The Planner RTPI

🐟 "For Purseglove the cycle of interdependence reaches its zenith in the rice, fish and bamboo farms of Bangladesh. Here he describes how farmers have created an ideal habitat for species that can jointly function as pest control, food and market produce. Meanwhile, the farmers use the bamboo to build homes. Nothing is wasted and everything has its place within a functioning, shared – and cultivated – ecosystem." 🌳 Here's our promised follow-up for World Rewilding Day - a throwback to our 2019 interview with the wonderful Jeremy Purseglove. Jeremy's an 'environmental engineer' who writes beautifully about his work around the world in which he finds ways of marrying human physical, commercial and social infrastructure with nature in ways that are mutually beneficial (or at least not harmful). 🦉 In the summer of 2019, our editor Simon Wicks took the train up to Rutland Water, where Jeremy lives, and spent an afternoon chatting about his life, his work and the 'conscious management of landscape'. His view of rewilding is a nuanced one; it's a matter of degree and also something that isn't appropriate in all contexts. "“I’m totally for it. It’s great,” he exclaims, to my surprise. “But I think it is one of the ways of looking after landscapes, not the only way. The parallel would be walking down the street. I love the front gardens of houses, but if every front garden was done to a formula it would be boring. “I like to see the individual stamp on a landscape. If everyone followed the rewilding step, it would just be another formula.” He goes on: “What I don’t think is that rewilding is anything you could say is a recipe for everywhere, particularly on a small island. I also love more managed landscapes. “There is a thing about the total wild which is fabulous but doesn’t necessarily apply, like in Leicestershire or Rutland where you might have the hedges and orchards and an ideal integration of it.”" It's a lovely interview, well worth reading. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eZEj6d5F #worldrewildingday #rewilding 

Happy World Rewilding Day! 🦫 Global Rewilding Alliance launched this annual celebration of rewilding in 2021- we've had some positive news on rewilding in the UK recently, with the return of wild beaver releases. We covered this story a couple of weeks ago- a  7,618-hectare Highland sporting estate has been purchased by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and will be partially rewilded. https://lnkd.in/eppQQWit We'll be digging through our archives, and posting some our best rewilding content from over the years throughout the day- keep your eyes peeled! Image: Shutterstock

New issue! Modelled here by our editor Simon Wicks's furry friend. Would that be chief planning inspector Richard Schofield on the cover? Why yes, yes it would.

The Scottish Government has launched the National Planning Skills Commitment Plan as it seeks to attract more people into the profession and build their skills. The government is aiming to provide training and skills development through monthly themed webinars, hands-on learning and recruitment support. ⭐ Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/eEuHD9_U

"The evidence before the Inquiry indicates that it will be necessary to allocate some sites that are at risk of flooding to meet the housing needs of the district,” said a planning inspector who allowed 190 homes in Yatton, Somerset. The proposal failed the flood risk ‘sequential test’ required in national policy- but was still allowed, as the inspector was still confident that the homes would be safe from flooding. Read our coverage in full below... https://lnkd.in/erZAztc3 Image: Shutterstock

📣 BREAKING NEWS: Entries are now open for the 2025 RTPI Awards for Research Excellence, which recognise and promote high quality, impactful spatial planning research. This year we have renamed two categories in honour of distinguished academics who passed away in 2024 and to recognise their enormous contribution to the planning research community: 🎓 Tony Crook Award for Early Career Research 🎓 Patsy Healey Award for Academic Excellence The award-giving ceremony will take place during the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference at Ulster University on Wednesday 10 September 2025. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eKiwJvg9 #RTPIResearchAwards #PlanningResearch #ResearchExcellence

We highly doubt it, but on the off chance you missed its publication last... here is our round-up of the contents of the planning and infrastructure bill and some reaction. The legislation features the introduction of a national scheme of delegation, a Nature Restoration Fund and improvements to the compulsory purchase process. Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner said the bill “will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes". ⭐ Read more here: https://lnkd.in/euynCeex ⭐ Reaction: https://lnkd.in/epkVgj4M

🔊 It's The Friday Five, our weekly round-up of five of the best town planning jobs currently advertised on Planner Jobs. This week: 1. Principal strategic planner, LUC 2. Heritage officer, Amber Valley Borough Council 3. Senior policy and promotions officer, Gladman Developments 4. Assistant planning officer, East Hertfordshire District Council 5. Senior growth and infrastructure planner, London Borough of Tower Hamlets ➡️ Find out more and apply: https://lnkd.in/e9C2AKB5 Planner Jobs is the official job site of the Royal Town Planning Institute #plannerjobs #planningjobs #placemaking

👍 Always a good event this one and we'll be there en masse (well, a couple of us anyway) - not least because we *may* be involved in the planning of the event AND we're the official media partner (of course). Oh, we might have something special planned for the day as well. Watch this space. ➡️ And book your ticket!

🎉 And here it is, The Planner's Women of Influence List 2025. 🙎♀️ This year we received just over 200 nominations for a 149 different women. The quality of the nominations was extremely high and we're very grateful to everyone who took the time to write such considered thoughts about colleagues, friends, professional connections and acquaintances. This is a genuinely crowdsourced selection of women who are having an influence on planning. 🧕 This year's final list features 55 women who illustrate the breadth and depth of women who are having an influence on planning and planners across sectors and disciplines. It's an incredibly varied list, with women from across the UK's nations and regions, from Ireland and from overseas. They range from students and graduate planners to entrepreneurs and the first woman head of a major UK housebuilder. 👩💼 There are many 'disruptive' women in this list who are breaking boundaries and forging a place in areas of planning and development that have traditionally been dominated by men. In a year in which the theme of International Women's Day is 'Accelerating Action', this feels particularly appropriate. 🙆♀️ The range of the work and achievements of our Women of influence is also diverse, and extremely relevant. Common themes we see this year are environment and biodiversity, the economics of place, disruptive entrepreneurs in the planning field, support for the emerging generation of younger planners, exerting influence over policy locally and nationally and a powerful focus in equity, diversity and inclusion – particularly in shaping placemaking policy that considers the needs of all. Oh, and wonderful work, of course, across housing, infrastructure, in research, policy – you name it. ➡️ Read the list here: https://lnkd.in/eFj_cT_j #womenofinfluence #internationalwomensday #iwd2025 #edi