Mark Hand is the RTPI Director of Wales, Northern Ireland and Planning Aid England.
With rising demand for affordable housing, increasing reliance on temporary and emergency accommodation to tackle homelessness, and pressures on both planning services and developers, there is a clear need for practical and effective solutions that can be implemented at pace to support housing delivery in Wales.
We’re therefore delighted to share the publication of Delivering homes through planning reform: A collaborative roadmap.
This report is the result of a roundtable event held on 14 February 2025 that brought together key stakeholders in the delivery of new homes - including RTPI members from Local Planning Authorities and planning consultancies, and representatives from affordable housing providers and private developers, as well as the RTPI, Home Builders Federation, Cardiff University and the Welsh Local Government Association.
The roundtable arose in part from delegate discussions at the June 2024 RTPI Cymru Wales Planning Conference, and in part from collaborative discussions with Mark Harris at the HBF and Emma Poole at Hugh James Solicitors. The Housing Delivery Roundtable was hosted by Alex Madden of Hugh James and chaired by Nick Bennett of Savills.
The roundtable was a brilliant example of solutions-focused collaboration from all stakeholders. A really positive discussion. We hope to arrange similar events on other planning-related topics in the near future.
The report has been shared with the Affordable Housing Taskforce led by Lee Waters MS.
