Toby Porter

A planning consultancy has announced the appointment of an associate director from a rival firm to set up a new team in a regional city.

Reports of the shadow justice secretary and former housing secretary labelling his local council a “soft touch” for giving retrospective planning permission for unlawful traveller pitches leads our round-up of planning news in other media.

A council has admitted it broke its own constitution in allowing officers rather than its planning committee to approve an application from one of its members to expand an amusement arcade.

The biggest stories of the last week, including regulations paving the way for the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Act’s proposed new environmental delivery plans and nature restoration levy.

The chief executive of planning charity the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is to stand down in the spring after seven years in the role.

The Tory former housing secretary Robert Jenrick has been criticised after claiming that there is a “two-tier planning system” in response to his local council granting retrospective permission for an unlawfully-built traveller site, adding that he wanted to “end the special status given to travellers in the planning system”.

Reports of the High Court dismissing a legal challenge to consented plans for the 39-court expansion of the All England Club in Wimbledon and of a council refusing 256 homes on green belt against officer advice lead our round-up of planning news in other media.

A former Downing Street adviser has started work as the new planning director at the housing ministry.

Councillors have approved plans for the 1,522-home, mixed-use redevelopment of the former headquarters of an international pharmaceutical firm, despite concerns raised by the government's conservation advisor about the project's harmful heritage impacts and its height.

The sanctuary provided hospices are under threat because of decades of inaction and it's a national scandal.