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PAS has grown from five to fifteen people over the last few years, and we are poised to grow again. Our team are expected to be flexible and capable of turning their hand to lots of things, so we are looking for talented generalists as well as people bringing a particular expertise in biodiversity or enforcement. We offer fascinating work, access to the latest thinking across government and the prospect of helping the next administration deliver its goals for housing, infrastructure and the environment.
We are looking for project leads at grade 6 and for the first time more junior people at grade 5 that we can grow and develop. Because of the way our funding works, we can only offer fixed term until March 2025.
We are working with DLUHC and the Design Code Pathfinder authorities to deliver a series of online workshops on design codes specifically aimed at Development Management officers. The next sessions we will be hosting will take place on 21 May and 4 June and will focus on using design codes by Development Management officers in decision-making. It will be an opportunity to hear from pathfinder local authorities about how DM officers are using their codes to inform pre-application discussions and in the determination of planning applications, as well as the role of compliance tools.
Book your place at via the following pages; 21 May and 4 June.
Recording from the first sessions, which focused on the role of DM officers in the production of design codes, can be found here on our website.
We have been making some "train the trainer" tools for people needing to get their teams up-to-speed on BNG. We have a presentation, and have recorded some videos explaining how we would use them to train people. People say they are helpful, and in particular the way we break down the different scenarios that BNG presents.
We have added one for training planning committees. It remains quite new and uncertain, so we might redo it when there are more examples of real-world practice. Please feel free to give us some feedback, and you can find the original deck in our practitioner basecamp.
Over the last couple of years we have delivered several planning peer challenges in councils that were somewhere on the transformational journey to becoming new unitary councils. It allowed us to reflect on what factors were required for success, as well as being clear what opportunities were available for these new, more strategic planning services. You can read the report on our event page. If you'd like a push on your improvement journey, or even if you want to get prepared for a transformation in the future, get in touch and discuss a planning peer challenge with us.
In an average year, PAS buys between £300-400k of services from consultants. We need expertise and delivery capacity for our work on local plans, development management, design and infrastructure funding. If you are in a council and you'd like to recommend a supplier to us, then send them this message.
We are about to reprocure all our contracts. If you'd like to know more about how we intend to package our needs (and cope with the uncertainty that a new government presents) come along to our supplier open day. You can hear our ideas, make some suggestions and have a general Q&A. It will help you understand whether the tender process will be worth your time.
There is a teams meeting in the morning or a "real" meeting at 18 Smith Square in the afternoon on the 1st May. RSVP to pas@local.gov.uk
We want to extend our support and advice to as many councils as we can. So, from 6 May we will be launching our PAS Chargeable Support webpage. It will clearly set out the support we can provide you, our unique offer, provide an easy-to-complete request form and give you clarity on the fee.
PAS's Martin Hutchings recently moved across to work on BNG. In at the deep end and lots to learn he has been working on what (somewhat serendipitously) is the perfect foil for accelerating his understanding. It’s called ‘BNG Online’ and is a collaboration between Future Homes Hub & PAS.
BNG Online’ is a new digital resource that brings together insight, guidance, and tools for delivering BNG. It is designed to help developers and local planning authorities to work together and factor in BNG at the key stages of the planning process. You can read all about it in Martin's blog.
The Right to Build Task Force is running a series of Self Build Masterclasses. The masterclass seeks to revisit the basic principles around the Right to Build Duty for LPAs to hold a self-build register and consider what good monitoring practices look like.
These are a part 1 and part 2 on the 8th May and 5th June – and are free for local gov employees. Email taskforce@righttobuild.org.uk for your discount code.
Graven Hill is now in its 8th year of operation, with many streets of self and custom-built homes. To share the learnings from the site, the Right to Build Task Force, in association with the Graven Hill Village Development Company, is leading a series of guided tours of the site, offering professional insight from planning to the practicalities of delivering custom and self-build at scale.
You can book onto the masterclass or the site visits here.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Local Government Association are hosting a webinar on 8th May on how planning can support digital connectivity. This session is aimed at planning officers and councillors, in order to give:
- insight into the vital role of planning in progressing the digital connectivity agenda;
- understanding the barriers preventing consistency in planning and how to overcome these; and
- suggestions how operators and planning departments can work together more effectively to ensure that planning applications can be processed quickly and with minimal effort.
To book a place please complete this booking form.
To help the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) understand the impact of the Digital Planning Programme, they will be launching a survey that will run from Tuesday 7 May to Friday 24 May 2024.
Th survey is for Planning Officers in Local Planning Authorities and has been designed to understand the impact of the Digital Planning programme and better support Local Planning Authorities in the future. The survey goes live on the 7th May so keep your eyes peeled for the survey and updates via our newsletter.
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