Strategic Land and Planning Conference

Vistry Group – Fiona Milden, Group Planning Director

More information to follow.

Urban & Civic – James Scott, Group Director of Strategy & Planning

Formed in 2009 and a PLC since 2014, Urban & Civic is a master developer established to promote and deliver large scale, residential led, strategic development in low carbon environments within the broader south east of England, they have grown to become the leading Master Developer of large-scale strategic sites. Their 10 strategic sites comprise 11,000+ acres of predominantly brownfield land with 31,500 consented homes and 8 million sq ft of employment space, with more in the pipeline.

As a master developer they take responsibility for obtaining planning and delivering the sustainable green, grey and community infrastructure needed to establish high quality places. James will discuss some of their key projects and how they work with partners to establish the necessary infrastructure to enable development.

Homes England – Lindsey Richards, Head of Planning

Lindsey is a chartered town planner with over 30 years’ experience in planning, design and delivery and an extensive background primarily working in the public sector, experienced in community engagement and bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to deliver key housing projects. Lindsey’s previous roles include leading the planning team at Milton Keynes Partnership, responsible for the expansion of Milton Keynes and introducing the Milton Keynes Tariff.

As Head of Planning with Homes England Lindsey provides specialist advice to Homes England delivery teams. She was responsible for driving design quality standards and introducing BfL12 as an assessment tool on Homes England sites. She sits on the Garden Town and Villages Programme Board and works closely with MHCLG on policy formulation and is working on the introduction of a strategy and toolkit to support Homes England projects.

Clarion Housing Group – Paul Lemar, Head of Strategic Land

Clarion is the UK’s largest housing association, owning and managing 125,000 homes for over 350,000 residents. They are a major developer of affordable housing with a pipeline of 20,000 new properties, with over 2,000 delivered annually and a long term target to increase this to over 4,000. Clarion have the master planner and master developer role on a number of large schemes including a 7,500 home garden community near Colchester, another west of Norwich for circa 5,000 units and a 10,000 unit one in Horsham – as part of a JV. Paul is well placed to discuss their work with commercial and local authority partners as well as Homes England to secure development opportunities for all tenures of housing.

Ainscough Strategic Land – Rachael Ainscough, Managing Director

Ainscough Strategic Land was founded in 2007 and now is one of the UK’s leading land promotion companies. ASL’s principle activity is the identification, acquisition and promotion of land through the planning system, working in partnership with landowners across the UK to realise maximum development value from land assets. They are currently representing over 1,100 acres of land, with the potential capacity for approximately 9,200 residential units and over 400,000 square feet of ancillary commercial and retail space. Their current projects include a 400 acre rural site near Swindon with outline permission for 2,500 homes, and Rachael will join us to discuss this work and the role infrastructure provision plays in their process.

Land Promoters and Developers Federation – Paul Brocklehurst, Chairman

The Land Promoters and Developers Federation is a collection of the UK’s leading land promotion and development businesses. They work with government, local authorities and communities up and down the country to enhance the planning process and deliver the new, sustainable homes and communities the UK needs. Paul is perfectly placed to review the UK’s planning landscape and provide some thought leadership on how the various stakeholders must work together to meet the local and national need for new homes and development.

Prior to his role at the LPDF Paul was Chief Executive of Catesby Estates, a leading land promoter for 15 years.

Stoford Developments – Jo Russell, Planning Director

Stoford are one of the UK’s leading property developers specialising in occupier led development and strategic land promotion within the main commercial sectors. They have an Industrial development pipeline of 1000 acres with potential for up to 9,675,000 sq ft to be delivered. The mixed use, £200 million Typhoo Wharf regeneration in Birmingham is a perfect example of the complicated relationship between infrastructure and the planning process – with the project being both enabled by and held up by the Curzon Street HS2 station. Jo will discuss this project and the wider implications of infrastructure on their commercial and mixed use projects – with motorways and other access points being vital to their success.

Grosvenor – James Cochrane, Project Director

Grosvenor are one of the UK’s most respected property stakeholders and are active within strategic land development and major urban regeneration. Their current projects include the £500m Salt Cross Garden Village in Oxfordshire, the 1,200 home Trumpington Meadows project in Cambridge and a partnership to bring forward a 5,000 home new community in Essex. They are leaders in improving biodiversity and working towards net-zero on their projects and James will discuss their key schemes in this context.

