Planner pen portraits

Number seven: The bright young thing

I’ve moved around a bit as a young planner but when opportunity knocks, I’m keen to try and progress my career and make my CV stand out. My first consultancy wasn’t a positive experience. There was a lot of pressure, and they were a bit too all about the profit, so I moved on.

I really enjoyed the next role, working with some great clients, but I was too ambitious to stay in that role. I mean, you can’t stay in the same job for three years, can you? So I contacted a partner at another consultancy who I met when I was nominated for ‘Young Planner of the Year’ and moved on again. The pay was better and hopefully one day I can actually afford to live in one of the places I’ve helped get permission for.

I do think planning can make a difference by building places that people want to live and spend time in. I always think, ‘would I like to live here?’ I’m conscious of only ever having worked in the private sector so I spend time networking with ‘other types of planners’ through the RTPI.

I worry what some of my peers think about me though. I once turned down work which I felt did not need doing – I mentioned it in the ethics section of my APC – yet I’m concerned I’ll be pigeon-holed as a pro-developer, anti-community planner. Then again, I do like the entrepreneurial side of the private sector. Maybe I’ll have my own consultancy one day.

Quotes

"The public interest? When I go to public consultation events, it’s traffic, how I’m going to get from A to B? … That’s a really important thing in planning because I get so frustrated about … in fact … my journey to work, as the crow flies, is actually not very far, but it’s better to drive."

"No matter whether I’m representing homebuilders and their interest, they want the same thing, they want to build more homes and yes, it’s because it’s a commercial decision for their business, but actually, it has to fit in with policy, otherwise they won’t be able to do it."

"[Planning?] It’s there to accommodate and help manage the change needed in our environment. I’ve always worked in the South East where there’s always been the obvious need for growth, but that growth needs to be managed … looking at the best locations for that growth."

"I suppose another underlying factor throughout my whole planning experience is the housing crisis. I have actually now got on the housing ladder, but it’s not where I want to live."

"It’s managing the land in the public interest … if it’s to serve a private interest only because a lot of the time, you’re serving both, then is it the right thing to be doing?"

"I’d like to think that I could give my professional view and not be clouded too much by the demands of my client and I will, if I really have concerns as a professional RTPI, to make them aware of the need to mediate and negotiate through the process … it’s to try and find a way that will please everyone, whilst achieving a type of development I would say I’d be proud of."

"I would hate to look back, later on in my career and think I can’t believe … because I was working for a certain industry at a certain time, I was saying things that I don’t professionally believe in, so … everything is submitted, it might be slightly … try and word it, y’know?"

Notes

  • Works in the private sector and argues the private sector fulfils the public interest as people need houses and planners help deliver good growth

  • Has experience of working in multiple organisations. Most likely several consultancies but may also include some time in local government or the third sector

  • May feel more comfortable working in some consultancies than others

  • Highly ambitious and motivated by self-advancement

  • Probably conceives of professionalism as about how you conduct and present yourself

  • More likely to have MRTPI status than a local government planner of the same age, having been actively supported / encouraged through their APC by their consultancy employer