Healing our fractured planning system
WYG's Planning Director Anne Clements took on the topic of challenges around graduate entry into our UK planning system in our interview with her following our recent White City Place forum. 'Intelligent Cities' this month.
Anne described how planning in the UK could be improved in the public sector by attracting well informed and empowered people with experience of the world at large, who can make decisions and persuade their political masters with a clearer indication of what can be brought forward successfully, for the right outcome. She mentioned the master plan for Toronto as a good example of the type of clarity in planning that could benefit cities. (watch her video clip above)
'We are very fortunate in London with the GLA which sets targets and provides support for the boroughs and it is a shame that we don't have that middle tier of planning strategy and implementation across the country.
'The more we have forums of this nature represented at the highest level where we bring the private and public together to talk about planning then a joined up housing and infrastructure programme will happen. The National Infrastructure Commission is critical but we just need some power coming through with the political imperative to actually deliver the infrastructure outside London. There is also an urgent need to release more urban brownfield land for development, because that is where the jobs are.'
Please watch Anne Clements during the debate on our recorded web stream at the 1 hour 10 minute point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0lGUD6_4rg&t=4215s