Stuart Newton-Tyers from Wild Capital talks to AT about how Biodiversity Net Gain is reshaping the sequencing of development and where architects are still being caught out.

Finlay Ward, Capital Investment Executive at West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), tells AT how architects can better align with regional economic growth priorities, why a belief in the West Midlands in crucial, and the geopolitics keeping him awake at night.

Sovereign Network Group’s Homes and Place Standard was co-created by its customers and is used to measure a portfolio of more than 86,000 homes across London and the South and West of England. This is against 140 metrics which are underpinned by three pillars: Home, Place and Sustainable Futures. The panel discuss why the new standard presents a crucial shift in the industry’s approach to placemaking and the creation of sustainable communities, and how it seeks to tighten the gap between quantity and quality.

As SNG’s unveil their Homes and Place Standard, their Design Director Antje Saunders share news of SNG’s new framework tender for housing and masterplanning – with space for up to 30 practices – and discusses the housing association’s ambition to raise the quality of affordable housing through collaborative, context-led design.

Jessica Hird, Associate Planner, tells AT what she thinks architects could being doing to better support planners, her biggest red flag when working with architects, and why she’s advocating for the next generation of Town Planners.

Affordable housing demands architects who can balance vision with reality. Sam Galloway explains how Incommunities selects and collaborates with designers, embedding practical, sustainable, and socially minded approaches, while ensuring schemes remain viable, well-managed, and places residents will value for decades.