Surrey Development Forum embraces change, growth and viability challenges

The event reflected a strong sense that growth is a shared goal across the public and private sectors, even as the county prepares for new unitary authorities, a new mayor, and revised planning rules.

Katie Lamb, chair of SDF and head of planning at Strutt and Parker, opened the conference by introducing keynote speaker John Tarvit, director of planning at Wates Developments. John Tarvit offered insight into Wates’ approach to development and set the tone for the day by highlighting the importance of managing change.

The discussion proved lively, with audience engagement so strong that there were more questions than time to answer them, underscoring the energy and relevance of the issues being debated.

Graham Stallwood, chief executive of the Planning Inspectorate, and Nick Grant of Landmark Chambers provided technical planning perspectives, adding depth to the morning’s debate.

The morning also included valuable contributions from Cllr Bardley Nelson, East Surrey Council, and Ann-Marie Barker, West Surrey Council, who led a discussion on unlocking growth in Surrey.

The afternoon then turned to the key issue of development viability in Surrey, an area identified as crucial to shaping future growth, with further discussion promised in a later article.

The day concluded with a moving video from Imogen Clark and Make Space for Girls, followed by a discussion with members of the Surrey Youth Cabinet. Andrew Whittingham, Director at Motion, delivered the closing remarks, capturing the conference mood as one of optimism and momentum.

He said, “Well, two words really, change and enthusiasm, I think, were quite common themes throughout the day.”

Katie Lamb echoed that sentiment in her reflections, saying,

“I think today has been really eye-opening and has taken us back to our roots. As planners, as development professionals, what we really want to do is create places that are built to last, for people to live in that meet actual needs, a place for people to work and drive the economy, a place to play and be healthy.

“And I think at times we’ve forgotten that. And I think we’ve seen it as a process and an end goal rather than actually seeing what we can deliver through collaboration, but also meaningful collaboration. We all want to work together.”

Looking ahead, she added, “I think a lot of today has been about what comes next. We’ve got strategic planning coming back. We’ve got unitary authorities, and we’ve spoken a lot over the last year about what that might look like. But next year we’ll know what it’s starting to look like. We’ll know how it’s coming forward. We’ll see the vision that people have spoken about today being delivered and hopefully have some real practical experiences that we can talk through about how successful we’ll be.”