobs at the end of it, which means resources for local planning authorities, which is also another big issue.”

Finally, the purpose, mission, core elements, achievements and trends coalesce in a set of ‘future priorities’ grouped under the three headings of ‘Purpose’, ‘Practice’ and ‘People’. Each of these is underpinned by pledges that frame the RTPI’s intention to • support a better understanding of what planning is and what planners do • support the development of planning practice and the planning system • enable planners to reach new heights in their careers.

As it stands, Empower 2030 is precisely what it says it is: a strategic plan. It’s a framework to be fleshed out in more detail. “It gives you a definite set of objectives and aims that you can work towards,” Kaur stresses. “It's only meant to be headline issues. The next important bit is the implementation plan that comes with it.”

And this, promises Kaur, is where all the ‘SMART’ details will go – the concrete actions, the measurables, the timelines for achievement – that will form the focus of the work of the Board of Trustees and the RTPI staff and its army of member volunteers over the next five years. Or, at least, that’s the plan.

As Hills writes in her introduction: “For more than a century, the RTPI has championed, advocated for and protected the planning community.

This strategic plan builds on that legacy. It provides a strong foundation for us to keep fulfilling our critical role and achieve our vision of becoming the world’s leading professional planning body. Together, our staff team and volunteers are working hard to make that vision a reality.”

SIMON WICKS is editor of The Planner

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RTPI STRATEGIC PLAN

Empower 2030: In outline Don't want to read the Empower 2030 strategic plan in full? Of course, you should, but here's a condensed version to help you navigate the full strategy.

Vision: To be the world’s leading professional planning body. Our ambition is to promote healthy, socially inclusive, economically and environmentally sustainable places.

Mission: To advance the science and art of planning, working for the long-term common good and wellbeing of current and future generations.

Purpose: Empowering planners to deliver positive impact by: • Acting as the voice of the profession • Accrediting world-class planning programmes • Upholding the ethics and standards of the profession

Victoria Hills meets with international urbanists

• Funding Planning Aid England and similar services • Helping our members to deliver outstanding placemaking that creates inclusive, healthy, prosperous, sustainable and happy communities.

Values • We are inclusive • We are approachable • We champion • We are professional Key trends impacting the profession • Talent attraction and retention • Technology transformation and innovation • Sustainability, including the climate and nature emergencies • Diversity and inclusion • Globalisation • Economic and political outlook • Regulatory change: navigating complexity in the planning system.

Core elements of our strategy • Combatting the climate and nature emergencies.

• Improving diversity and inclusion within the planning profession.

• Progressing our digital first strategy • Building on our ‘One Institute’ approach • Applying the principles of good governance.

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RTPI president Helen Fadipe in full flow

Future priorities Our target is to have 30,000 members by 2030. To enable us to achieve our membership target, empower our members and support the progress of our profession over the next five years, we have identified three sets of priorities that we have organised into pillars: • Purpose • Practice • People.

Read Empower 2030: The RTPI Strategic Plan on the RTPI website www.rtpi.org.uk

RTPI

10/09/2025 17:29

Any organisation that exists for more than 111 years is bound to undergo a few changes. The Town Planning Institute was launched in January of 1914; it wasn’t until 1959, more than a decade after the passing of the foundational Town and Country Planning Act, that the body received its royal charter and took its now familiar name.

Look closely at the RTPI’s presidential chain of office, and you can see an echo of these early days. The early crest of the RTPI – replaced with a new logo at the turn of the century – sits at Lady the centre of the chain. It depicts ‘Lady Lex’ (Lex being Latin for ‘the law’) dishes encircled by a fence. The lady brandishes two shields: one showing a surveyor’s r’s equipment, the other a classical column, umn, a reference to the RTPI’s commitment ment to advancing planning as both a science ence and an art, perhaps.

In the 21st century, things took a turn for the abstract. Lady Lex was gone, replaced with something more re conceptual: the geometrical logo thatt has been a mainstay of the RTPI (and The Planner) since. Straplines came and went, too: the logo was for a time accompanied by the thought-provoking legend ‘Mediation of space, Making of place’.

And now, says the RTPI, it’s time for a change again. It can’t be denied that planning as a sector has changed. It’s been propelled to a central position in political discourse; as the country hurtles towards looming carbon reduction targets and the housing crisis deepens, it’s likely that planning won’t stay far from the headlines.

“This isn’t a new brand for the sake of change – it’s about ensuring our identity reflects our values and our ambition,” explains RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills. “We want our members to feel proud, connected and recognised in everything we do.”

The changes are wide-ranging, incorporating ‘brand objectives’ that explicitly align with the purpose, vision, missions and values spelt out in the new strategic plan, a writing style

What’s in a brand?

A new strategy, a new website – and a new brand. Ben Gosling takes a look at the RTPI’s new visual logo and considers its relationship with the Institute’s Institute s wider rebranding

“This isn’t a new brand for the sake of change – it’s about ensuring our identity reflects our values and our ambition” guide intended to create consistency of tone and message across the Institute’s communications, guidance on using social media and, of course, visual branding: a refreshed colour palette, new typefaces and, most eyecatching of all, a brand new logo.

G Gone is the minimalism of the pre previous design, replaced by a motif that reflects the scope of planning’s influence on the built and natural environments: bu buildings, trees, a hill (or is that the sun risi rising?), even a rainbow.

M than 1,500 people, including More members, volunteers, staff and external stakeholders, took part in the consultation that drove the rebrand, where they identified a desire for more inclusivity and an institute reflective

of the positive role planning plays in society.

Planning’s increased exposure in the press and politics has also provided at least some of the impetus for the change. The RTPI says that it is aiming to become “more recognisable, more relevant, and more ready to lead the conversation about planning in a changing world”. Credibility is vital in a sector where misinformation is increasingly rife.

