Why would-be graduate planners and surveyors should read the NPPF

Yesterday, the UK government published the finalised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which reforms planning policy in England. Students and graduates who are interested in getting jobs in property and planning in England would be well advised to read up on it.

The NPPF is likely to affect the way that surveyors and planners (especially those working in property development) do their job and advise clients. It is extremely likely that graduate interview candidates will be asked about it at interview – yes, even though your interview for a 2013 scheme might not be until January next year.

Expect to be asked about certain changes or about your opinion on it. One graduate planner and property developer confided to TARGETjobs Property that she was asked about her knowledge of planning and her take on current affairs at her interview. At the time, there had been a change in government and she was asked how she thought that would affect planning policy.

Even if you are not tempted to go into development and planning, there is still value in reading up on it. Karen Poulton, the graduate recruitment and diversity manager at Cushman & Wakefield, says that interviewers tend to test your commercial awareness by asking how an event in the news would affect a company’s property portfolio. Think how switched on you would look if you could discuss the potential impacts of the NPPF.

So start by reading the property trade press’ reports on, and analyses of, the NPPF and then turn to the document itself.

• Property Week’s round-up of the industry’s response to the NPPF (subscription needed)
• Download the National Planning Policy Framework

A ‘developer’s charter’?

You probably remember that the draft version of the NPPF provoked huge controversy, particularly among conservationist groups such as the National Trust. One of the main accusations aimed at the plan was that it amounted to a ‘developer’s charter’; the encouragement it gave to local government to be automatically inclined to favour plans for sustainable development (the so-called ‘presumed yes’ clause in the draft) was seen by some as allowing financial considerations to dominate over other areas of concern, such as conservation and heritage.

According to the BBC, the government has stated that, while this presumed yes principle still remains in the NPPF, policies such as those protecting the Green Belt, sites of special scientific interest, national parks and other areas could not ‘be overridden by the presumption’. The BBC has reported some conservationist groups as taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude.

More careers advice for would-be property surveyors

• Find out more about graduate careers in property development
• Find out more about working in planning and development
• How to prove your commercial awareness to property recruiters
• All the advice you need for a property surveying graduate interview

Posted by Abi_TARGETjobs on 28 March 2012

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