Two wide-ranging conferences were held this spring in Canterbury and London. PAE staff attended both and extensive sets of notes will be uploaded on the RTPI Volunteer Hub shortly.

In February 2025, the RTPI South East region organised the Canterbury conference. It focussed on infrastructure and planning and might be of particular interest to Local Plan specialists, e.g. with:

• an update on the Government's planning reforms;
• recent relevant case law covering flood risk, heritage protection and climate change / greenhouse gases;
• Kent's work on a "Growth & Infrastructure Framework"; and 
• Transport for the South East's latest strategy.

In March 2025, Cambridge University organised the London Conference which focussed primarily on Development Management issues. It included a keynote address by William Burgon, MHCLG Director of Planning Reform and Housing Quality who outlined the Government's thinking behind its current & programmed planning reforms. Other speakers addressed current difficulties with the planning applications system - e.g.:

• too much is loaded on planning decisions in the form of conditions required to ensure compliance with other legislation or regulations;
• permissions in principle should be used to red line development sites – rather than outline consents; and
• planning applications now need too much supporting information – even for quite small proposals.