BEN GOSLING is senior writer with The Planner

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This is the new RTPI. A clearer voice for planning

rtpi.org.uk PLN.SeptOct25.044.indd 26 NEW RTPI ad PLNSO25 FP.indd 27

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Community unrest Shared spaces bring people together

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Cymru, consolidated

Legal insight: The planning (Wales) bill reviewed

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Twin town

Case study: Watford’s awardwinning digital twin

POLICY & PRACTICE Fly by night Leeds Bradford Airport’s appeal against night flight restrictions is grounded (p46)

Alamy

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CASES & DECISIONS

Appeals A N A LY S E D B Y B E N G O S L I N G A N D H U W M O R R I S / A P P E A L S @ T H E P L A N N E R . C O . U K

Leeds airport night-flying restrictions maintained Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) has failed in an attempt to ease restrictions on night-time flights – a move that met with stern resistance from a local campaign group.

BA sought three lawful-use certificates to allow nighttime exemptions for aircraft with ‘quota count’ ratings of 0.25 (a method of rating how much an aircraft contributes to noise).

Confirmation of lawful use was also sought on exemptions for propeller aircraft and planes with a weight less than 11,600kg, and for flights scheduled between 7am and 11pm (daytime hours), but which are delayed, and land before 1am.

However, Leeds City Council refused

L

to grant the certificates, while local campaign group GALBA, opposed the "climate-wrecking emissions that extra flights would cause" and expressed concern about "health damage from particulates and life-shortening sleep deprivation caused by night flights".

PINS inspector J Whitfield agreed that the number of night-time flights should continue to be limited to 2,800 during the summer and 1,200 in the winter. The inspector rejected the argument that breaches of these caps had continued for more than a decade,

Location Leeds and Bradford Airport, Victoria Avenue, Yeadon, Leeds LS19 7TU Authority Leeds City Council Inspector J Whitfield Procedure Inquiry Decision Dismissed Reference APP/N4720/X/24/3354210 b.link/planner09100-leedsairport

which would make them immune from enforcement as there had been long periods of compliance.

Whitfield agreed to lift restrictions on flights weighing less than 11,600kg, but rejected the two remaining appeals.

Ian Coatman, GALBA’s secretary, said the decision is a "victory for local people" and the environment. "While it doesn’t mean an end to all night flights, it does mean the airport must stick to the rules that limit the number of planes allowed to fly at night...

"We want the council to make sure that only the quietest planes are allowed to fly at night, all of them must be counted towards the night flights cap and the cap must be enforced.”

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CASES & DECISIONS

COMMENT Estelle Dehon KC, Cornerstone Barristers In 2022-23, having withdrawn its called-in application for changes to flying hours, Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) submitted three applications for certificates of lawful use (CLEUD), effectively contending that LBA and the council had for years incorrectly interpreted the planning conditions controlling night flights.

If succeesful, hundreds of flights would have fallen outside of the cap.

The inspector upheld the council’s refusal of two of the applications, permitting one. The CLEUD concerning night flying was refused, the inspector rejecting arguments about the airport's “seasonal” nature or that flight scheduling was relevant. LBA has, however, appealed the inspector’s approach to continuous breach to the High Court.

Interestingly, the inspector accepted that all the CLEUD applications were validly made, despite two simply asking for correct interpretation of planning conditions, which were neither supported by evidence, nor alleging any breach of planning control.

The inspector rejected submissions that this was outwith the CLEUD process and should have been brought by way of a Part 8 Claim.

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We write upwards of 35 appeal reports a month. You can access them at www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions (or scan the code, left) and you can subscribe to our weekly Decisions Digest newsletter, sent out on Monday mornings. Sign up: b.link/planner-newsletters

‘Demonstrable unmet need’ renders huge green belt data centre acceptable Planning minister Matthew Pennycook has determined that the growing need for extra data capacity near London justifies a large data centre in Iver, Buckinghamshire.

The scale of Greystoke Land and Altrad UK Limited’s 72,000-squaremetre data centre meant that it was referred for ministerial determination after Buckinghamshire Council refused it in June 2024.

Pennycook disagreed with SRG Baird’s assessment of the scheme’s impact on the green belt, who.had ruled that the data centre would be “inappropriate development”.

However, the minister ultimately determined that “there would not be an incongruous pattern of development”, given the existing development along Iver Lane. He reasoned that the scheme “would not fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining green belt” and was therefore not inappropriate development.

It is estimated that there is a need for about 2,486MW of additional data capacity between 2024 and 2029 in the Slough Availability Zone (SAZ), which is continuing to rise.

Baird commented that there was “an undisputed urgent and overwhelming need for additional capacity in the SAZ”, with no plan-led solution.

Pennycook concurred, adding that there is a “demonstrable unmet need for this type of development”.

Location Woodlands Park Landfill Site, Land South of Slough Road, Iver, Buckinghamshire Authorit Buckinghamshire Council Inspector SRG Baird Procedur Inquiry Decision Allowed Reference APP/ N0410/W/24/3347353 https://b.link/planner0910-datacentre

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CASES & DECISIONS

‘Semi-derelict’ Milton Keynes landmark to be replaced with towers The Point, one of the UK’s first multiplex cinemas and once the tallest building in Milton Keynes, will be demolished and replaced with residential towers up to 21 storeys tall.

GHL (Milton Keynes) Ltd proposed demolishing the largely unused pyramidshaped Point building on Midsummer Boulevard and replacing it with retail units and up to 487 build-to-rent apartments in four blocks ranging between 13 and 21 storeys tall.

Milton Keynes Council declined to grant planning permission, leading to the appeal’s launch.

The Point is a non-designated heritage asset, which planning inspector Paul

Griffiths described as being in a “very sorry state, largely unused, and with a somewhat uncared-for appearance”.

The Point “has a semi-derelict appearance. There is no reasonable prospect of it coming back into operation.

To suggest that it should remain, nevertheless, would serve to fossilise an important city centre site that is largely moribund and crying out for effective reuse,” concluded the inspector, who ruled that permission should be granted.

Location The Point, 602 Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 3NB Authority Milton Keynes Council.

Inspector Paul Griffiths Procedure Inquiry Decision Allowed Reference APP/ Y0435/W/24/3350378 https://b.link/planner0910MKtower

1,200-home urban extension approved by minister Up to 1,200 homes, a care home, a community health centre and a primary school have been allowed on the outskirts of Fareham, Hampshire, by planning minister Matthew Pennycook.

He agreed with his planning inspector’s recommendation that the homes proposed by Hallam Land Management Ltd on Longfield Avenue should be approved.

