Riff on REiiF – planning reflections from UKREiiF

Jan Bessell FRTPI is RTPI President 2026

UKREiiF has quickly become one of those fixtures in the property, planning and infrastructure calendar that feels both intense and expansive at once. Three days in Leeds where conversations stretch from policy to place, from global investment flows to the texture and environment of individual neighbourhoods and streets. New and old acquaintances made and snatched discussions and insights gained (Kevin Murray – great to re-engage). And this year, as ever, it left me reflecting on what it says about planning – where we are, and perhaps more importantly, where we are not yet.

Scale, speed, and the search for certainty

Reflecting – there was no shortage of ambition at UKREiiF. Everywhere you turned, there were discussions about growth: housing numbers, infrastructure pipelines, city-region visions, investment strategies. The language is confident, often urgent – delivery, acceleration, unlocking.

But beneath that is a quieter, more persistent theme: uncertainty

Developers, local authorities, departments and agencies, investors, political actors, built and natural environment professions and advisers are all navigating a system that is under pressure – from short term political cycles, policy churn, resourcing constraints, legal complexity, and competing priorities around climate, nature, economic and social outcomes. The conversations I had reflected a shared desire not just for reform, but for stability; not simply more policy, but clearer direction and relenting focus on the outcomes to be achieved and sustained.

Planning, at its best, provides that clarity. It gives people confidence to invest and act. The challenge we face is that too often, the system is experienced not as a foundation and collaborative joined up environment, but as a fractured friction point.

Partnership is easy to say – and hard to do well and sustain

“Partnership” was perhaps one of the most frequently used words across the conference (although viability was very high on the agenda as well). Public and private sectors working together, collaboration across disciplines, early engagement to de-risk delivery.

Yet, we know this is where things can falter

True partnership requires more than alignment of interests – it requires trust, transparency, and a willingness to listen as well as engage early, even when the answers are not fully formed. Some of the most encouraging conversations I had were about shifting engagement upstream: bringing planners, engineers, environmental specialists, and legal advisers into the room earlier, and being honest about constraints as well as opportunities and informed with an understanding of funding and delivery.

For those of us working on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, this feels particularly resonant. The most successful projects are rarely those with the most polished applications; they are the ones where relationships have been built early, and where issues have been surfaced – not avoided.

The centrality of place

What UKREiiF does well is enable opportunity for in person conversations and remind us that planning is, fundamentally, about place.

For all the talk of investment zones, funding mechanisms, and delivery vehicles, the most compelling discussions remained grounded in real places: how towns evolve, how cities grow and renew, how communities change over time and how environments recover and remain resilient.  There really is nothing like huddling animatedly around a physical model to engage (thank you Bradford).

There is a growing recognition that growth cannot simply be measured in numbers. It has to be understood in terms of outcomes – quality of place, access to nature, resilience to climate risk, the lived experience of communities, whilst addressing the critical divisive social and health needs (there was nothing with greater impact than a badge saying “165,000 REASONS” – referring to the stark number of children in the UK living in temporary accommodation. It serves as the namesake for the national 165,000 Reasons campaign, which unites charities, developers, and local authorities to end child homelessness and secure permanent homes. Although at the time of writing this number has now risen to 176,130).

This is where planning has a unique and vital role. We are not just coordinating development; we are working with people to shape the conditions for how people live, work, and connect and their life opportunities. That requires professional judgement, not just process.  Actions are required in the existing built and natural environment as well as through new and regenerative development.

Climate and nature: from narrative to delivery

It was encouraging to see climate and nature remain prominent throughout the programme. The narrative is now well established. The question is shifting – quite firmly – towards delivery.

How do we move from commitments to implementation? How do we reconcile ambitious net zero trajectories with viability challenges? How do we integrate nature recovery into schemes that are already complex?

Here again, planning sits at the centre. Not as a barrier, but as an enabler – setting expectations, creating frameworks, and ensuring that environmental considerations are not an afterthought, but intrinsic to design and delivery.

But this requires confidence – in policy, in evidence, and in professional judgement.

Skills, leadership, and the future of the profession

One of the more candid threads running through the conference was the question of capability. Do we have the skills, the capacity, and the leadership needed to deliver the scale of change being discussed?

There is immense talent across the sector and energy in those discovering and entering the profession, but it is unevenly distributed and often stretched. Local authorities and public bodies in particular continue to face significant resource pressures. At the same time, the complexity of projects is increasing – technically, environmentally, economically and socially.

This points to the importance of investing in the profession itself. In skills, in training, in leadership. In recognising the value of planners not just as process managers, but as strategic critical thinkers, collaborators and place-makers.

If we want better outcomes, we need to support the people who deliver them and enable communities to participate.

A final reflection: planning as purpose

Perhaps my overriding reflection from UKREiiF is this: for all the focus on systems, structures, and delivery mechanisms, what ultimately matters is purpose.

Planning is not just a means to an end. It is how we collectively answer the question: how do we want to live?

That question does not always feature explicitly in conference sessions. But it sits beneath everything – from housing to infrastructure, from regeneration to resilience.

UKREiiF is at its most valuable when it helps us reconnect with that bigger picture. When it moves beyond transactions and into conversations about values, outcomes, and long-term vision that endure well beyond a week in Leeds.

Because if we can hold onto that – alongside the very real challenges of delivery – we have something to work with. Not just a system to fix (although this year it was clear planning was no longer seen as the problem!), but a profession to champion.

Riff on REiiF, then, is this: optimism, tempered by realism; ambition, grounded in complexity; and a renewed sense that planning has never been more necessary – or more consequential.