Andrew Conroy, Property Director at Capita, explains how local authorities can structure property development partnerships to make sure that residents and local businesses are projects’ major beneficiaries

Many people believe that the Covid-19 pandemic will be a catalyst for lasting change in the UK’s towns, cities and local communities.

Patrick Cunningham, our Director of Building Control, explains why the UK needs more low-carbon homes to reach its net zero emissions target, and how stronger building regulations can help.

The pandemic has forced many of us to stay home: to stop commuting, stop socialising, stop travelling, wear a mask and put on a coat.

Housing challenges in the UK aren’t a new concern, but they’ve been exacerbated by the financial pressures of the pandemic.

In this series of local government Q&As, Ken Bean, Associate Director of Planning Policy at Capita Local Public Services, answers a series of questions about the national model design code and what challenges and opportunities this brings to local authority planning teams.

Stephen Ottewell, Director of Planning and Building Control at Capita, interviews planning experts - this Q and A focuses on planning masterplans and design codes.

Most planners would agree with the need to standardise and simplify - as far as possible - the process for identifying housing need as the starting point for developing policies for residential development in local plans.

As declared by Dr Dominique Hes in 2017, there is quite simply “no sustainability without community engagement”. The topic of how organisations bring their staff and customers ’with them’ on cultural and transformative journeys is never far away.

As I have written previously on planning reform, who can disagree with the desire of government to simplify and speed up the planning process.