Fareham Borough Council had failed to determine the initial application.

There had been fears voiced that the development would overwhelm health services.The area’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) had sought a contribution of £601 from each dwelling towards healthcare capacity.

Inspector Lesley Coffey noted that the three nearest practices to the site are oversubscribed and determined that the ICB’s request was justified.

The council scored 55 per cent in the 2023 housing delivery test, and cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. The proposal would make a “significant contribution”

towards the area’s supply of housing.

Pennycook was satisfied that planning permission should be granted to help address the shortage.

Location Land South of Longfield Avenue, Fareham Authority Fareham Borough Council Inspector Lesley Coffey Procedure Inquiry Decision Allowed Reference APP/APP/ A1720/W/24/3347627 https://b.link/planner0910fareham

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CASES & DECISIONS

Greenfield land needed to meet renewable energy targets National energy goals cannot be achieved with solar farms on brownfield land and rooftops alone, according to an inspector who approved a large-scale solar farm on arable land in Hertfordshire.

EPL 002 Limited’s proposal for the 106-hectare site at Wandon End included a 49.9-megawatt solar farm.

The application was refused

by North Hertfordshire

Council.

Planning inspector Alison Partington determined that the land, used for growing crops, could be considered as ‘grey belt’, because it did not make a major contribution to the green belt.

Partington concluded that the development would have a “moderate adverse impact” on landscape character, even as vegetation matures.

The solar farm could power up to 18,500

households, and have a grid connection set up within two years. Partington observed that there is a “significant undersupply in solar to meet the 2030 target” of 4547GW. The appeal proposal would make a “valuable contribution" to achieving local and national targets.

Partington continued that, to meet these targets, “it is clear that considerable growth in large-scale solar farms will be necessary,

Location Land north east of Wandon End, North Hertfordshire, LU2 8PS Authority North Hertfordshire Council Inspector Alison Partington Procedure Inquiry Decision Allowed Reference APP/ X1925/W/25/3359065 https://b.link/planner0910wandonenergy

more than 100MW per week, and this cannot be achieved solely by the use of brownfield land or rooftop installations”.

Nearly 400 green belt homes approved under ‘grey belt’ policy Up to 390 homes have been approved in the Hertfordshire green belt after it was demonstrated that the land could be considered as ‘grey belt’ and so suitable for development.

Fairfax Strategic Land (Hemel) Ltd also sought permission for a 70bed care home in its outline application for land near Leighton Buzzard Road, Hemel Hempstead. The amount of affordable housing in the scheme was increased from 40 to 50 per cent by the appellant.

Planning inspector C

Dillon noted Dacorum Borough Council’s housing land supply of only 1.03 years, with the appellant

Shutterstock / iStock

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and council agreeing that the borough had a “chronic undersupply of both market and affordable housing”.

The inspector decided that the appeal site does not contribute strongly to the green belt's aims of checking urban sprawl, preventing coalescence, and preserving historic towns. The proposal would satisfy the 'golden rules' of green belt development by providing 50 per cent affordable

Location Land west of Leighton Buzzard Road, Hemel Hempstead HP1 3LP Authority Dacorum Borough Council Inspector C Dillon Procedure Inquiry Decision Allowed Reference APP/ A1910/W/24/3345435 https://b.link/planner0910hemelgreybelt

housing, and infrastructure improvements. The appeal site could therefore be considered ‘grey belt’, concluded Dillon.

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11/09/2025 09:06

CASES & DECISIONS

Supermarket approved in ‘prominent gateway’ commercial estate A Sainsbury’s supermarket on the periphery of Shipston-onStour has been granted planning permission despite concerns about its suitability in this setting.

The foodstore, parking and electric vehicle chargers were proposed for land at the Tilemans Lane Industrial Estate by Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, but refused by Stratford-on-Avon District Council.

Planning inspector A J Sutton said that the buildings currently on the site, described by the council

as a ‘prominent gateway’, have a “somewhat tired appearance”. The Darlingscote Road side of the plot has a more verdant and rural appearance.

The proposal features pedestrian routes but there was some criticism that the development was too carcentric. However, the inspector noted that a “reasonably sized” car park would be required to facilitate weekly shops.

Concerns about the supermarket drawing trade from the town centre were also dismissed by the inspector, who said that there was “limited overlap” between the Sainsbury’s store and independent town centre retailers.

Onshore wind farm approved in Northern Ireland Six wind turbines capable of powering nearly 23,000 homes have been approved in rural Northern Ireland after addressing concerns about their impact on a protected landscape.

The turbines, each capable of generating between 21.6 and 24MW and with a maximum blade tip height of 149.9m, were proposed by Renewable Energy Systems Ltd for land near Magheramore Road, Dungiven.

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council refused to grant permission, and the Save Benbradagh Group opposed the proposal.

PACNI commissioner Gareth Kerr noted the country’s goal of a 48 per cent reduction in net emissions by 2030, and net zero by 2050. The proposal would be able to save around 40,000 tonnes of carbon across 30 years.

The site on Teeavan Hill is near the Sperrins Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Kerr determined that Teeavan Hill is one of the “less sensitive” parts of the area visually,

Location Units 2 and 2a Tilemans Lane Industrial Estate, Shipston-on-Stour CV36 4PR Authority Stratford-on-Avon District Council Inspector A J Sutton Procedure Hearing Decision Allowed Reference APP/J3720/W/25/3361840 https://b.link/planner0910-shipstonsainsburys

Location Lands Opp. entrance to 59 Magheramore Road, Approx. 4km south of Dungiven Authority Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Inspector Gareth Kerr Procedure Hearing Decision Allowed Reference 2023/A0099 https://b.link/planner0910-dungivenwind

and “suitable in principle" for the development. Only 14 per cent of the AONB would experience “theoretical visibility” of the wind farm; the commissioner concluded that the development would be “suitably sympathetic” to the AONB.

