Planners, developers and communities are all anxious to secure a well-balanced national planning framework for Scotland following the implementation of NPF4.  However, a range of challenges lie ahead in meeting the demands around development planning and management, resourcing the planning system adequately and driving best practice performance.  This conference looks at the key themes flowing from the adoption and implementation of NPF4 and the roll out of supporting guidance.  It will also examine what all stakeholders need to know about what is happening now and what is coming next.

This conference will take place online.

The Scottish Government is to introduce legislation during this parliament to encourage Community Wealth Building as Scotland's core approach to economic development.  A consultation on the proposed Bill has just concluded.  The aim is to enact new - or amend existing - laws to accelerate this form of economic development in Scotland.  What is Community Wealth Building?  How will it reform who takes decisions locally on what is spent - and on how, where and for what purpose?  The Bill's aim will be to bring economic transformation and to create empowered, resilient local communities.  Therefore, change is coming which will affect current decision makers in the public sector and their other sectoral partners.  Who will lead decision making in the future and how will communities be involved in that process?  How will this affect your organisation?

This conference will take place online.

Scotland's public services provide critical support to every age group, community and area of activity. They are essential to wellbeing, the economy, public safety and quality of life. However a tsunami of challenges to our services already exist, with many more on the horizon. The labour market is constricted, creating acute staffing shortages. COVID has left services struggling to catch up and keep up with demand. War has driven economic instability and UK government fiscal uncertainty suggests serious funding issues for public services. The context seems to be that change is now permanent. So what can those leading and delivering our critical public services do to cope with the challenges of now and prepare for those which are coming? How can they harness smart service design approaches and core elements of delivery to provide services which remain resilient, reliable and relevant? What opportunities exist to work differently and better in trying to do more with less?

The conference will take place online.

Scotland's need for capital investment in infrastructure is well researched, documented and signposted.  However, our ability to deliver in core areas such as net zero, transport, housing, digital infrastructure and projects supporting public service delivery is now acutely challenged by the state of our public finances following pandemic, war, recession and budget recklessness.  So, how bad is the picture on our infrastructure prospects and what can be done to prioritise spending, innovate on funding, attract additional investment and find new ways to partner in project delivery?

This conference will take place online.

This webinar will explore the effects and consequences of the COVID pandemic for how we live and work in our city and town centres and our high streets. It will examine the opportunities for transformational change in the centre of our urban spaces and will consider current thinking and initiatives to turn threat into opportunity as dramatic structural changes are already unfolding.

Online

This webinar will discuss the immediate and long term effects of coronavirus upon our cities and city-regions with a focus on the potential of data, the meaning of smart cities post-Covid and approaches to smart city region economic recovery in the key engines of our economy.

Online

This conference discusses the Scottish Government’s policies and vision to deliver ‘Housing to 2040’, examines related themes impacting upon housing policy and delivery – including the drive for Net Zero, the opportunity of Green Investment, the new Planning Act and development of NPF4 – and considers the role of local housing strategies, place-based policy, affordability and market interventions in influencing delivery in Scotland’s private and public housing markets.

Online

Pandemic has helped to reveal a fundamental truth about our communities. Community resilience depends upon two elements: whether planning outcomes look to reflect the long-term interests of communities and whether communities actively involve themselves in shaping where and how they live and work. This is as true for climate, economic, transport and public health resilience as it is for the resilience of the houses, offices and other buildings we plan and construct. The planning system is only as good as its ability to listen and the community wishing to shape the sustainable nature of the place they live is only as good as its ability and willingness to engage in informed consultation.  

Online

This online conference examines the Scottish Government’s implementation of the new Planning Act, what needs to happen for the Act to meet its original objectives for planning in Scotland and which issues remain to be defined in order to give full effect to the content of the Act.

Online