Manchester | Thurs, 21st January | 11.00am – 3.30pm     The Housing & Planning Bill, which was introduced in October, is currently making its way through Parliament. It contains many of the Government’s key reforms to the planning system. With major changes expected, what will 2016 hold for the different stakeholders involved? Nick Wood-Dow, deputy chairman of Chelgate Local, will chair a Westminster Briefing seminar on planning policy in 2016 in Manchester on January 21, 2016. The agenda includes: The Housing & Planning Bill and Government Planning Reforms Housing & Planning Bill measures and their impacts A legal duty for LAs […]

On the back of an unexpected General Election victory, this year’s Conservative conference in Manchester was an upbeat affair with little or no controversy, some interesting new policy announcements and much media speculation about the next leader. The protests outside the conference provided an amusing distraction, although the media appeared to whip this up into something it really was not. It was certainly unpleasant for delegates to face the barrage of abuse (and in some cases plastic balls and even spitting) but many were surprised at the interest and it reminded some of conferences back in the 1980s. In terms […]

The new Digital Single Market Strategy was launched yesterday by the European Commission at a press conference in Brussels. Commissioners Ansip and Oettinger presented the key points of the strategy, and took questions from journalists on the changes and their impact. The Commissioners said they want more companies to be able to do business online across the Single European Market, and this strategy is the latest in a series of reforms to complete the picture. They said that since January, small businesses had been complaining that there were still barriers to growth, despite the frequent calls for the EU to […]

Chelgate Autumn Newsletter 2014     No one can quite agree on where British politics is headed at the next General Election. Some say that the Conservatives are sure to recover a poll lead as election day approaches – Ed Miliband cannot possibly become PM. Others think the Tories have set a course for failure – we should all get used to hearing about ‘Prime Minister Ed Miliband’. Ever since UKIP picked up scores of councillors and MEPs in May’s election, and came a comfortable second to the Tories in the Newark by-election a few weeks later, the question on […]

CPC14, as it became known through the daily texts from the Party Chairmen, started on an all-time-low, and finished on a considerable high. Lynton Crosby can take a lot of credit for the turnaround. Sunday was dominated by talk of the defection, and of the resignation. Both were understandably irritating to delegates who had their attention focussed on hearing messages for the General Election. Reckless was perceived as a traitor, while Newmark was perceived as an idiot. The latter description was only diminished when Mark Pritchard MP vowed to sue the Sunday Mirror for entrapment, as it emerged that many […]

Chelgate Senior Consultant Jim McClelland has an article on responsible sourcing and sustainability published in The Times this week. The article, titled “UK poised for era of who cares wins?”, was published on Tuesday. It addresses the importance of a positive brand identity, and how responsible sourcing and sustainability can be used to improve this. McClelland stresses that the economic upturn is a threat to sustainability, and it is vital that business leaders develop a holistic strategy and to make sustainability part of the brand aspiration. McClelland is a speaker, writer and social media commentator, specialising in the areas of […]