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CASES & DECISIONS

Scottish Government overrules reporter to approve national park salmon farm

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A large housing scheme has been approved in Pickering, North Yorkshire – a local authority area with a housing land supply of only 0.8 years. https://b.link/planner0910pickeringhomes

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A battery energy storage system (BESS) in East Devon has been refused because of the risk of water contamination and potential harm to the protected dormouse species. https://b.link/planner0910dormousebess

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140 homes green-lit in area with a fraction of required housing supply

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Dormouse habitat and health concerns seal BESS refusal

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A solar farm capable of powering around 14,000 homes has been approved on Lincolnshire farmland on the basis that agriculture could resume when the facility’s operational life has ended. https://b.link/planner0910-lincolnsolar

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Horsham District Council has since launched a judicial review of the Planning Inspectorate's approval of the large scheme in early August. https://b.link/planner0910horshamhousing

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Eighty-two homes and a visitor centre have been refused near Falkirk after failing to meet any of the exception criteria for rural housing on greenfield land. https://b.link/planner0910-falkirkhomes

Solar farm acceptable on highquality agricultural land

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Rural housing scheme ‘fundamentally at odds’ with Scottish policy

800 homes allowed as council falters with housing delivery

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The use of a former police station in North London as a large hostel must end, the Planning Inspectorate has determined, https://b.link/planner0910-enfieldhostel

Large polytunnels for growing blueberries and cherries would be visually incongruous in rural Herefordshire, while effluent from workers’ accommodation would impact the vulnerable Wye and Lugg rivers. b.link/planner0910-wyefruit

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‘False and misleading’ claims made in Enfield 65-bed hostel appeal

‘Monotonous’ tonous’ fruit farm would impact sensitive rivers

Scottish ministers have disagreed with their reporter’s recommendation to refuse a large fish farm at Loch Long because of the loss of ancient woodland, and granted permission for the scheme. https://b.link/planner0910lochlongsalmon

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A large battery energy storage system (BESS) in Culham, Oxfordshire, has been approved following recognition of the pressing need for energy storage to support the national transition to renewable energy. https://b.link/planner0910-culhambess

DE PE VE RM LO IT PM TE EN D T

‘Urgent need’ for 500MW grey belt BESS

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11/09/2025 09:07

RESEARCH

Evidence Base Research briefs

Research, surveys, policy, guidance, consultations and legislation from around the British Isles

Research Decline of community spaces contributed to Southport unrest The closure of community spaces fuelled ‘tinderbox’ conditions in Southport last year.

This is according to a report from the Institute for Public Policy and Rsearch (IPPR).

It states that the extreme right capitalised on a lack of investment in the town, which was the scene of a mass stabbing days before. The resulting riots were the most extensive in the UK since those in 2011.

Report author Sacha Hilhorst says that the Southport riots were a “stark reminder of what can happen when communities lose the places that once brought people together. In the absence of shared spaces, misinformation and hate can fill the void, creating tinderbox conditions for violence”.

Fifty pubs in the UK close each month; around 600 youth clubs shut between 2012 and 2016; and London lost nearly 10 council-run community spaces each year between 2018 and 2023, notes Hilhorst, leading to people becoming more isolated, and allowing misinformation and division to take root.

Hilhorst proposes a “21stcentury welfare fund” financed by a 2 per cent levy on online retailers, or a warehouse tax on companies such as Amazon, to be used to revive high streets and build new pubs, sports facilities and childcare centres. https://b.link/planner0910southportunrest

Study calls for ‘representative’ public engagement in planning Councils should routinely engage a representative sample of residents to inform their local plans and decisions to tackle nimbyism and unlock development, according to the latest research. https://b.link/planner0910-nimbyism Retrofit delivery flags in London Research from the London Sustainable Development Commission has revealed that retrofitting in London is occurring at only one-tenth of the pace required. https://b.link/planner0910-retrofits 80% of rural authorities not planning for social housing Research reveals that just 20 per cent of the 84 rural local authorities in England have set specific targets for social rent housing in their local plans. https://b.link/planner0910socialhomes FOI reveals peatland in Wales is being damaged Wales’s peatlands have been damaged by wind farm development, according to research

by CPRW, the Welsh countryside charity. https://b.link/planner0910peatlands

52 | The Planner | September / October 2025

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10/09/2025 17:12

POLICY AND LEGISLATION

Policy & legislation Government to ‘reassess’ fast-track policy for large infrastructure The government is consulting on redesigning the fast-track policy to support its missions to “accelerate infrastructure delivery and unlock economic growth”.

Designed under the previous government, the fast-track process aims to deliver a decision within 12 months of acceptance for examination. Guidance stipulates that participation in the enhanced pre-application service offered by the Planning Inspectorate is mandatory for applications seeking

to be fast-tracked.

Proposals include removing the statutory requirement for preapplication consultation and adjusting acceptance tests to allow greater pragmatism in the system.

The planning and infrastructure bill contains provisions to remove the requirements of pre-application consultation for NSIPs. The consultation closes on 27 October. https://b.link/planner0910-fasttrack

Framework for Ireland’s drones sector A national policy framework to guide high-level strategic planning and development of Ireland’s emerging drones sector has been unveiled by the government.

The framework is intended to support growth and innovation within the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) sector, “while ensuring safe and secure operations and managing environmental and other concerns”.

A national working group will look at developing “transparent processes and procedures” for designating UAS geographical zones, integrating drones safely into Ireland’s airspace, as well as the sector’s impact on society and iStock

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the environment. A steering group will develop a national plan for ‘U-space’, which will cover specific services and procedures to ensure safe and efficient access to airspace for a high volume of drones.

Transport minister Darragh O’Brien said the framework will consider how planning and environmental issues will be tackled, including the expansion of commercial drone delivery services. “UAS presents exciting opportunities for business and the public sector to boost productivity and improve service provision,” he added. “They can also create hightech jobs and boost the economy across Ireland. https://b.link/planner0910-drones

Around the nations England One environmental lead for Lower Thames Crossing The government has announced that the Lower Thames Crossing will be the first significant infrastructure project to have one point of contact for environmental considerations. https://b.link/planner0910thamescrossing

Scotland Housing delivery comments sought The Scottish Government has issued a call for views on potential measures to simplify planning processes and encourage the provision of new homes. The consultation is open for responses until 27 October 2025. https://b.link/planner0910housingdelivery

Ireland New apartment guidelines cause controversy in Ireland Concerns have been raised over the impact of the new apartment guidelines issued in Ireland at the beginning of July. https://b.link/planner0910apartmentguidelines September / October 2025 | The Planner | 53

10/09/2025 17:13

LEGAL

Legal insight

Planning legislation sorted out – at least in Wales

The planning (Wales) bill has finally been introduced into the Senedd. Once it has come into force, this will be the most coherent expression of planning law since 1947, says Charles Mynors lanning legislation was once relatively simple. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 contained a mere 120 sections – many of which dealt with financial matters that are no longer relevant. But 80 years later, planning in England and Wales is governed not just by the TCPA 1990, but also by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991, the Environment Act 1995, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and the Planning Act 2008; and those five acts have all been amended by other acts, which between them contain 660 sections.

