London Property Alliance’s NextGen:
Future of Planning Seminar

Last night Merchant Land attended the London Property Alliance’s seminar on the future of planning. The event was hosted by Iceni and focused on the critical role that data and digital technologies have in urban planning.

Attendees were welcomed by Jack Brewster, Director of Development at Grosvenor GBI and Westminster Property Association NextGen Steering Group member. This was then followed by a presentation by Stefan Webb, Director of Digitising Planning & Standards at Future Cities Catapult. Charlotte Orrell, Iceni Projects, then kicked off a panel discussion with:

• James Harris, Plantech Lead at Royal Town Planning Institute
• Peter Kemp, Planning Change Manager at the Greater London Authority
• Grace Manning-Marsh, Head of LandEnhance
• Michael Meadows, Head of Planning at British Land

Discussions focused on how a better informed and digitally enabled planning system could benefit developers, citizens, local authorities and government. In doing so, this might address some key challenges including making the planning process more transparent and getting more people engaged with planning policy. The ambition is to make the whole planning process more efficient, predictable, agile, transparent and holistic through the application of data and digital technologies.

Merchant Land welcomed the opportunity to hear from experts about how data and digital technologies could really benefit planning as well as how we as individuals and communities engage in planning processes in the future.