Time for a outward facing RIBA

Architects have never been more needed, yet our influence has never felt more fragile. I hear it…

UK Town Planning: A board of snakes and ladders

On 15 June, Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook designated nine councils under section 62A of the…

Replace the London ‘No’ Plan with a London ‘Yes’ Plan.

London is falling behind big time. Not slowly, not quietly – but visibly, measurably, embarrassingly behind. And…

Parkhurst Part 3: The Age of Enforcement

How the circularity problem was real, how City Hall over corrected, and the Age of Enforcement

The brownfield emergency: A tale of a car repair workshop and the broken development chain

A hypothetical worked example that shows why London’s brownfield pipeline has three sequential problems — and why…

The Good, the Bad and the Confusing

I have been grappling with conflicting data and policy moves in the housing sector this week.  Taken…

Ten Years of Simonicity — and Three Big Themes for the Next Ten

What the planning blogosphere’s best minds think is coming — and where I land on all this…

New Town in Enfield increasingly challenged

On 28 May 2026, Enfield’s new Conservative leader Alessandro Georgiou wrote to housing minister Matthew Pennycook to…

The Last of the Threshold Chasers – Part 1

The Battersea Glassmill decision and the policy that requires a tower to work — then refuses the…