Make Planning Make Sense

Make Planning Make Sense is turning 1! Thank you, guests, listeners and team!!!

365 days, 44 expert voices, 40 episodes, 1 nod from the British Podcast Awards, and 1 community of passionate professionals - We are absolutely stunned by the warm welcome you've given to this project.

As a way of saying THANK YOU to our amazing guests, listeners and team, Aaron and Mariam are taking you behind the scenes to learn the why, the how, and the metrics of this bonkers journey.

If you like today’s episode, share it with your fellow Planimals and please do follow the show! And remember, we’re ultimately here for you. Whenever you have a complex project that needs excellent planners on the team, please get in touch.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guest today is Will Powell, Investment Director at Downing.

With incredible clarity, Will sets out the private sector’s needs with the aim of restarting housing delivery. We cover:

• How to catalyse home sales
• De-cluttering decision taking
• Having the right people in your team
• Reviving a culture of partnership
• And more.

Be sure to check out the podcast that Will hosts: Downing Funding Foundations (especially Episode 02).

If you like today’s episode, share it with your fellow Planimals and please do follow the show! And remember, we’re ultimately here for you. Whenever you have a complex project that needs excellent planners on the team, please get in touch.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guests for this episode are Charlotte Morphet, Programme Leader for Urban Planning at the University of the Built Environment and Marina Milosev, co-founder of Beyond the Red Line and, recently, Urban Planning Expert at the United Nations. We're also joined by Andrew Lightstone, Associate Director at Centro.

If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably the sort who has been following the public discussion about mainstreaming sex and gender in the NPPF and planning more broadly.

We dive into this topic with our sights set on the practical questions of implementation for applicants and decision takers.

If you like today’s episode, share it with your fellow Planimals and please do follow the show! And remember, we’re ultimately here for you. Whenever you have a complex project that needs excellent planners on the team, please get in touch.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guest this week is Helen Walker, Head of Heritage and Associate at Bowman Riley.

Helen lets us in on a pleasant little heritage hack that can spare folks a bit of time, expense, and grief.

Along the way, we touch on the perils of the "only Grade II" mindset and the risk of losing the living knowledge of the building crafts.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Live from the London Centre: Tarun Cheema MRTPI and Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI present the latest on planning reform...and how the devil is always in the details.

We give a TLDR run-through of:

• The draft NPPF
• The Mayor’s kickstart measures and new call-in powers
• The PIA including the National Scheme of Delegation
• How these reforms will play out for developers and decision making

Special thanks to New London Architecture for hosting this live event and to Women in Property South East for co-sponsoring the event with Centro Planning Consultancy.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guest this week is Nathan Spencer, Managing Director of UKREiiF.

REiiF Week is upon us, and in tingling anticipation of UKREiiF , which runs 19th to the 21st of May, Nathan talks about who’s lined up to anchor the event this year and what the event means for Leeds. We also get into B2B business development in the built environment sector, the challenges the sector faces in communicating its priorities and sheer importance to the public, and the lost opportunity own goals created by the planning system.

Just to say, Centro’s own Managing Director, Luke Raistrick, and Director of Operations and Partnerships, Reece Raymond, will be at UKREiiF. Reach out to Reece if there’s an opportunity to connect in Leeds: [email protected]

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guest this week is Joanna Christophides, Director at Cratus Group.

We’re just one week out from the local elections, and there’s been a lot of chatter about more seats going to candidates outside the traditional blue, red and yellow parties. Our conversation covers what appears likely to change for the built environment sector and what will still hold true after votes are counted.

We also discuss communication more broadly – between developers teams’ and the public, between developers and councillors, and between councillors and constituents.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guests this week are Founding Director Adam Green and Director of Partnerships Emily Wilson of Ninety Four Group.

Adam and Emily share insights about a sector that’s just as much P2P as it is B2B. How do we grow our businesses? How do relatively young companies navigate the public sector procurement process? What makes a company one of the firms that comes to mind when it’s time to tender? We cover it all, as well as the delicate topic of karaoke.

Be sure to follow for new episodes fortnightly. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guest this week is Marko Salopek, Senior Project Manager at Muse.

Marko comes at the discussion from his particular perspective as part of a prestigious public-private partnership placemaking powerhouse, Muse. This conversation was a lot of fun, but it also makes a compelling a compelling argument for imperfection and grace.

It’s been remarkable that so many conversations within the built environment sector carry themes of anxiety, perfectionism, overwhelm, and the fear of guilt. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the negative themes live in those gaps between how the system was designed and how it’s come to operate.

And what I’ve really appreciated is how our conversation with Marko and other guests on the podcast identify practical opportunities to fix and fill those gaps.

Be sure to follow for new episodes every other week. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.

Our guest this week is Uliana Kuzmis, Chief Credit Officer at Pallas Capital UK.

Our conversation is a window into the world of development finance. Uliana sets out how development is actually financed – or not – including the functional constraints on finance that aren’t easily visible to other parts of the built environment sector. It’s a must-listen for anyone in the sector who knows the value of the full picture, outside our own silos.

Be sure to follow for new episodes every other. Make Planning Make Sense is hosted by Aaron Zimmerman MRTPI, presented by Centro Planning Consultancy and recorded in beautiful London, England.