The Planning & Land Development Conference

Strategic Land Group – Paul Smith, Managing Director

Strategic Land Group is a specialist land promotion company, that are experts in planning and bringing forward difficult sites for development. They have multiple ongoing and planned projects in the pipeline, including promoting the Clitheroe Local Plan, as well  as working closely with Doncaster Council to promote the 15-acre Auckley greenfield site. The land promoter is also working with North Lincolnshire Council to integrate the 10.4 acre Kirton-in-Lindsey site into their Local Plan.

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.

Catesby Estates – David Morris, Planning & Operations Director

Catesby Estates are recognised as one of the foremost experts in land promotion and infrastructure delivery. As planning and operations director, David will be able to share insight into the planning process, alongside sharing thought leadership and best practice for the early stage of planning. They have over 40 sites currently being unlocked for development, at various different stages of completion, which David will be able to share some thought leadership into.

Transport for London – Candice Lemaitre, Commercial Development Innovation Lead

Candice is working on a number of interactive solutions to aid expedition of planning processes for Transport for London with the aim of speeding up their development programme. As part of this event she will be sharing best practice on their approaches while detailing some of the schemes that are being brought forward in the near future thanks to her work.

Harworth Group – Tim Love, Executive Director

Harworth Group are one of the leading land and property regeneration companies in the country with over 18,000 acres of land on around 100 sites and multiple ongoing and upcoming projects in the pipeline. Tim will share insight into some case studies at differing stages of the planning process, and will also share insight into future development plans for Harworth Group.

Cheltenham Borough Council – Tracey Crews, Director of Planning

Cheltenham Borough Council have multiple ongoing regeneration and development projects including the continued Golden Valley Development. Tracey will share insight into the planning process behind these developments including how permission was obtained, and will share thought leadership around the continued development of Cheltenham.

HIVE Land & Planning – Mark Vaughan, Director

Mark brings a very extensive knowledge and market intelligence from across the North West, which he applies to a number of disciplines. Mark works extensively for Hive’s clients on site finding and brokering; matching developers up with deliverable, commercial land deals based on the client’s specific requirements. Mark skills are also deployed more broadly on project management for public sector clients on a diverse range of projects including landowner engagement, bidding and securing grant funding, leading on government funded housing initiatives and various other matters. The projects range from individual sites to large scale urban expansions and garden villages. Mark’s core skills focus on project management, commercial negotiation, site finding and evaluation, financial modelling for green infrastructure as well as site acquisitions and disposals. These skills are linked to a comprehensive network of expert advisors, consultants and developers across the North West.

Varsity Town Planning – Pippa Cheetham, Planning Director

Pippa is a chartered town planner with 25 years’ experience across the Oxford – Cambridge Arc.  Her planning skills have been sharpened working in local authorities, planning consultancy and in-house for a strategic landowner and master developer.  Pippa founded Varsity Town Planning in 2018.  She has a wealth of experience in securing allocations and delivering large scale and complex sites and achieves this by building relationships with authorities and agencies to promote a sustainable vision that is rooted in commercial common sense.  She has recently established an apprenticeship programme at Varsity Town Planning to nurture the next generation of town planners.  Pippa sits on the General Assembly of the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Board of the Bedfordshire Local Nature Partnership

VU.CITY – Alex Tosetti, Chief Commercial Officer

Alex joined in July 2020 to help VU.CITY in the next step of the transformational growth journey. He brings extensive board level leadership experience working for major global consulting corporations, with a strong industry reputation and connectivity throughout London, UK and global cities. He has 30 years of professional consultancy experience in urban regeneration, environmental consulting, and smart cities technology,  and wishes to use this dynamic career experience to create ‘an improved citizen-centric urban environment.’ A leading pioneer of Environmental Impact Assessment and Sustainability within the development sector, and active contributor to industry forums such as BSI, EIC, ACE and the UK PropTech Association.

Urban Intelligence – Joe Welch, Director

Joe Welch MRICS MRTPI is a Senior Development Director with over 14 years’ experience of the entire Local Development Framework; from identifying sites to delivering viable planning permissions. Over the last few years he’s been developing new ways to bring geospatial and big data science to the world of Planning and Development. These tech driven consultancy services include; Portfolio Analysis, Bespoke Site Finding  and Business Intelligence. As well as consultancy services, Urban Intelligence also delivers a range of software solutions for Digital Local Plan making and self serve planning due diligence reports (SiteScore).

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.

Commonplace – Mike Saunders, CEO and Co-founder

Commonplace is a digital tool for neighbourhoods and property developers. They help neighbourhoods understand and act on their needs, and property developers reduce their planning risk and costs. Commonplace is funded by Bethnal Green Ventures and Nominet Trust.

Mike is a digital and communications leader with substantial senior experience of commercial business development, product development, strategic planning and management. His areas of specialism include: digital media, media strategy and delivery, sustainability and urban planning.

Innovyze – Peter Coombs, MEA Innovation Manager

More information to follow.

Specialist Risk Group – Michael Grimwood, Business Development Manager UK

CLS are an innovative insurance MGA in the UK & Europe. They are insurance veterans, unlocking real estate developments & transaction with the use of Data & Capacity Strength. Their tools increase the bankability of an asset and protect those known and unknown legal and planning risks at every stage of the property life cycle.