Barratt Homes – Emily McKenzie, Head of Planning

Barratt is the UK’s largest housebuilder, delivering around 17,000 new homes per year through their three brands: Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes and Barratt London. They are leaders in brownfield development and urban regeneration as well as traditional development, and Emily will provide some thought leadership on their work to secure a pipeline of consented sites for development.

Greystoke Land – Sam Matthew, Chief Operating Officer

Sam is the COO of Greystoke.  Greystoke is an Oxford based investment business who work with landowners, institutions and developers on a collaborative basis to finance and secure planning permission.

Greystoke has a portfolio of over 25 projects, including 3,500 homes and 5 million sq ft of commercial space. Projects include 320-acres of Tewkesbury Garden Town, a 200 acre logistics park at Banbury and a science park at Oxford. Sam will discuss the role of infrastructure in the planning system through Greystoke’s electric vehicle charging business.

Sam has a Masters in Design Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a BA in Geography from Cambridge.

Royal Town Planning Institute – Victoria Hills, Chief Executive

The Royal Town Planning Institute champions the power of planning in creating prosperous places and vibrant communities. Using our expertise and research they bring evidence and thought leadership to shape planning policies and thinking, putting planning at the heart of society’s biggest issues. The RTPI recently called for an extra £500 million in Government funding for the planning system to help tackle the climate crisis and boost levelling up efforts. As part of the opening session Victoria will make the case for putting planning at the heart of government delivery to create the homes and places that people want to live and work in.

Town and Country Planning Association – Fiona Howie, Chief Executive

The Town and Country Planning Association works to challenge, inspire, and support people to create healthy, sustainable and resilient places. The association promoted the Garden City idea in 1899 and has since recognised the role new communities play in a portfolio of solutions necessary to provide affordable homes in inclusive, healthy and climate-friendly places. Fiona joins us to share insight into the TCPA’s work supporting the latest garden community programme.

ADEPT (Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport) and Buckinghamshire Council – Ian Thompson, Corporate Director for Planning, Growth and Sustainability

ADEPT represents planning and place directors from county, unitary and combined authorities, along with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), sub-national transport boards and corporate partners drawn from key service sectors across England. Ian is chair of the organisation’s Sustainable Growth Board which leads on strategic planning, sustainable economic development and regeneration. He is also responsible for planning and sustainable development for Buckinghamshire Council and is one of the drivers behind the 16,000 home Aylesbury Garden Town project –  and will provide a local authority perspective on planning’s role in creating a net zero future for the UK.

Birmingham City Council – Maria Dunn, Head of Development Policy

The recently launched “Our Future City: Central Birmingham Framework 2040” will double the city’s green space and active travel routes and has the potential to create 74,000 new jobs as well as 35,000 new homes for the growing population. Maria will delve into the masterplan, which was launched at UKREiiF, in more detail and outline how it is a once in a generation opportunity for equitable growth.

BeFirst Regeneration – Caroline Harper, Deputy Managing Director

Be First is Barking & Dagenham’s (LBBD) urban regeneration company. They will deliver 50,000 new homes and 20,000 new jobs over the next 20 years, with the profits made reinvested in public services. Be First is a unique company, with the business acumen of the private sector and the ethos of the public private sector and Caroline is well placed to contribute to the discussion on public/private collaboration to overcome growth challenges in the estuary.

UKREiiF – Phil Laycock, Director

Natural England – Melanie Hughes, Sustainable Development Programme Director

Melanie Hughes is Sustainable Development Programme Director in Natural England (an arm’s length body in the DEFRA group).  This programme provides significant opportunities to deliver the Environment Act ambitions in a place through more effective use of NE’s planning and species licensing levers. Over the next five years she is responsible for driving more effectively planned, high environmental quality development and infrastructure at a local level; supporting the shaping of net gain policy and implementation to deliver ambitions on the Nature Recovery Network; embedding Green infrastructure and Natural Capital Planning ;  reforming species licensing to better reflect outcomes for conservation and developing strategic approaches to widespread environmental issues such as water quality.