Insights
Paving the way for the future of planning
Long-awaited reforms to the planning system in England were finally unveiled on 6 August. While previous housing secretaries, of which there have been many, have merely tinkered with the edges, Robert Jenrick’s efforts appear to be about to turn the system on its head. The glossy 43-page consultation document, ‘Planning for the Future’ certainly contains proposals which should be welcomed, such as bringing the process of community engagement kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Jenrick wants to move away from laminated signs hastily affixed to lampposts and statutory notices at the back of local newspapers (which everyone has stopped
Qui tacet consentire videtur
Silence says you consent. Social issues get the country, and consumers, talking. The murder of George Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis has achieved global media attention and put a rocket under the BLM movement. From the #MeToo to #Icantbreathe protests, petitions and social media campaigns have dominated the media, even managing to break through coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the realisation that having no opinion is not an option that sets these campaigns aside and explains why so many brands have sought to make their sympathies and understanding known – from publishing statements of solidarity to posting the infamous ‘black out Tuesday’ square on social media. Others have simply kept hush. While there was once a debate over ‘appeasement vs alienation’ in corporate branding strategy, this has been lost
The Persist List
Society appears to have undergone some quite seismic changes since Thursday 12 March – the day the UK Prime Minister announced that COVID-19 was not going to be a barrel of laughs and that we should all start washing our hands. A lot. However, whether it is the community spirit, the air quality, the (much) shorter commute to work or simply the realisation that office work can be achieved without going to the office every day, most people acknowledge that there are some changes that we should aim to retain. But of all the changes that society has undergone, which
Working from home in a shared house
When the prospect of working from home cropped up in bygone times, most people envisaged a more relaxed and commute-free experience that would give them the benefits of a vibrant, exciting work life with the added upside of being surrounded by their own stuff. In reality, in the time of C19, when wfh has become compulsory for so many people, a whole new etiquette has revealed itself. Or rather, we are rapidly learning that there are lessons to be learned about how we should behave when wfh. Most especially when we live with housemates. All of us who have ever spent time working
Keeble Brown’s Guide to Working From Home
While working from home is usual practice for some, many of us are more familiar with an office environment. For organisations, both big and small, it may take a few weeks to adjust to this new way of working. We have put together this brief guide to share some of the practices we as a company have adopted in order to help maintain business as usual. Get in touch to discuss how Keeble Brown could support you. All our details can be found on our contact page https://bit.ly/3av7cNI.
Powering up the powerhouse
Maps are good things. Great things, on occasion. They can be wonderfully useful for orientation –and I don’t mean just in the sense of getting from A to B, but also in helping to make sense of the world around us. An example? Take a look below. This map shows a different way of visualising population density, showing how many people there live within a 100km radius rather than how many people live in each square kilometre. Note that it’s showing population proximity rather than population density, which would be this map. Germany is Europe’s powerhouse, and we can see
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