Significantly, however, only 337 sections (about half ) apply in both England and Wales – often slightly differently, and sometimes completely differently. Another 245 sections apply only in England, and the remaining 74 apply only in Wales.

And that does not include legislation relating to large infrastructure projects, nor the separate acts relating to historic buildings and monuments.

The planning system has become ridiculously complicated – particularly in England – and it is in some cases difficult to see which statutory provisions operate on either side of the border.

In the past, this problem has led to legislation being consolidated and sorted out – in 1962, 1971 and 1990.

Unfortunately, successive governments in England seem to have lost the appetite for simplifying the law, and appear to be

P

the bill will include provisions relating to intent on constantly ‘improving’ it, which development plans (currently in the PCPA always results in yet greater complexity.

2004), and those relating to CIL (in the However, the Welsh Government has 2008 act). It will include an updated suite grasped the nettle and produced a single piece of legislation – the planning (Wales) of provisions relating to minerals, replacing those in the 1991 and 1995 Acts; and it bill – that will replace all mainstream will see the introduction (at last) of the planning acts and will sit alongside the changes made by the 2008 Act to tree Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 preservation orders. But it will not restate and the Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024.

The bill was introduced into the Senedd provisions that are obsolete or redundant, or those that apply only in mid-September – along with “It will result in Wales in England.

There is also a an explanatory having for the first planning (consequential memorandum providing a time a single, coherent provisions) (Wales) bill, which will make changes simple guide to act containing all of necessary to ensure its contents, and the relevant primary that other legislation tables showing the provisions that legislation underpinning continues to operate satisfactorily – not least are being replaced the planning system” the TCPA 1990 itself, by it. Assuming which will continue to it becomes law, apply in England. it will replace It is hoped that the two bills will be the TCPA 1990 and all the other existing passed by the Senedd before the election pieces of planning legislation, as they in May 2026, obtain royal assent in early apply in Wales. It will not change the law to any significant extent, save that it summer and be brought into force in late 2026 or in 2027. At that stage, they will be will incorporate some minor technical accompanied by other items of secondary amendments recommended by the Law legislation, providing procedural details and Commission. But it will result in Wales having, for the first time, a single, coherent amending other secondary legislation, and tree replacement regulations. act containing all of the relevant primary legislation underpinning the planning system – published in English and Welsh. Charles Mynors FLSW barrister FRTPI IHBC As well as the material in the two-thirds works with the Welsh Government team producing the bill of the TCPA 1990 that applies in Wales,

54 | The Planner | September / October 2025

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11/09/2025 10:39

Energy standards legal action dismissed, despite recognition of ‘tension’

Legal briefs A momentous moment for rights of light disputes A notable right to light decision relating to a large development on London’s South Bank has seen a compromise between public need and private inconvenience. Kate New considers whether this will pave the way for similar decisions. b.link/planner0910-southbank

The Court of Appeal has acknowledged that there is ‘tension’ between a written ministerial statement on energy standards and councils’ autonomy to exceed such standards, but finally rejected the appeal. ights: Community: Action Ltd (RCA) challenged a 2023 written ministerial statement (WMS), which was interpreted by some as limiting the ability of planning authorities to set local energyefficiency standards higher than national building regulations. The RCA said this was unlawful.

Their case was dismissed in the High Court, a decision confirmed by Lord Justices Dingemans, Lewis and Holgate in the Court of Appeal. RCA contended that the WMS failed to give proper regard to the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS). The WMS states that “the government does not expect plan-makers to set local energy-efficiency standards for buildings that go beyond current or planned buildings regulations”.

Dingemans decided the WMS had been appropriately assessed against the EPPS, which sets out five environmental principles for policymakers, in February 2024. The judge ruled that the appellant’s bids to characterise this assessment as a “rearguard action” were without foundation. “The duty applies at a number of stages in the ‘making’ of a policy. For example, the duty to have ‘due regard’ to the EPPS applies when a policy is being developed, and not simply at the point when a policy is adopted. It applies when a policy is being formulated and different policy options are being considered,” concluded Dingemans.

Despite the dismissal, Dingemans noted the unresolved “tension between the intention to use national measures to impose statutory restraints on how far an LPA may set standards exceeding building regulations and the well-established legal principle that an LPA can include in its DPD a local policy which conflicts with national policy, justified, for example, by local circumstances”, but did not feel that this tension needed to be overcome to reach a ruling on the appeal. https://b.link/planner0910-wms

Environmental law webinar Join Landmark Chambers for the first of a three-part webinar series, with this session’s focus being environmental law. b.link/planner0910-landmarkchambers

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Three rulings that mark a new era for intensive livestock developments Is the writing on the wall for UK factory farms? Emma Dearnaley, head of legal at River Action, explains what a trio of recent legal decisions means for planning. b.link/planner0910-factoryfarms

Court of Appeal upholds previous ruling on disregarded green belt report The Court of Appeal has determined that a former housing minister was not bound to consider a new green belt review published after a planning appeal inquiry when she approved more than 700 homes. b.link/planner0910-gbreport

Legal challenge to Wimbledon expansion dismissed Expansion of the All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon with a new 8,000seat stadium and 38 new courts can proceed, after the High Court refused a judicial review of the scheme’s planning permission. b.link/planner0910-wimbledon

EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

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CASE STUDY

1.

