BW: UNCUT. IN CONVERSATION‪.‬ Barton Willmore

The UN Women UK’s charity launched a campaign to enhance our public spaces in 2020, after they identified, that over 70% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public (physical and online) spaces. Everyone working within the development industry has a duty to enhance the security of our urban environments. The space we give over to movement and play must make everyone feel welcome, no matter what age or gender, religion or capability.Here we bring together a group of individuals at th...

With Rishi Sunak now in place as Prime Minister and Michael Gove returned to DLUCH, there remains work to be done in terms of planning focus and priorities, if the Government is to ensure the development industry plays the role it can in economic recovery, our route to net zero and the growing challenge of social inequality UK wide. Here we bring together a familiar panel of podcast voices, who have joined us previously to debate this very topic and therefore do so in this new context.&n...

Everyone is agreed that the same old thinking won’t solve the growing challenges across energy, water, climate change, and transport – we’re facing problems on a serious scale and we need fresh solutions. In this episode, we hear from three recent entrants to the planning and placemaking profession, getting their perspectives on the 21st Century community and where they see the opportunities for innovation, ideas, and progressive approaches to these very real problems. How can we ...

Back in 2017, we hosted a survey and debate alongside the Birmingham Post, on the future ambitions for Birmingham to 2030. Five years on, and five years into Andy Street’s tenure as West Midlands Regional Mayor, how is the ‘capital’ of the region reflecting these ambitions and implementing change? How has the direction for the wider region changed post-pandemic? What areas of focus do we believe should now be a priority? How is the Commonwealth Games impacting the urban fabric? What should th...

It is fair to say the new Planning Bill is a combination of Gove and successive previous Planning Ministers’ (and there have been many) attempts at implementing the Levelling-Up agenda and perhaps rescuing the ‘Planning for the Future’ white paper. From scrapping EIA, housing need, and the duty to cooperate, to implementing changes to the development plan hierarchy, a new levy to replace CIL and S106, design coding, and infrastructure delivery strategies, it sounds like a raft of changes but ...

The Levelling-Up Agenda challenges many of our development sectors to consider the contribution they can make to economic growth and the search for a step change in growth and opportunity for local communities. A recent BPF report has set out the contribution the industrial and logistics sector particularly has to play but also how restricted space could impact any levelling-up ambitions. More broadly employment land and development, its allocation and even protection is an important facet of...