2022 Programme

Informal dinner (smart/casual) with keynote address by Hashi Mohamed, No5 Chambers chaired by Duncan Field, Town Legal LLP

Christopher Lockhart Mummery QC will draw upon his wealth of experience giving a personal reflection of the continuous 50 years of changes to planning law, from town and county maps, through to development plans, including neighbourhood plans, national policy, Circulars to the NPPF and PPG. He will give his perspective of the limited scope of section 52 agreements to the much larger role of section 106 obligations and the tussles in the courts as to that role. He will give his view as to whether these continuous changes have given us a better system in the public interest.

Speaker: Christopher Lockhart-Mummery QC

Chair: Mary Power, Powerhaus Consultancy

Speaker: Andrew Carter, Chief Executive, Centre For Cities

Chair: Tom Dobson, Quod

It's been two busy years since Joanna took up the role as the Government's Chief Planner.  There has been the Planning White Paper, a new NPPF and the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.  Joanna will be sharing her insights on her time in the role in a "fireside chat" with Claire Dutch.  What has been achieved in that time and what is the Government currently working on?

Speaker: Joanna Averley, Chief Planner, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Chair: Claire Dutch, Ashurst LLP

This will give a welcome insight into the recently created Office for Environmental Protection and its role and purpose. Find out about how it will discharge its duties under the Environment Act 2021 and the impact it might have on environmental law, improvement plans and targets. What might this mean in practice for local planning authorities and other public bodies involved in the planning process and how might this affect the promotion of future development proposals?

Speaker: Natalie Prosser, Chief Executive, Office for Environmental Protection

Chair: Christine Thorby, former Director of Strategy, Planning Inspectorate

In his introduction to the 2021 Government response to the Independent Review of Administrative Law, the then Lord Chancellor wrote of a growing tendency for the courts in Judicial Review cases to become more willing to review the merits of the decisions themselves, instead of the way in which those decisions were made.

Conversely, Dame Sian Elias, former Chief Justice of New Zealand, said in 2008 that judicial review cannot help but engage with policy.

Despite the long-held doctrine that Judicial Review does not deal with policy or merits, do a series of judgments relating to national infrastructure in the last couple of years prove Dame Sian right?

This paper by a former Examining Inspector turned academic will draw on recent judgements and wider thinking about the relationship between the law, the legislature and the executive to examine this increasingly important issue.

Speaker: Kelvin MacDonald, Senior Departmental Fellow, Department of Land Economy, Cambridge

Chair: Matthew White, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

Black tie JPLC 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner with guest speaker Rory Joyce, Brunel Planning, chaired by Robert Evans, Argent in New College Dining Hall followed by late night entertainment

Camilla will examine the relationship between physical and digital technology and their impact on societal change. She will argue that the built environment industry needs to take a much more proactive role in integrating technology into people’s lives to deliver sustainable social, economic, and environmental outcomes. In order to do this, citizens and professionals alike shall require the support of a flexible planning system and iterative regulatory frameworks, capable of leveraging the full power of shared digital/physical tools while maintaining the ability to direct them.

Speaker: Camilla Siggaard Andersen, Research Manager, Hassell

Chair: Adrian Penfold OBE

What have been the key issues emerging from cases over the past year?

Speaker: Victoria Hutton, 39 Essex Chambers

Chair: Michael Humphries QC, FTB