Review: Politics of Planning Breakfast Roundtable with Ben Everitt MP
SP Broadway was delighted to welcome Ben Everitt MP, Chair of the APPG on Housing Market and Housing Delivery, as the guest speaker at our latest Politics of Planning Breakfast Roundtable that took place at 1 Parliament Street on 18th April.
Attendees from Taylor Wimpey, Packaged Living, Thakeham Homes and more all contributed to the discussion on the current housing market and the challenges surrounding housing delivery. Topics included the need for more support and funding to be given to council planners, the relationship between the Government’s Levelling Up agenda and housing, and the need to get more young people involved in the planning and place-making process.
Ben gave an insightful overview into how planners working at local authorities need to be given more funding and support to incentivise current planners to stay in the public sector and encourage people to join the industry through the introduction of apprenticeships. There was also a discussion on the relationship between the Government’s Levelling Up agenda and housing, particularly around how housing developments can focus on opportunities provided through Levelling Up funding to create new towns with supporting infrastructure.
An overarching theme that ran through much of the discussion was how to get more young people involved in the planning process. Ben posited that further digitisation of the planning process would allow not just young people but everyone in the community more opportunities to interact with the process at an earlier stage and lead to less adversarial discussions later on in the process.
We would like to place on record our thanks to Ben Everitt MP and guests for attending and contributing to such an interesting discussion. Our next online event with Cllr Seán Woodward, Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council will be taking place Wednesday 10th May. If you would like to attend please email edward@spbroadway.com
