Planning has been kind to me. Its a great career, providing young people with an opportunity to make a real difference to the design of places, the lives of communities and hopefully climate change.
Unfortunately the sector is struggling due to a lack of planning graduates, particularly those joining the public sector. The reasons for this are complex. They include factors such as high tuition fees, universities replying on foreign students for income and a perception that planning is overly bureaucratic/negative. I guess its not seen as 'cool' as other professions. The RTPI (and others) have explored this issue and doing to great work to encourage more young people to take up planning as a career.
I'm trying to do my bit too. I've always enjoyed mentoring new planners and was really pleased to have joined the University College of Estate Management's (Reading) tutoring team recently.
For my first assignment, I've been thrown in the deep end - marking 20 or so essays regarding the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).
BNG will be introduced between Nov 2023 and Spring 2024, requiring most developments to demonstrate there will be improvements to biodiversity following completion of the scheme. The students were given a scenario where they needed to advise a client on the implication of BNG regarding their partially wooded development site. The exuberance of youth shone through at times. I didn't mark the idea of 'relocating' the ancient woodland particularly highly. Mostly however there were some great proposals. Some I might even suggest to clients myself. Every day is a school day.
Until the next planning module starts, my role with the University has paused for now. Looking forward to seeing what my next homework assignment is later this year however.
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