Chris Struthers Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

Greater London, England, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

Planning Manager for a G15 Housing Association covering London and the South East. My primary role was to secure multi-tenure residential planning consents for the company and manage the process from site acquisition through to the discharge of planning conditions, as well as assisting in procuring new development opportunities either through open market purchase or public tender bids.As the sole in-house planning resource, I worked on a wide range of projects from smaller individual schemes to larger multi-phased estate regeneration. The role also incorporated project management, managing a team of consultants as well as leading on programs and costs.Alongside my planning role, I was the development representative for Catalyst’s in-house employee forum ‘Our Voice’ and in 2021 was promoted to group Chair. This allowed me to build on my management experience as well as engage with all colleagues across the business, including the Senior Executive Team. I chaired monthly meetings and was responsible for managing 15 representatives from across every directorate of the business.

London, United Kingdom

As planning coordinator for Alchemi Group, I help oversee and manage the planning consents for all schemes from initial project feasibility through to post planning stage.I work closely with the Planning Director as well as all departments to ensure that the final planning submissions are in line with their requirements, from design to sales and marketing.

London, United Kingdom

Although based primarily within the housing division I play a cross-divisional role with planning colleagues feeding into policy work which affect both housing and planning. A particular focus of work has been implementing the Government’s ‘custom build homes programme’ which was announced in response to the Housing Strategy for England in 2011. The programme has required me to work closely with industry partners and Government Ministers to look at ways of increasing the level of ‘self build’ properties within the UK. This has involved setting up national workshops, helping launch a government investment fund, attending meetings on behalf of the department and briefing the Housing and Planning Ministers, including writing policy speeches. A major body of work has been consulting on and implementing a CIL exemption for self build housing.I’ve also been working on streamlining government guidance to ensure that ongoing planning policy reform can help support builders and developers increase housing supply.

North East And Teesside

This position allows me to oversee and assist in the management of large housing projects throughout the North East of England. My responsibilities in this role placed me within a close-knit multidisciplinary team who collectively control land purchasing across the two Persimmon regional companies as well as their executive ‘Charles Church’ brand. The role needed me to personally plan, identify, procure and manage both short and long term investment opportunities for the regional companies. The key element of my role at Persimmon Homes required me to project manage a range of residential developments from pre-planning strategic site promotion through to the condition discharge process post-approval. This would include the ability to set budgets and critical deadlines to ensure the required work is on time and within budget to guarantee overall viability.The key element of my job was also to liaise with consultants, local authority planners and residents as well as involvement in land acquisition and the negotiation of development agreements / S106 / affordable housing contributions for particular schemes to ensure planning permission is successfully granted. My stategic work included interpreting and commenting on current and emerging policy with particular reference to local housing evidence documents such as Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments (SHLAAs) and Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs). Other work carried out includes house type development, site layouts, master planning and urban design, developing solutions to Regional Spatial Strategy renewable energy requirement and the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Diploma In Town Planning, Town Planning, Distinction

Upon the completion of my undergraduate studies I undertook a RTPI accredited two year post graduate diploma in Town Planning. The course.

Town Planning, Town Planning, First Class (Hons)

The three year planning degree covered the core RTPI planning curriculum and included a field trip to Holland to examine European planning.