Change of Tune at Labour Party Conference this Year

For a Party that lost a General Election just a few short months ago, the Labour Party Conference in Brighton this year was everything that last year’s Conference in Liverpool wasn’t – packed to the rafters with Party members, jam-packed with fringe events and the ubiquitous set of people from across the broad Labour Party church finding ample refreshment in the bars at the Hilton Metropole and The Grand hotels.

Housing and planning events were very well attended, from the Town and Country Planning Association’s event with a range of Council Leaders and a representative from Crest Nicholson through to the Labour Housing Group’s event on housing after Grenfell and The Housing Fringe featuring the view from housing associations. There wasn’t even standing room for that one it was so popular.

On Monday afternoon Cratus’ Chief Executive Nick Kilby was pleased to be part of the panel for Planning Futures’ fringe event at which they unveiled their research into how the capacity of local authorites’ planning departments has changed as councils have sought to respond to both unprecedented reductions to their budgets and often unprecedented, increased demand for their services from those seeking to bring forward land for residential, office or commercial purposes.

You can find the report, which Cratus funded, by visiting www.planningfutures.org

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s comments on estate regeneration will have raised eyebrows in Town Halls and Boardrooms across the country but it just confirms our view that for planning, emerging redevelopment plans cannot just be policy compliant – they need to be politically and community compliant too. In the world of development, it’s world is still very much local.