Getting planning right is important for councils. It allows them to manage development, ensuring that the best possible outcomes are delivered for places. It requires political and technical leadership and engaged communities. Helping councils plan better is what we do.
What We Do
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government provides a grant each year for PAS so we can provide support to councils. We are funded to help get local plans up-to-date and to improve decision-making, as well as running event series on topical issues. We can also work with councillors and do thorough "peer challenge" reviews of planning departments. We believe in a ‘sector led' improvement approach, where local authorities help each other to continuously improve.
We were originally set up in 2005 by the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to help councils respond to the significant changes initiated by the 2004 Planning Act. Since then we have been various shapes and sizes but our focus has always been on helping Local Government play their part in an effective planning system.
More recently we have started working with Natural England to knit together how we plan for places alongside planning for the environment.
Who We Are
We are a small team of eighteen, with a few people based on the fourth floor of the LGA's building on Smith Square and the others working remotely across England. In recent years we have recruited some new team members so we have had some policy swap-arounds and have expanded our programme on environmental planning:
Anna R. is the Head of the Planning Advisory Service and has oversight of the whole programme of activity. She manages the team and client relationships. Anna is a member of the Improvement management team at the LGA.
Anna L. leads the support we are providing to those starting to prepare Local Plans under the new system. She also works closely with Lisa-Marie on the support for councils aiming to submit their local plans by 31st December 2026 under the 'legacy' system.
Beccy leads on the Environment part of our MHCLG programme, including supporting local authorities with mandatory biodiversity net gain (BNG) and nutrient neutrality transitioning to Environmental Delivery Plans.
Garreth is working with a range of local authorities on a project to support the delivery of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects as well as supporting Sarah on the Freeport planning project. He is also interested in town centre planning, looking at the changing role of town centres and impact of recent planning reforms to the way we manage them.
Jack is a Programme Support Officer who helps support the team on matters such as Finance and Administration. Jack’s work helps the team run smoothly and effectively.
Kat leads our work on improving Capacity and Capability. This includes supporting those in middle management to develop their leadership and management skills and delivering the learning and development programme for those enrolled on Pathways to Planning.
Lauren Lauren leads our Development Management work, supporting councils to improve their decision-making and performance. She is also leading on a work programme which helps councils to implement the upcoming reforms to planning committees.
Lisa-Marie leads the support programme for councils aiming to submit their local plans by 31st December 2026 under the 'legacy' system. She also works with Anna Lucas to deliver support to those now working to prepare their plans within a 30-month timeframe under the new local plan-making regulations.
Martin leads the PAS teams working on NSIPs, Nature Recovery, Localised Fee Setting and Cyber Security.
Nina is our Programme Support Officer and helps us with all things admin and finance, as well as providing support across the work programme. She is currently helping Pete with Development Management.
Peter leads the PAS team working on leadership and management skills, design, development management performance, planning committees and ATLAS work.
Rachael leads on our work supporting councils in their role to deliver infrastructure to support development. This includes a focus on the effective use of developer contributions (CIL and Section 106) and helping to improve governance processes to ensure delivery. Rachael also supports our work on strategic planning and local plans.
Rachel leads our work with Natural England helping local authorities to understand and engage with the changes impacting delivery for nature recovery and how they can translate these into local priorities, activities and partnerships.
Richard runs the team delivering our work on digital planning, planning for the environment and looks after our emerging prospects with new funders and new workstreams.
Shelly loves all things digital and data helping councils embrace digital innovation, and drive meaningful service improvement to help them prepare the Planning Services for the future.
Simon works with Rachel on the Natural England nature recovery programme, and Cyber Security
Steve leads on our work supporting councils on design and place-shaping. He also works on our Development Management support.
Zain leads on our work supporting councils on Cost Recovery, DCOs and BNG for NSIPs. He is also supporting Martin with work on Localised Fee Setting.
We all enjoy peer review, commercial work and working with councillors - and bicker with each other about who gets to do pick up these pieces of work. Contact our team inbox with any general enquiries and one of us will get back to you (or refer you to the KHub if it's something we don't know).