You’ve had a career spanning over 35 years, working with councils, national bodies, and top consultancies. What first drew you to town planning and public service?

I’m not sure it was a single thing. You have the traditional stuff, when you’re at school you have the stuff that you’re good at. My interests were always around geography, social sciences, and economics. I thought well, where can you put all those sorts of things together? I’ve always had an interest in design as well. So that was probably the practical aspect to it.

Emotionally, I grew up in Birmingham in the 1960s, where there were massive slum clearances going on. I grew up in quite a large vibrant West Indian community in South Birmingham which ended up being dispersed as a result of so-called slum clearances. I remember they were having a public inquiry in advance of it; I would have been probably about 12, and my dad had all these papers out, and just reading it through it with him, it sounded fascinating. Years later, after we’d lost our house, like many others, I came back and looked at a lot of those papers. We knew our house wasn’t a slum, we lived in it, but what was clear is that officially it wasn’t a slum either, it was just added on lands. They didn’t need to bulldoze it and the rank unfairness of that sort of thing hit home. I think that all kind of came together, and guided me towards this.

What motivated you to transition from local government leadership to founding Stewart Management & Planning Solutions?

The main reason was I was made redundant. I used to work for Watford Council. I was Head of Planning and Transport there. Corporate restructuring made my post redundant, and I remember feeling quite hurt at the time. It’s not an easy thing being made redundant, you get all those negative feelings about, you know, wasn’t I good enough? As part of my redundancy package, I was offered some career counselling. I met this counsellor Steve, who’s absolutely brilliant, and got me thinking about what I wanted to do next. I’d come to a point where I thought, I’d done as much as I thought I was able to do in that organisation. Things were starting to become repetitive, and it was time to move on anyway. In hindsight, being made redundant it was the best thing, it forced the decision.

Because it isn’t always about you. Sometimes it’s just that, the organisation and you, no longer fit. And that’s not necessarily a failure on anybody’s part. In a lot of respects, it’s the right thing for the organisation and it’s the right thing for you. It’s just that we’ve got a fairly brutal way of doing it.

Steve was able to explain to me that after spending all my time in local government, that the employment market isn’t just local government. There’s a whole other sphere around it, and the skills that you gain in local governments are useful, in those other environments. So, I created Stewart management as being an opportunity where I could combine doing the good things I like doing in local government, with having more of a direct focus on planning.

What kind of projects does Stewart Management & Planning Solutions typically get involved in?

I like to think that we’re kind of a general practice, so we’ll do anything. From, householder work to, I mean, we’ve had a couple of Housing Association clients, so we do estate management, regeneration, new build infill schemes, edge of centre developments, commercial, as well as town centre stuff. I did an analysis for what I felt was our specialty. I thought it was going to be residential, but when I looked through our billing, it wasn’t residential at all, it was town centre development schemes, weirdly enough, mainly in the beauty industry.

What’s one aspect of the planning system you believe is most in need of reform and why?

Fundamentally, we’ve got to crack the housing numbers issues. The system isn’t delivering as much housing as we need, the numbers, the locations, the quality, we just don’t seem to be able to get it right. There are so many things that go into it. We do the planning bit of it, and I think we do that well, there could be things that we could do to make it better, but I think the industry fails at the delivery end. If there was something that could be done to incentivise build out, I think that would be a real boost to the industry and indirectly would make everybody’s lives easier.

What are some of the key challenges local authorities face in delivering truly inclusive planning services—and how can they overcome them?

We have a problem in planning that there’s a big expectation we’re being asked to deliver. But at the same time, there is a big squeeze on the resources, particularly in local authorities, which affects their ability to deliver. That squeeze isn’t just on the finances, but there’s a shortage of people as well. What we do find is that within our network, that we have a number of people who have very good qualifications and experience, sometimes gained through unorthodox routes. I think a better awareness in the industry, amongst employers, about this I think would help an awful lot. Hiring managers just need to be a bit more open to those less conventional routes as well.

It’s my industry and I like to think of it in a favourable way, but racism in society is a thing, and it’d be silly to say that planning doesn’t have it. I do know of lots of examples of people who have experienced the worst aspects of it, and I say that from the point of view of direct and hurtful discrimination. It isn’t just about those, if you like those bigger slights, sometimes it’s the microaggressions. The accumulation of those small things, and the attitudes. So, I think there’s a big challenge to the industry of encouraging people from different backgrounds, different ethnic groups, into the industry, but also once they’re there, doing as much as we can to make it a comfortable place to be.

In terms of solutions, the BAME Planners Network is part of that solution because it’s not unusual for somebody of black or ethnic minority origin, to find themselves as the only one in their organisation or part of it. We offer connectivity, so even though they may be on their own in the office, there are other professionals that they can reach out to who are like them, who understand what it’s like being in that position. There’s often an expectation that we’re going to be flawless. If you want to be able to develop and thrive in your profession, you need to have an open and honest relationship with your colleagues that allows you to ask questions, to learn from each other and develop and even now that’s still quite difficult for a number of people because of the circumstances they find themselves in. So, I think that one of our strengths is that we’re able to offer connectivity to our members.

You’ve held senior leadership roles, including as a member of Watford Council’s Corporate Management Team. What’s your leadership philosophy?

I always like to think it’s my approach has always been people first. I always make a point of trying to meet with all of my managers on an individual basis and just get to talk. You start learning about what people’s motivations are, as well as the issues. Quite often you find that while the hiring manager may have a perspective about what is going on and what needs to be done. The reality of the chalk face is often quite different. So, your first issue is about how do I manage/negotiate this space, this gap in understanding and appreciation. It’s always about those people who are being charged with delivering the task, and working with people, whatever level they are. Then making sure that they’re working at the level where they should be.  Sometimes where they should be, isn’t something that they’re even thinking about. You’re looking at people who have got a huge potential but just haven’t realised it.

How did it feel to be awarded an MBE for Planning in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List? And what does that recognition mean to you personally and professionally?

My parents were from the Windrush generation. For them, the empire meant something that probably doesn’t mean the same nowadays. However, that makes it quite difficult to reconcile the idea of MBE, “Member of the British Empire”. That’s not an easy proposition for people like me and I did struggle. Being recognised, I think, is the greatest honour. I didn’t expect it, when it came through the post, I was absolutely speechless. My wife was running up and down with this envelope. I couldn’t even compute it, so it was a great honour. But being able to reconcile that with the words, was quite tricky. In the end, what it comes down to, again it comes back to the people; my mum and dad who are no longer with us, they would have been absolutely made up about the whole thing.

It’s an individual and a personal decision for me, and an honour that people thought I was worth recommending or giving me one and the honour it’s received with elsewhere, not just from my family, all of those are wonderful great things. But it’s not an easy thing for us, I have to say, but I am really, really grateful to people who did recommended me.

What advice would you give to someone starting a career in town planning today?

Do it! I did an assignment with a National Park, and I ended up doing a site visit at Marwell Zoo. Prior to the meeting, myself and a colleague were in the giraffe house at the site. I found myself wondering, in what other profession can you do that on a Friday afternoon? You can’t beat it. I’ve learned so much, seen so much and I’ve been to places that I would never have imagined possible. It’s a roller coaster no doubt. But it’s well worth it.