Rockwell back at UCL

Rockwell were pleased that our Board Director and Head of Planning and Development, Jonathan Manns, was back at UCL on 04 December to give a guest lecture on the topic of Navigating the Planning Process.

Jon joined Prof Kwame Addae-Dappah at the Bartlett School of Planning to assist with teaching students studying for a Master’s degree in ‘International Real Estate and Planning’. The course, which is accredited by both the Royal Town Planning Institute and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, currently supports some 35 people students from around the world. It focuses on the relationship between the property development process and the planning systems of Europe and beyond. It also considers market mechanisms from the perspective of investors, developers and occupiers of buildings, and the relationship between markets and policy at various geographical levels.

Jon spent some 90 minutes with the students unpacking key issues associated with market constraints alongside matters of policy, community and politics. He made the case for planning in the UK’s discretionary system not as a bureaucratic process, but strategic advocacy; painting a picture of a practice which is both creative and proactive. In doing so, he sought to stress the extent to which significant benefits can be unlocked by new development where thought is given to the way that a proposal integrates with its immediate community, drawing on Rockwell’s current schemes as examples of industry best practice.

The response from those taking part was exceptionally positive, with one writing to us separately afterwards to say simply “[a] big thank you for the guest lecture this morning. It was amazing!”. We’re always pleased to get such kind feedback and look forward to supporting teaching such as this wherever possible in the future.