World Toilet Day: Launching the London Loo Alliance
On Tuesday this week, World Toilet Day was celebrated across the world – laugh if you want, but it’s a long-established event led by...
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Oct 263 min read
Health and Housing – are we at an inflection point?
Earlier this month the British Medical Journal published results of a survey by the Royal College of GPs on time spent on non-clinical...
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Sep 103 min read
Changing Places: the Life Sciences industry in London
The Life Sciences industry is comprised of companies and organisations that research, develop and manufacture pharmaceuticals,...
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Aug 144 min read
Planning is messy – but reducing it to binary choices will not give us the sustainable places we need
Earlier this year I visited Singapore and wrote about how government interventions have led to some remarkable outcomes on housing,...
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Jul 294 min read
Where health meets planning – lessons from Wales
As the new government tries to reconcile how to grow the economy by accelerating investment in new housing with a commitment to public...
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Jun 134 min read
CIL, health and health equity
Over the last year I’ve seen more and more reports of the tensions in local communities created by new housing development and the...
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May 293 min read
Supermarkets and Healthy Placemaking
Earlier this month, Asda unveiled plans for a “transformational Mixed-Use Redevelopment of its ten-acre Park Royal site in North West...
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May 173 min read
The cost of adversarial practice
Earlier this month, the Home Builders Federation revealed that over the last three years, more than £50 million of taxpayer money was...
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Apr 125 min read
Infrastructure First
Along with wet weather, April came in with a blast of Nimby v Yimby hot air. So far this month, we’ve learned that Keir Starmer has...
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Mar 264 min read
Can local initiatives increase the life expectancy of residents?
A report came out last week from the Kings Fund and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation giving new evidence to the link between areas of...
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Feb 164 min read
Life in a parallel universe
A parallel universe, also known as an alternate universe, parallel world, parallel dimension, or alternate reality, is a hypothetical...
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Feb 75 min read
Toilets are the talk of the town
2024 is starting off with a bang for London’s public toilet campaigners. As conversations came to a head (!) toward the end of last year...
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Jan 266 min read
Planning across space, time and specialism: an interview with Michael Edwards
I first met Michael Edwards in 2021 through Just Space, a network of London-based community organisations which he and others set up in...
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Dec 21, 20233 min read
Keeping the glass half full: a Christmas wish for the Stag Brewery
A friend came to visit last weekend and, as we set off on a walk along the Thames towpath from Mortlake, SW London, she asked what was...
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Nov 29, 20233 min read
GLA Committee explores Community Consultation
Last Thursday, 23rd November, I joined a panel of “experts” to answer questions from the GLA Oversight Committee about best practice when...
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Jul 26, 20235 min read
The Stag Brewery regeneration –a planning test for our time?
A planning application to redevelop the Stag Brewery in Mortlake was approved by Richmond Council last week. The largest regeneration...
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Jun 23, 20234 min read
The coalitions are coming
Just when I thought it wasn’t possible, not one but two coalitions of Built Environment organisations have announced their arrival in the...
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Jun 9, 20234 min read
When dots don’t connect
Earlier this year when Secretary of State for Levelling up Michael Gove suggested that a rethought approach to planning education could...
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Apr 17, 20236 min read
Translating knowledge & bringing clarity to Londoners
An interview with Leanne Tritton, chair of the London Society As Chair of the London Society, Leanne Tritton has developed a formidable...
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Mar 7, 20234 min read
Everybody’s talking about planning
“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about”, said Oscar Wilde, “and that is not being talked about”. Events in the...
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