The Forum
Over the last year the Surrey Development Forum has continued to host a range of engagement activities:
- Members meet up to six times a year
- Our annual conference sold out with 140 representatives from industry, local and national politicians, and the community. Delegates heard presentations from Surrey MP Will Forster, the leader of the County Council Cllr Tim Oliver OBE, and The Baroness Taylor of Stevenage OBE, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lords Minister for Housing and Local Government)
- We held a forum members dinner in the House of Lords, sponsored by The Lord Porter of Spalding CBE
- We have regular meeting attendance and interaction from Homes England, Highways England, Natural England and other government agencies
The current challenges in Surrey
- The make up of local government, be it a single unitary authority, or other forms of single tier local government – the purpose to address funding challenges and find better ways to govern;
- Utilities challenges, notably water supply and 5G broadband;
- The natural environment, ongoing mechanisms to address the landscape, air quality and biodiversity impacts of change on special protection areas and the Surrey Hills AONB;
- Transport challenges, methods to grow micro mobility (cycle/ scooters) and notably rail capacity to London,
- Gatwick and Heathrow and the M3, A320, A3, A24, M23, A21, M25 road corridors;
- Regeneration and densification challenges facing some areas and some town centres;
- The building beautiful agenda, ensuring the best quality development, in context where appropriate, or bespoke/ contemporary where justified;
- Identifying sufficient development land in environmentally constrained areas is a challenge;
- Collective opinions on changes to the planning system proposed by the Government;
- Ensuring that the greatest challenge, climate change, is better addressed in the county.
More information regarding challenges and the ambitions of our purpose can be explained further in the Surrey’s 2050 Place Ambition.
Leadership Team
A Chartered Town Planner with 20 years experience in the planning and house building industry. Katie is the Strategic Planning Director at Thakeham Homes and has a strong focus on promoting and delivering sustainable communities and attractive places for people to live, work and enjoy.
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Craige Burden is the Head of Planning at Barratt David Wilson’s Southern Counties division based in Guildford. His role focuses on the delivery of homes across the divisions operational area including Surrey.
Craige is a chartered Town Planner and Architect with over 20 years experience in consultancy and client side roles, having worked on schemes ranging from an extension to a doctor’s surgery to master plans for new settlements.
Craige has lived in Woking for the last 10 years, with his wife and more recently two cats. He has also recently been elected to the RTPI’s General Assembly, so hopes to be able to champion planners and planning in Surrey at a national level.
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Charlie specialises in strategic development, planning promotions and applications, green belt and CIL. His focus is on the housing sector. He has been a planning consultant for over thirteen years, following his early career in local government.
He has been responsible for the Guildford/Sevenoaks planning team since August 2016, growing the team to thirteen professionals.
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Having started his career as a Parliamentary researcher, Julian has been working in specialist property communications for more than 15 years over which the sector has evolved and matured.
During that time Julian has worked on planning projects from across the sectors and across the country. That has meant working for Sainsbury’s, Hammerson and Land Securities during the retail boom; infrastructure developers and renewable operators, particularly on and off shore wind, solar and Energy from Waste schemes; and housing and mixed-use town centre schemes at all stages of the planning process from land promotion through to detailed application and appeal support.
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