It’s been an honour and privilege to be the 110th President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and as anticipated it’s been quite a year!
I look back over a year that has seen a general election, only 2 housing Ministers, regular (well almost regular) correspondence from Minister Matthew Pennycook and perhaps a sea of change in terms of Planning now being seen as the enabler for economic growth.
Capacity within the sector has been a long-term issue, and this week the reporting of MHCLGs 2023 survey of Local Planning Authorities highlighted that Planning faces an aging workforce with over a third of planning departments saying staff had retired (35%), suggesting an ageing workforce may also be a challenge.
So to grow the profession is a must. We cheered the £50m funding in the October Budget last year to support planning capacity, and last month we saw £14m being provided to support the implementation of policy changes contained within the NPPF. It’s a start and a recognition that planning is key in delivering the Governments ambitions.
And at the heart of growing our pipeline are our Planning Schools and initiatives such as the Apprenticeship Programme and Pathways into Planning, these schemes are bringing graduates into planning from a diverse educational background. But I would welcome more opportunities for level 3 apprenticeships to really open up opportunities and awareness of planning as a career choice.
What has been noticeable over my year is how many people simply fall into Planning. I have raised this issue before, Planning is simply not on the radar of students or career advisors.
Last year I launched BALANCE, this is an updated toolkit for our members to use to go into schools, especially in under-represented communities, in order to expand the reach of our volunteers and school ambassadors and to promote planning as a career choice. Alongside that launch I made a call for all RTPI Members to use the toolkit to devote at least 2 hours of CPD to go into schools to champion planning.
I will be doing my part as past president to visit as many schools and universities, and career fairs to talk about planning with students.
Please join me in building that pipeline.
I finish with many thanks, and I start with RTPI Team who have supported me, who have been kind and patient, who have answered all my questions and helped organise me. This includes the Exec team, Governance, Comms and Events, Education and Lifelong Learning, Membership team, IT support, Policy and Research, International, Regions and Regional co-ordinators and the National Directors.
I want to thank all our Volunteers, including all the Chairs and Vice chairs of the networks, including the young planners, Urban design , enforcement, independent consultants network, many I met and who alongside the Regional co-ordinators organised visits, included me in receptions and invited me to be part of the excellence awards.
I thank you for your time, commitment and energy and simply making things happen. I know how much time and organisation this takes alongside day jobs.
And finally, a thank you to our Trustees, Meeta Kaur who is proficient as our chair, Sue Bridge, the Immediate past president who helped to prepare me for my role and finally Victoria Hills, RTPI Chief Executive, who has been by my side and made it easy for me, I have valued her guidance, her expertise and her support.
I hope I have met the Brief.
Now the Chain of Office passes to our new President, and I wish Helen Fadipe a fabulous year as our President and Jan Bessel as our Vice President.
