Each year at the Planning Research Conference, the RTPI hosts a roundtable in which researchers from across the UK and Ireland reflect on key trends and trajectories in planning reform. We draw out emerging research questions, themes, and trends, and focus on issues which may have slipped under scholars’ radar.

The panel returns this year following a spasm of legislative reform in England which will bring profound changes - both centralising and devolving decision making power in different ways. The planning minister has declared that the Government’s attention is now focused ‘very firmly towards ensuring the new system delivers’ and on ‘removing grit…’.

There’s a similar focus on embedding change across the UK and Ireland. The Planning (Wales) Act 2026 received Royal Assent in April, and the Planning Improvement Agenda in Northern Ireland continues its rollout. Meanwhile, the Scottish government has recently consulted on a range of measures related to housing and infrastructure delivery. In Ireland, changes underpinned by the Planning and Development Act 2024 and recent ministerial interventions continue to reshape the system.

But is flux set to be a consistent theme? Is irony? Failures to address the structural constraints that have prevented governments from meeting their own housing targets are leading them to increasingly intense rounds of planning reforms in search of ‘fixes’. Meanwhile, across the UK, recent election results could be a sign of political change that embeds structural challenges and brings more policy churn.