UNITED KINGDOM / AGILITYPR.NEWS / February 13, 2020 / The chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has welcomed the announcement that Robert Jenrick will remain in his role as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Victoria Hills said she looked forward to continuing to work with Mr Jenrick to ensure town planners and the planning system were able to deliver sustainable, well-designed, successful urban and rural places into the future.

She said: “I congratulate Mr Jenrick on retaining his role and welcome the much-needed stability. I look forward to supporting the Secretary of State with the consultation on the planning white paper, which we hope will empower planners to deliver improved places that reflect the needs of local communities and meet net zero carbon and environmental targets.

“The RTPI has long campaigned for government and local authorities to assign more resources to planning teams, and we will continue to lobby for planning to be put back at the top table of corporate decision-making.”

In a letter addressed to Mr Jenrick, Ms Hills said:

• “We believe that to support the government to deliver its infrastructure, climate change and built environment agendas it needs to:resource local planning authorities to deliver the government’s targets on carbon net zero, housing and infrastructure,
• remove barriers to the creation of city-regional spatial strategies and allow city regions to use their devolved planning powers.  
• empower the planning profession to ensure that the UK leads on delivering climate and environmental action locally
• uphold the right of communities to have a say in local development including codes and plans 

She added that she hoped Mr Jenrick would also agree to deliver the keynote address at the RTPI’s annual conference in June.