Virtually perfect AWARD: Excellence in Digital Planning Practice

KEY PLAYERS: Watford Borough Council, Digital Urban

PROJECT NAME: Digital Twin: Engaging our community and bringing the Watford Green Loop to life

hen Watford Borough Council launched its Regulation 19 consultation for its 20212038 local plan, it received around 80 responses. Eighty responses from a borough of approximately 102,300 people to a plan envisioning 13,328 new homes. Some local authorities might be thrilled with this; after all, no news is good news, and the plan was successfully adopted in 2022. But Ben Martin, director of regeneration and growth at the council, saw a problem.

“If we’re not getting that sounding board of engagement, are we really getting this right?” he ponders. There was a solid six weeks of consultation on the local plan, with a leaflet sent to each household in the borough as the Covid-19 pandemic prevented in-person events.

It’s clear then that more

W

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DIGITAL TWIN

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1. The technology was a hit with families and young people 2. How the ‘Digital Twin’ is rendered in for users 3. The experience garnered greater public engagement than more traditional efforts 4. The technology was toured around local schools...

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conventional engagement tactics were not working, although not for any want of effort. Would a more novel approach bear fruit?

IN THE LOOP

The Watford Green Loop seemed like fertile ground to try a new approach. A 6.5-mile continuous cycling and walking route around Watford’s town centre, the loop is an important part of the council’s 20-year Transforming Travel in Watford strategy. Like all ambitious, multi-decade plans, it will require a significant amount of community involvement and buyin. As Martin said: “Our concern was, how do we sell that vision? How do we explain to people what it is that we’re actually trying to achieve here?”

Enter Digital Urban. Or rather, reenter. A digital design agency based in Bakewell and headed by Simon Mabey, Digital Urban, had created an accurate 3D model of Watford, known as the ‘digital twin’, in 2020. In 2023, the

4

potential of the digital twin for public engagement was recognised.

Digital Urban had flown a plane back and forth over Watford and rendered the model from footage taken on these sorties, before then transferring this onto a games engine, creating an interactive digital model of the town.

“At the time, the idea was that we would put the model onto a highpowered gaming laptop in the council offices, and we’d use it for sort of planning purposes – just to sort of drop things in, test them, whizz round, look at it from different angles,” explains Martin.

“It’s just a tool to help us, something that was a bit more interactive and also allowed us to look at things robustly from other points of view. Then, obviously, Covid happened.”

Post-pandemic, having the digital twin on a single laptop in a council office or town hall didn’t seem practical.

Martin says that “the conversation changed to: ‘We need something that’s a

In brief The Digital Twin simulates a portion of the proposed ‘green loop’, allowing members of the public to experience the proposals as if they were cyclists or pedestrians.

The model is stored digitally in the cloud, meaning it can be accessed remotely.

The project was completed within a speedy six months.

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CASE STUDY

Judges’ comments

5

bit more accessible, cloudbased; we need to be able to access it remotely,’ and Digital Urban went away and started to really look at changing the way that the model would operate for us”.

JUST LIKE RIDING A BIKE

It was decided that the Digital Twin could provide a way of expressing the council’s vision for the Green Loop to the people of Watford. However, that still didn’t solve the issue of access – simply presenting the Digital Twin on the council’s website wouldn’t necessarily drum up excitement or engagement.

Instead, the council took to the streets. They sourced a rickshaw, which would remain stationary while

members of the public sat on it and ‘cycled’ through a virtual version of the Green Loop, via VR headsets.

“We had queues of people going down the high street,” grins Martin.

He acknowledges that the novelty of using a shiny new gadget was a big draw, but this helped to launch a conversation. The rickshaw toured schools as well, to roaring success.

“It was really just a bit of an experiment, if I’m honest, but it’s been really successful, and the feedback we got was really good.

“Schoolchildren typically don’t have much of a voice around planning, but given that everything that we’re doing now is for their futures, I think it’s really important

that we do try to engage with them. But we need to do it on their terms, not on our own terms,” notes Martin. “This is the language that they understand. They like things that are visual; they like things that are immersive”.

ON THE ROAD

It wasn’t just kids who could relate to the Digital Twin. A picture is worth a thousand words, Martin drily observes, and the Digital Twin provided an important visual aid for people who struggle with English, for example, although the rickshaw appealed to passers-by, and people with young children.

Martin does accept that VR-based consultations may not be for everyone, and cautions against visions

“This is a standout example that shows how you can engage a diverse range of people with excellent visual Digital Twin and Mobility Simulation technologies. This investment, with its significant impact on the participatory planning process, has not only supported people to connect with a sustainable solution but also reassured the stakeholders about its practical benefits. Judges were especially impressed with how it appealed to all ages and encouraged children to be excited about where they live.”

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DIGITAL TWIN

Scan to watch more

5. ...as well as various locations in and around Watford 6. Some of the team from Digital Urban 7. Members of the public exploring the ‘Green Loop’ route 6

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of committee meetings populated by headsetsporting councillors – the digital renderings need to be accurate. It’s about a balance, he says: online consultation is important, but can feel “quite remote from the people that you’re trying to engage with”.

Despite the importance of the virtual aspect of the project, it’s what happens afterwards – back on Planet Earth – that really matters.

As Martin says: “It was really important with this project that we actually took the technology out on the road and actually spoke to people, and gathered their feedback alongside them engaging with the technology as well.”

A BETTER WAY

The success of the Digital

“In the drive to build houses, people will see consultation as a blocker, and it shouldn’t be. It just needs to be done better” Twin can be measured by the number of responses it got – more than 300, threeand-a-half times as many as the local plan consultation – but also in the quality and diversity of these responses.

“We were actually getting a much better cross-section of the community coming along and giving us their views” compared to more conventional engagement techniques, Martin reports.

It feeds into the concept of co-design, too – increasingly important when housing targets are

swelling and land in towns like Watford comes under pressure. Martin hopes that locals can be empowered by technology like the Digital Twin to “start designing some of it in their own way and show us what they think”.

The technology is there; the results are clear. So then why is Watford an outlier in using it?

Simon Mabey, founder and director of Digital Urban, says: “People are comfortable with what they already know. Getting them to do something different is always a challenge. And the local authorities that we work with often use phrases like ‘this is a game changer’.”

He continues: “My fear is that in the drive to build houses, people will see consultation as a blocker, and it shouldn’t be. It just needs to be done better.”

BEN GOSLING is senior writer for The Planner

Case studies and The Planner

The Planner regularly produces case studies on projects showcasing fresh and award-winning thinking. Visit our website for more.

