KEY THEMES

Viability, stalled sites & delivery - Navigating viability assessments to unstick stalled sites, setting realistic but meaningful affordable housing contributions, and securing deliverable consents.

Strategic planning & devolution: delivering plans amid reform - Aligning Spatial Development Strategies with local government reorganisation, managing mayoral call-in powers, and translating national policy updates into defensible local plans.

Infrastructure bottlenecks & environmental delivery - Unlocking water, sewage, and grid capacity to unblock major schemes and managing delivery of Biodiversity Net Gain.

Digital planning: development management and modern consultation in the age of AI - Deploying AI to automate casework and accelerate processing, while developing robust safeguards to manage digital disruption and filter out AI-generated consultation responses.

Politics, Public Hostility & Member Conduct - Strategies to de-escalate committee meetings, manage member-officer dynamics professionally, and improve community engagement amid increasing social media division and public suspicion of planning.