Shropshire surveyor meets with advisers at No.10

Philip Meade visited No 10 at the end of November in is his role as chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Dispute Resolution Professional Group Board and spent an hour-and-a-half in discussions with policy advisers.

"The invitation to visit Number 10 follows on from meetings with the housing minister Brandon Lewis back in October where various ways to help speed up the planning process were discussed," said Mr Meade, of Davis Meade Property Consultants in Oswestry.

One area that the RICS have been looking at with the Government is resolving disputes over section 106 agreements.

"These agreements are private agreements made between local authorities and developers to make developments acceptable in planning terms and are often the stumbling block to development," Mr Meade added.

"Speeding up housing development was a key element of the Chancellor's budget and alternative dispute resolution using a third party is considered to be one way to speed up new housing development through the planning process."

Following the meeting at Downing Street the RICS working party, of which Philip is a member, will be putting together their proposals about how to resolve some of the hurdles in the planning procedure.

They will ultimately report back to the government housing team with their ideas, in the hope of informing future planning policy.

It is intended to be a consultative process so anyone with any thoughts on these issues can contact Mr Meade by e-mail on [email protected]

He took on his role as chairman RICS Dispute Resolution Professional Group in March 2015.