Insights & Reports

According to a recent Boston Consulting Group report, the total value of the world’s forests is estimated to be $150tn - double the value of the global stock markets – with tree’s carbon storage ability amounting to 90% of this value.

Our latest Oxford to Cambridge Arc webinar took place this week with guests debating the future of the initiative with planning partner and Arc lead, Rob Hopwood.

Reform was promised and change is very much the order of the day for this Government with the latest changes to use classes and permitted development rights. Mike Jones highlights the fundamental changes to use classes which come in to force on 1 September 2020.

As the pandemic continues to affect our everyday lives, planning legislation has had to adapt quickly to ensure the built environment is fit for purpose. Corinne MacDougall outlines the latest updates, north of the border.

On Tuesday, the Government announced new legislation in a bid to boost the delivery of housing and revitalise town centres. We explain the key changes to the General Permitted Development Order in our latest blog.

Among all the recent tragedy, gloom and despondency, there are still stories which give us all a welcome uplift and hope for the future. Nicola Beaumont explains why solar farms should be part of the solution in Scotland's commitment to carbon net zero by 2045.

We hosted a four-part webinar discussing the future of residential development.

With the Prime Minister promising the most radical reform of the planning system since WW2, Mike Jones asks if we need more haste and less speed.

What is the future of plan-making for new unitary authority Buckinghamshire Council? Principal Planner in Bidwells’ Milton Keynes, Robert Love, has all the details.

There’s a growing recognition and desire for a low-carbon 'green recovery'. We ask if a new way of valuing forests could be the real catalyst for a step change in UK woodland creation?

The digitisation of the planning process is an opportunity to engage with groups historically excluded from planning - the disabled, ethnic minorities and the young – as well those who might wish to move in to an area, says Suzi Green.

When the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was launched in 2019, the hopes of many landscape architects were dashed on discovering that neither Green Belt ‘openness’, or ‘valued’ landscape were further explained or defined.