September / October 2025 | The Planner | 59

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10/09/2025 17:48

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09/09/2025 01/05/2025 14:03 15:03

Projects please

64 How you can raise public awareness of planning

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Reasoned increase The rationale behind the fees increase

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New arrivals

Meet the freshly chartered members

INSTITUTE

A brand new look Why the RTPI’s new brand is more than just a logo (p62)

RTPI

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10/09/2025 17:49

RTPI NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

by Ashley Lampard at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

Our fresh new brand is here We’re proud to introduce our fresh new brand – one that better reflects who we are, what we stand for, and how we support our members, volunteers, and the planning profession.ɉ his is more than a visual update.

It’s about strengthening our voice, aligning with our values, and ensuring that everything we do – from member events and public engagement to policy influence – is clear, consistent and confident.

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Why we’ve evolved The world is changing rapidly, and so is the role of planners in shaping it.

We want to ensure that our identity reflects the value of planning in society – and the strength of the institute that supports it.

Our purpose remains the same: empowering planners to deliver positive impact. But we’ve listened to members, staff and stakeholders who told us we needed to communicate that purpose more clearly.

The new logo comes in a variety of formats and colourways

Brand ‘patterns’ create atrractive backdrops for messaging

The primary typeface complements the new logo

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Editorial: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk RTPI (switchboard): 0370 774 9494 Registered charity no. 262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

This new brand helps us do just that.

Shaped by our community We consulted widely across our community – hearing from more than 1,500 members, staff, volunteers, and external partners. Their feedback shaped every element of the new brand.

You asked us to be more

visible. More consistent.

More representative of the people behind the profession.

We heard you. And we’ve built a brand that brings those goals to life.

What’s new You’ll see a new logo, colour palette, typography and visual style across our website, communications

and events.

We’ve also refreshed our tone of voice – making our language more straightforward, personable and optimistic. This means clearer messages, more inclusive communication, and a stronger connection with all our audiences.

Our four core values now sit at the heart of everything we do:

• We are inclusive – We foster a culture where everyone feels valued.

• We are approachable – We communicate in a friendly, open and transparent way.

• We champion – We advocate for planners and the profession.

• We are professional – We uphold high standards and expertise.

What this means for members This isn’t just a change for RTPI staff – it’s for all of us. Whether you’re volunteering, attending events, sharing insights on social media or mentoring the next generation, you are part of how people experience the RTPI brand.

The secondary typeface can be used for standout text

The colour palette is intended to be engaging and distinctive

A shared step forwardɉ Our brand is how people remember us when we’re not in the room. It’s how we build trust, champion planning, and connect with others who care about shaping healthier, more inclusive, and more sustainable places.

This refreshed identity is a shared platform for all of us – and we can’t wait to see how you bring it to life.

Another brand pattern illustrates the range of options avaialble

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RTPI NEWS

Be part of the RTPI’s next major public awareness campaign

To be launched on 8 November 2025 to coincide with World Town Planning Day, the RTPI’s public awareness campaign will reshape public perceptions of our profession and the planning system – and we want your projects at the heart of it.

We’re inviting planners across the UK to submit inspiring case studies that show planning’s impact in practice.

We’re looking for: • Ongoing work – projects that will remain under construction for at least the next six months.

• Completed work – developments that exemplify excellence in planmaking, place-making and meaningful community engagement.

To put a project forward, email news@rtpi.org.uk with: • High-resolution images (at least 1MB each).

• Names and contact details for the planning authority and all companies involved.

• Dates of completion or expected completion.

Help us tell a compelling national story about planning – submit today and put your work on the map.

Your new-look RTPI website The Institute has launched a new website, introducing its refreshed brand and a redesigned homepage.

With the latest platform, security patches are applied promptly, helping safeguard member data amid rising cyber risks and reducing the chances of downtime or data exposure.

The change also places us on a longterm upgrade path to keep pace with technology. The new homepage offers a clearer route to blogs, news, events and essential information.

The new website can be accessed, as before, through rtpi.org.uk.

RTPI seeks new Chief Executive to lead the Institute’s next chapter The Royal Town Planning Institute is preparing for a significant leadership transition as it begins the search for a new Chief Executive to succeed Victoria Hills. Under Hills’ tenure, the RTPI has grown in influence, expanded its membership, and championed the planning profession across the UK and internationally.

This is a pivotal moment.

With planning at the heart of national conversations – from housing and infrastructure to climate resilience and social equity – the RTPI is looking for a visionary leader to guide the profession through a fast-evolving policy landscape and to be a committed leader to the RTPI’s dedicated team. The new Chief Executive will shape strategy, amplify the Institute’s voice and support more than 27,000 members in delivering sustainable places.

Berwick Partners (Odgers Group) has been appointed to lead the search. The role demands strategic insight, collaborative leadership, and a deep commitment to planning’s public value.

If you are interested in leading one of the UK’s most influential professional bodies, visit www.berwickpartners. co.uk/94452 to view the full job description and learn how to apply.

64 | The Planner | September / October 2025

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11/09/2025 09:10

Membership fees from January 2026 Membership fees will increase by 6 per cent from January 2026 in response to increased operational costs. Here’s why your fees are going up and how we’re investing in member value in 2026 and beyond.

From 1 January 2026, membership fees will be changing. Each year, the RTPI Board of Trustees reviews current membership fees and consults the General Assembly on any proposed changes. Although we work hard to keep costs low for members and continually explore new cost-saving measures, operational costs have increased significantly in recent years owing to inflation. Like many employers, the RTPI is affected by the increase in National Insurance contributions.

Going into 2026, the Board of Trustees and the General Assembly have agreed that membership fees will increase by 6 per cent. For a Chartered member, that works out to an extra £1.83 per month.

To help you spread the cost of your membership, we offer a monthly Direct Debit payment option for UK bank account holders. Your renewal notice, which will be emailed to members in November, will provide you with iStock

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everything you need to know to make the switch to monthly payments, including details of reduced rates for eligible members.

As your Institute, we continue to invest in you and the planning profession, working each year to introduce new and expanded offerings for member value.

