Core CPD Framework:
- Placemaking & Design
- 1.30 Hours
Join our regular discussions of the latest planning research coming out of RTPI’s accredited Planning Schools. This webinar series will consider how academic research produced by scholars from across the region can inform and enhance current planning practice.
This webinar forms part of the RTPI Online series and is brought to you by RTPI South East and University of Brighton.
Event Description
This webinar looks at:
- The planning system’s role in balancing the demands created by short term and holiday lets: Ben Yates, Planning Policy Officer, Rother District Council
The Government consultations in 2023 inspired the investigation of the impacts of Short Term Lets (such as Airbnb) in Rother District Council, St Ives and Cornwall, Gwynedd Council and City of Edinburgh Council. The research investigated the policy responses to the impacts of Short Term Lets at the local and national levels. The dissertation was underpinned by analysing a Short Term Lets database published by VisitBritain which quantifies their scale and revenue. This enabled comparisons to housing supply and private market rentals. Recommendations were made, framed around the Government’s consultation proposals, to strike a balance between their positives and negatives.
- Social thought in three dimensions: Utopian society and the built environment: Hebe Smith, Planning Officer, Arun District Council
Utopian writings have had an important impact on development of modern Town Planning, shaping its values, theoretical frameworks, and practice. Using three case study settlements – New Lanark, Letchworth Garden City and Harlow New Town – I will explore how successfully past utopias were able to create societies which reflected the ideals of those who founded and designed them, and how modern town planning reflects their legacy. With these places as a lens, I will reflect on criticisms of utopia, and how we might harness the imaginative and transformative elements of utopianism in Town Planning practice today.
Speaker biography
Chair: Andrew Coleman FRTPI, Senior Lecturer, University of Brighton
Andrew is a Senior Lecturer on the RTPI-accredited MSc Town Planning course at the University of Brighton. The course specialises in coastal planning , climate change and regeneration and was one of the first to offer the Chartered Apprenticeship degree course for training the planners of the future. He is also a planning and environmental consultant, focusing on climate change adaptation, flooding and integrated water management. Until September 2016, Andrew was a senior advisor at the Environment Agency, helping to develop national planning policy and guidance. He has served on the RTPI's General Assembly and various Committees since 2015. Outside work, Andrew enjoys spending time with his family, representing Surfers Against Sewage, surfing, cycling and supporting Fulham FC.
Ben Yates, Planning Policy Officer, Rother District Council
Ben is a Planning Policy Officer at Rother District Council since July 2021. He graduated with a BSc in Urban Planning, Design and Management from UCL in 2021 and most recently from Brighton University in 2024 with an MSc in Town Planning via the Chartered Apprenticeship route. He has a keen interest in the issues around housing delivery as well as infrastructure planning and health and wellbeing. These are all key issues affecting planning today (particularly in the current climate and direction from Government) at both the national and local levels.
Hebe Smith, Planning Officer, Arun District Council
Hebe works as a Planning Officer at Arun District Council and graduated from the MSc Town Planning course at the University of Brighton in 2024.
