Housing for all 2024 - Where are we now? Where do we need to go?

Stephen is a chartered Town Planner with almost 20 years’ of experience working within the planning industry, initially as a local authority planner, then as a planning consultant before working at a senior level within the housebuilding industry. Stephen is a former Chairman of the Royal Town Planning Institute North East and applies his strong commercial awareness to each and every project whether big or small. His specialisms include land acquisition, strategic land searching and promotion, planning applications, planning appeal, Public Inquiries, Local Plan Examination and development appraisals 

Professor Samer Bagaeen is a Technical Director in Town Planning & Stakeholder Capability at Arcadis. He is also Professor of Planning & Resilient Systems at the University of Kent where he is Programme Director for the MA in Urban Planning & Resilience. He also holds the role of Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Group for the Real Estate Data Foundation.

Samer is a Trustee of the Royal Town Planning Institute and Chair of the RTPI’s International Committee. He is also a Non-Executive Board Member on the South East (England) Regional Board at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Member of the Creative Estuary Advisory Board.

Samer received the Freedom of the City of London in September 2023 and was nominated for the UKREiiF (UK Real Estate Infrastructure & Investment Forum) EDI Champion Award in May 2023.

Samer has long links with Newcastle, including previously serving as External Examiner for planning at the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape at Newcastle University.

Mario Wolf is Director of Planning & Strategic Engagement at Custom Build Homes who are bringing forward larger scale custom build housing sites nationally in collaboration with landowners, developers and local authorities. Mario has over 30 years of planning and development experience. He is a former civil servant from the MHCLG and founding director of the Government supported “Right to Build Task Force”. He led the introduction of a range of Government housing programmes and planning reforms, spanning almost 20 years. He was instrumental in working closely with Ministers and industry to introduce a programme of support measures for self-build and custom housebuilding and was closely involved in the preparation of many aspects of planning policy and guidance. He also played a central role in the preparation of the Self-Build & Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 and associated regulations and led the introduction of the exemption for “self-builders” under the Community Infrastructure Regulations. Most recently he was on the steering group for the Prime Minister-commissioned Bacon Review; he played a key role in the preparation of Section 123 of the LURA and is currently engaging with the DLUHC on the implementation of these provisions.

Alex is Head of the Economics & Planning Policy team at Lambert Smith Hampton. He has worked in the planning industry for almost 20 years and has considerable experience preparing housing and employment land needs and supply assessments, for public and private sector clients. He has promoted strategic land through Local Plans across England, for new settlements and urban extensions.  Alex a significant amount of experience in the presentation of evidence at public inquiry and Local Plan Examinations for Councils and Appellants.

Richard Blyth has been Head of Policy Practice and Research at the RTPI since September 2011. Since then he has established the RTPI’s new policy paper series starting with Housing in 2013 and also the special RTPI Centenary Planning Horizons research programme with 5 projects being published in 2014. He is in charge of the RTPI’s work on Brexit and the RTPI’s England policy. Prior to this he was an Associate Director at Capita Symonds where he worked on commissions for local authorities on infrastructure planning to support core strategies, and for a number of private clients on regeneration schemes. He spent over four years in the Civil Service, including being responsible for Local Plans in England. Richard led a small team within the Joint Strategic Planning Unit which produced the last Berkshire Structure Plan and has also worked for district councils on local plans. He spent two years in the Gambia West Africa as a physical planning officer working on physical development plans and market regeneration.

Susie is a Chartered Town Planner with over 15 years’ experience across the public and private sectors, with the last decade spent providing in-house advice to national housebuilders. With an expertise in residential planning, Susie has worked extensively on both strategic and immediate sites of all shapes and sizes, from small scale rural developments, to sustainable urban extensions and large scale, high-density regeneration projects across the Capital.

Janice Morphet is Visiting Professor in the Bartlett School of Planning UCL Janice was a member of the Planning Committee of the London 2012 Olympic Games,  Senior Adviser on local government at DCLG 2000-2006, having been Chief Executive of Rutland CC, Director of Technical Services at Woking, Professorial Head of the School of Planning and Landscape at Birmingham Polytechnic and is an Affiliate Member of the Housing Forum.

Janice’s recent research with Dr Ben Clifford includes 4 projects on Local Authority Direct Provision of Housing (2017/2019/2021/2023) and two on 2008 Planning Act for NIPA (2017/2019). They have also written Reviving local authority housing delivery: challenging austerity through municipal entrepreneurialism (2020) and Major Infrastructure Planning and Delivery: Exploring Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in England and Wales (2023). Janice’s most recent books are Outsourcing in the UK (2021) and The Impact of COVID-19 on Devolution (2021).