Astonishingly, the summer is drawing to a close and Autumn is just around the corner. September marks a busy month for the RTPI as we ramp up our engagement with legislators and parliamentarians.
The President, the Vice President and I will be spreading our efforts across the political party conferences in England throughout the month and banging the drum for the planning systems and our membership. It still feels like planning is centre stage for policy makers and so I am sure we will be busy acting as the voice of our membership.
Just last week we saw the UK Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor announce a new homes accelerator, which could very well help to unlock the homes and infrastructure that communities need around the country, but we caution that placing planning on a long-term stable footing is still needed.
Following on from our fond farewell to our Head of Policy and Research Richard Blyth, his former team spring into action in response to recent Government planning announcements for England, and are running a series of regional workshops with our members to inform the institute’s response to the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework consultation. This is our opportunity to positively influence the policies that will affect planning for the future, and so we are excited to see so many members getting involved. Thank you for your time and your expert support.
This week we take a moment to celebrate the research work of our members globally, with the President announcing the Planning Research Excellence award winners, showcasing the very best of our members work. I am always enthused to see examples of such high-quality research recognised and rewarded by our judges.
For our membership the end of summer always means their opportunity to take part in our membership elections. There are three outstanding candidates for the position of Vice President and many more, further down the ticket for the Nation’s Trustee and General Assembly. The RTPI is the collective voice of planners, and it is through the elections that you get to shape that. I would encourage everyone eligible to vote, and details of how to do that can be found on our website, or in the MiVoice emails you will have received.
Later this month the Education For Everyone programme, led by Immediate Past President Sue Bridge, will be launching a member survey to gather your views on our current education policy. I would encourage anyone with an interest in the future of the profession to take the time to fill that in.
So, there is no doubt that the summer is over and the RTPI is back in full swing. We will as ever continue to work on your behalf and share the results of that work through all of our external channels. The member bulletins can keep you up to date on our activities or you can follow us across our social media channels.
