Lazaros Tsenekidis is Senior Public Affairs Officer at the RTPI

As summer winds down and autumn season approaches, the RTPI is gearing up for conference season. Party conferences are a platform for party members, politicians, activists, and supporters to come together to discuss party policies, share ideas, and engage in political discourse. On behalf of our members, the RTPI will be attending Labour party conference this year to represent the planning profession and the voice of our membership.

Our focus this year

With the Government’s ambitious growth agenda, many questions still remain around how the planning system can be better supported to deliver the growth agenda.

Therefore, we will be advocating for sustained investment in the planning system and maintaining the workforce pipeline into the profession, particularly in light of the recent changes to Level 7 apprenticeships – In a year of significant planning reform, we have developed a series of asks including our Planning and Infrastructure Bill legislative asks and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill asks.

This year we will be hosting our own events including a private roundtable themed around delivery and implementation where our members will be joined by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook MP. We will also be collaborating with the built environment joint institutes on a roundtable looking at skills and capacity.

We will also be contributing at a variety of roundtables and panels on a wide range of planning matters with organisations such as Planning Futures and the Fabian Society. You can keep up-to-date on our party conference activity on our social media channels. We look forward to seeing some of our members there.