To name just a few examples of how we are investing in member value this year and beyond: • First-class professional development opportunities: In addition to offering hundreds of free and low-cost CPD events every year alongside unique leadership programmes like Chief Planners of Tomorrow, we’re constantly developing new opportunities for members, including this year’s launch of a global mentoring programme available to all members, anywhere in the world, regardless of career stage.

• A collective voice for planning: Our policy and advocacy teams

keep planning centre stage for the government amid urgent national conversations. In the lead-up to the UK general election, the RTPI was on the ground meeting with party leaders, briefing them on our ‘Planifesto’. Since then, we’ve kept the pressure on with responses to the National Planning Policy Framework, the new planning and infrastructure bill, and advocating fiercely for apprenticeships funding. Beyond the UK, we advocate internationally through our international partnerships and participation in UN-Habitat initiatives.

• Ensuring the future of planning: Members have made it clear that planning needs more resources. There is an urgent need for new planners, domestically and internationally, and we’re building that pipeline.

Whether it’s providing guidance and encouragement for employers offering a work experience programme for students, or getting RTPI Ambassadors into schools to introduce children to planning, we’re invested in making sure the planning profession reflects the communities we serve.

• Improving your user experience: We’re upgrading the digital experience for our members this year with a new learning management system and an easy online membership application.

• Raising the profile of planning: Building on the success of our previous “It Takes Planners &...” campaign, this year RTPI President Helen Fadipe MBE announced an ambitious public awareness campaign, set to launch this year on World Town Planning Day, that will aim to reshape public perceptions, showcasing planning as a proactive force for good As a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, you are part of a community of more than 27,000 planners around the world. Thank you for being a part of our collective efforts to strengthen the profession and for your membership.

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NEW MEMBERS

New chartered members Congratulations to the following planners who were recently elected to Chartered membership of the RTPI Redactive Publishing Ltd, 9 Dallington Street, London, EC1V 0LN

East Midlands Rebecca Green Sophie Kane Emma Redfern Imogen Scotney Abbey South Gemma Till Christopher Unwin-Williams

East of England Max Baldwin Nicholas Clow Ciaran Gunning Geoffrey McMahon Nicola Giselle O’Hagan Charles Thompson Elizabeth Wise Lucy Wood London Lesley Agyekumaa-Sasu Robbie Browning Hannah Collins Emily Comber Elisha Dunn Louis Earle-Davis Peter Farnham George Fennell Olivia Frost Benjamin Gibbs Athina Gkremi Lauren Haddad Erlina Hale Paul Hampson Leanne Keltie Hoi Yee Lee Ching Hei Leung Liam McLoughlin Caitlin Robinson Celia Smith-King Lee Wratten

North East James Thomas

North West Gemma Burton John-Michael Chidwick Emily Darnell Ragini Dutta Katharine Forbes Emelia Jeffery Ellen Macleod Thomas Scullion Patrick Swallow

South East Gurkiran Boparai Benjamin Brett Catherine DenningJohnson Matthew Gest Chloe Jacobs Naresh Kajoo Jiwon Kang Hannah Ellen Keyte Dustin Lees Rebecca Rayner Lucinda Slater Rebecca Tilley Thomas Vint

South West Gemma Ackerman Ted Blackmore Sophie Lennon Jenny Payne Robert Randell Mark Willitts

West Midlands Lucy Calrow Jacob Collett Millie Flynn William Groom Jodie Harris Archie Kimberley Maisie Marsh Aaran Sangha Elliott Williams

Yorkshire Mollie Arif Javier Guerrero Lewis Humphreys Katie Jones Amy Rennie Helen WilkinsonBurnett

Ireland Mary Venables Northern Ireland Adam Lendrum

Wales/Cymru Jack Dangerfield Mared Jones Daniel Lintin

EDITORIAL Tel: 020 7324 2736 editorial@theplanner.co.uk Editor Simon Wicks simon.wicks@theplanner.co.uk News editor Laura Edgar laura.edgar@theplanner.co.uk Senior writer Ben Gosling ben.gosling@theplanner.co.uk Consultant editor Huw Morris Sub-editor Deborah Shrewsbury Picture editor Akin Falope Designer Craig Bowyer Group editor Martin Read martin.read@redactive.co.uk ADVERTISING & MARKETING

To subscribe, call 01580 883844 or email subs@redactive.co.uk – alternatively, you can subscribe online at subs. theplanner.co.uk/subscribe © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 9 Dallington Street, London, EC1V 0LN. This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about planning issues and articles do not necessarily reflect the views ofɉthe RTPI nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in part in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither RTPI nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed byɉWarners.

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RTPI CONTACTS Membership membership@rtpi.org.uk 0370 774 9494 Education education@rtpi.org.uk Planning Aid England advice@planningaid.rtpi. org.uk 41 Botolph Lane London EC3R 8DL Media enquiries Simon Creer simon.creer@rtpi.org.uk 07455 747893 The Planner is produced using paper that is elemental chlorine-free and is sourced from sustainable managedɉforest.

66 | The Planner | September / October 2025

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The Planner Jobs is the official jobs board for the RTPI Here is a selection of the most recent opportunities from a few of those organisations working with The Planner to recruit the best quality candidates in the marketplace.

Forward Planning Officer Salary: £35,412 £38,220 pa Location: Hybrid/ Devon

Area Team Manager Development Management Salary: £53,460 - £56,533 pa Location: Newton Abbot/Hybrid

Head of Planning Salary: Circa £69k pa Location: Derbyshire

Planner or Senior Planner Salary: Competitive salary Location: Birmingham

Senior Policy Officer Salary: £50 per hour Location: West Midlands

Career Grade Planner (Development Management) Salary: Grade 4-7, £26,403 - £42,839 p.a Location: Leicestershire

To advertise please email: theplannerjobs@redactive.co.uk or call 020 7880 6232

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Visit The Planner website for daily, weekly and monthly content that you won’t Ǜnd in print:

Tuesday 02 September 2025

Daily planning news Reports of the most important planning appeals Regular columns and opinions Features Q&As and case studies looking at planning topics in depth Video interviews Our extensive archive of all of the above.

Scan here for The Planner online

You can also sign up for our three weekly newsletters and check out the latest vacancies on our Planner Jobs site.

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