The Sussex Property Alliance creates an alliance with local planners
Building relationships
The Sussex Property Alliance (SPA) recently held its third meeting, which included a Q&A session featuring Rob Fraser, the head of planning strategy at Brighton and Hove City Council and Chris Gilbert of property developers QED Estates Ltd.
The meeting quickly turned into a positive exploration of how the channels of communication could be improved, so that both sides could limit the amount of time and money it costs to get an achievable scheme from plan to bricks and mortar.
Chris Gilbert’s recent experience with Richardson’s Yard in the New England Quarter, which utilises shipping containers converted into low cost residential units was a case in point with initial concern being overcome through a collaborative rather than confrontational approach. Chris felt the ‘old fashioned’ planning application needed to come back. This is where developers would meet with the planners and literally draw a line on a plan and would negotiate with the council until an agreement was reached. The SPA were also keen to see how they could work with the Council on some of their existing assets to ensure properties and sites were not left dormant.
Rob revealed that the changes in the ‘Greater Brighton City deal’ (a £170m investment from government and private industry to help drive the area’s ‘tech cluster’), would mean a better working relationship with neighbouring areas. He also highlighted concern over the level of loss of office space locally due to the Permitted Development rights to residential and the considerable pressure for more housing. SPA commented that the need for housing has to be balanced with the availability of business premises, as there would be no point in having new homes if there is no business space for people to work.
Overall, the headline outcome was a commitment to try to keep informal communication lines open by Mr Fraser encouraging planners from Brighton and Hove to attend SPA meetings in the future, an invitation that will be extended to planners in neighbouring authorities.
The event is held at the Sussex County Cricket Ground and is free to attend.. If you would to receive an invitation to the next event, register online at www.sussexpropertyalliance.co.uk or call Steve Berrett at Michael Jones on 01903 228602 or email steveberrett@michaeljones.co.uk
