Agenda 2025

Martin Shingler

Editor

DCP & COMPASS

DCP + COMPASS Editor Martin Shingler will be leading a surgery (9.00 - 17.30) to answer your individual questions.

Get a complimentary COMPASS expert search of planning appeals (worth £1,375). Recent topics include loss of retail units, housing land supply, and agricultural building conversions. You'll also get relevant extracts from the DCP Manual for policy and legal insights.

You can choose to submit your question in advance for extra research time by simply sharing a summary of your planning situation with [email protected].

Richard Garlick

Editor

Planning Resource

Steve Quartermain CBE

A warm welcome to all delegates followed by a thematic overview of the day.

Sasha White KC

Barrister

Landmark Chambers

What impact are policy changes made by the government having so far overall?

Which changes are already successfully making a difference?

To what extent is/are government decision-making/policy-making/interventions matching its rhetoric, and where is it falling short?

What interventions have been made so far?
What further policy changes can we expect to drive the government’s positive planning agenda?
What is the government doing to specifically support LPAs and drive culture change?

Q+A

Paul Campbell

Chief Executive

Richborough

Brett Leahy

Strategic Director of Planning, Growth and Infrastructure

Enfield Council

Millie Dodd

Senior Communications and Marketing Manager

Shared Voices

How can this positive culture be created in LPAs? What works?
What are the difficulties and can it be done with limited resources?
What are the implications of reform of planning committees/greater officer delegation?

Joanna Averley

Chief Planner

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Update on latest transition timetables, status of front runners, digitisation timetable
Outline impact of NDMPs
Setting out new approach on design and design codes

Catriona Riddell

Director

Catriona Riddell & Associates Ltd

Louise Sloan

Assistant Director Planning

Newcastle City Council

Graham Thomas

Head of Planning & Sustainable Development

Essex County Council

Focus on the implications of the proposed new tier of strategic planning across England

What will strategic plans cover and when will they come in?
How will they affect local plans?
What will their role in green belt be and how will they be drawn up?

Milan Bogunovic

Programme Director, Digital Planning

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Nikki Webber

Digital Planning Team Lead

The City of London Corporation

Harry Quartermain

Head of Research and Insight

Landtech

Professor Samer Bagaeen

Technical Director

Arcadis

Peter Kemp

Head of Data and Digital for Planning and Place

GLA

Moderated by Professor Samer Bagaeen

The opportunities from digital local plans
The opportunities from combining digital documentation with granular prop-tech data
What the pitfalls are and how to avoid them

Sean Ellis

Managing Director

Fernham Homes

Dinny Shaw

Head of Planning, Developments

Places for People

Anthony Lee

Head Of UK Development Viability

BNP Paribas Real Estate

Hannah Haddad

Head of Strategic Applications

London Borough of Hounslow

Chris Buckle

Director, Residential Research

Savills, Head Office London

Why aren’t housing associations taking on s106 stock?
What are the practical ways this issue can be mitigated through options such as cascade mechanisms, payments in lieu, councils taking on stock etc.
Are there other ways out that don’t involve a reduction in the affordable housing offer?

Q&A

Catriona Riddell

Director

Catriona Riddell & Associates Ltd

Jason Longhurst

UK Head of Sustainable Investment & Partnerships

Prologis UK

Paul Frainer

Director

Olive Branch Consulting

How do LPAs deliver local growth plans?
What method should LPAs use to decide how much land to provide?
How can the developer sector work in partnership with authorities to make the case for employment uses?

Q&A

Rob Krzyszowski

Director of Planning & Building Standards

London Borough of Haringey

Liz Hobden

Principal Consultant

Planning Advisory Service

Gilian Macinnes

Director

Gilian Macinnes Associates

How to foster effective partnership working between LPAs and developers that pays for services
Delivering truly effective working between officers and members
What works in terms of running a planning team

Q&A

David Morris

Planning and Operations Director

Catesby Estates

Paul Smith MRTPI MRICS

Managing Director

The Strategic Land Group Ltd

Martha Grekos

Director (Barrister)

MGLC Legal

John Bosworth

Partner, Planning

Maples Teesdale

Where are the opportunities for developers?
How broadly is grey belt defined?
Are opportunities stymied by the requirements under the golden rules?

Q&A

Lord Charles Banner KC

Barrister (King’s Counsel), Keating Chambers & Working Peer, House of Lords

Pauleen Lane

Professional lead for infrastructure

The Planning Inspectorate (PINS)

Michael Humphries KC

NIPA Treasurer and Director

Francis Taylor Building

Tom Carpen

NIPA Board Chair and Consents Strategy Lead

Thames Water

Is the government delivering on the necessary NSIP reforms?
Does PINS have the capacity to process the casework?
What do the infrastructure provisions in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill mean for the sector?

Q&A

Andy von Bradsky

Director

vBE

Richard Eastham

Founding Director

Feria Urbanism

Jonathan Smales

Founder & CEO

Human Nature

Rebekah Jubb

Partner

Bell Cornwell LLP Planning Consultants

What the removal of beauty from the NPPF means for planning
The new role for design codes with the end of authority-wide coding
What the design code policy means for neighbourhood planning
How to embed placemaking and good design into local plans

Sam Stafford

Planning Director

Home Builders Federation

Robbie Owen

Partner and Parliamentary Agent, Head of Infrastructure Planning & Government Affairs

Pinsent Masons

Max Farrell

Founder & CEO

LDN Collective

Jeremy Potter

Spatial planning manager

Chelmsford Council

What is coming up from the New Towns Taskforce
How authorities in areas selected for New Towns should approach their local plans
What are the right delivery arrangements for New Towns?
What are landowners and the private sector’s role in delivery?

Q&A

Rebecca Clutten

Barrister

Francis Taylor Building

Nyear Yaseen

Head of Compulsory Purchase (South)

Lambert Smith Hampton

What are the implications of newly revised law on CPOs, and proposals for further powers
Will local authorities take up a new mandate from the government to use these powers?

Q&A

Philip Barnes

Group Land and Planning Director

Barratt Redrow

Where are applicants focusing their energy?
Are applicants seeing the next period as a key time of speculative applications?
How significant a factor will grey belt be? Where is it located?

Paul Brocklehurst

Chairman

Land, Planning and Development Federation

Stacey Robins

Head of Planning & Environmental Services

Wealden District Council

How does the new system allow LPAs to maintain the quality of development, and resist proposals on unsustainable locations?
How can LPAs be positive about growth while maintaining strategic control?
How should LPAs respond to grey belt applications?

Rebecca Phillips

Interim Chief Planning Inspector

The Planning Inspectorate (PINS)

What PINS is doing to address the volume of appeals, local plan and NSIP work coming through the system without growing the appeals backlog
How inspectors are approaching appeals on grey belt land
How the new system of sending back local plans at risk of failing the soundness test is working and what it means for LPAs