Iceni Projects’ Central London Director, Kieron Hodgson, speaking to Planning TV at Planning Out’s first birthday event in City Hall.

Award-winning property advisory firm Iceni Projects has today (9 August 2017) announced two new appointments in its Iceni team, based in Manchester.

It is well known in this country that we have a strong attachment to home ownership and climbing up the property ladder. As a consequence there has long been a reluctance to move back down; far from being seen as a pragmatic step, down-sizing is viewed negatively and with suspicion. But is all that about to change?

Back in 2013 the government commissioned an independent review into the role of local authorities in boosting housing supply. Led by Eastleigh Borough Council leader Keith House and housing charity director Natalie Elphicke the review set out a vision of local authorities as “housing enablers”.

Our six metro mayors are fast approaching their 100th day in power. Overshadowed by the subsequent general election result and, with atrocities in Manchester and London naturally transferring national attention, the metro mayors first few months as frontrunners of devolution may have passed some by with relative immateriality. As such, with top teams now in place, many might have missed an obvious omission within the regional devolution structures, that being the near complete lack of women – not just amongst the metro mayors, but within their cabinets.

It’s been a long time coming for Crossrail 2. The Hertfordshire-to-Surrey line received government backing this week after years of dashed hopes and false starts.

This week we finally found out the route of HS2 past Birmingham. The UK’s new 250mph high-speed train will run, at a total stated cost of £55.7bn, towards the East Midlands Hub, then on to Chesterfield and Leeds, before joining on to the existing network to York. The second branch will connect Birmingham Curzon to Crewe, before taking trains to Manchester Piccadilly and Warrington.

Date: Wednesday 12 July 2017

Sheds – they don’t muster up images of excitement or ground breaking design, but logistics and distribution are an important part of life.

Last week I joined 1,600 other Londoners, Sadiq Khan and even an LBC presenter at Indigo at the O2 for the now annual ‘State of London Debate’. The event offers a rare opportunity for members of the public to pose questions directly to the Mayor of London, and his deputies.