Rapid technological changes, automation and artificial intelligence are offering us opportunities to not only improve our quality of life but also our purpose.

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

In this series of local government Q&As, Stephen Ottewell, Director of Planning and Building Control at Capita Local Public Services, interviews planning experts on hot topics in the sector, including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Were you unsuccessful in the round 2 levelling up fund, there are still plenty of funding routes out there and support is available to help you bring your projects to fruition.

Between the collapse of 83% of the UK’s department stores, consumers moving online and many high street shops now becoming obsolete, town centres are no longer the beating heart of local economies they once were.

Hearing that we had achieved 98% overall satisfaction was probably the first time in my professional career where I have had an emotional response.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the decline of our high streets and town centres.

Together with independent thinktank Localis, we hosted a roundtable to consider the challenges and opportunities for local growth and regional development in line with government agendas such as ‘Build Back Better’ and ‘Levelling up’.

Together with independent thinktank Localis we hosted ‘Going long’, a roundtable discussion which brought together national and local experts to discuss the implications of the 2021 spending review in respect to the local government’s ability to deliver for people and place.

At a recent roundtable in partnership with Wired, Doug Brown, Head of Data, Cyber and AI Guild and Chief Data Scientist of Capita Consulting, was joined by Lisa Talia Moretti, a digital sociologist at the Ministry of Justice; Reid Darby, innovation lead at Golden Valley Development in Cheltenham; Carly Kind, Director at the Ada Lovelace Institute and Tavi Kotka, an engineer/entrepreneur and former Chief Information Officer for the Estonian government to discuss data, identity and the digital citizen.