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Jones Lang LaSalle planning director Peter Lever discusses the proposals by government to further relax planning laws to encourage development. Lever believes local planning authorities have received a "wake-up call" from the government and will be under increased pressure to deliver more housing. Is Eric Pickles friend or foe?

Secretary of State for Communities and Local government, Eric Pickles, has issued a mininsterial statement entitled Housing and Growth. The statement looks at a number of ways which the housebuilding sector could be kickstarted. 

It is clear that planning is seen as a continued obstacle to growth.  Even a more flexible approach to development in the green belt - previously a sacred cow - is now contemplated.

In simple terms, many local authorities are red faced because they have taken too long to produce their development plans and are now finding that the government is taking matters into its own hands to accelerate the delivery of new homes.  Eric Pickles is far from the friend local authorities, particularly in the Conservative heartlands, thought he was going to be when he initiated the Localism agenda shortly after the coalition government took power in 2010, promoting more local involvement in development decisions.

Developers are now more likely to win planning appeals, if local authorities have not got a proper strategy in place and have a record of poor-quality or slow decision making.  This has led to the government deciding where schemes are placed and not the local authorities.  Added to this the appointment of Nicholas Boles as planning minister, who is very pro-development and doesn't think planning works, and we will be seeing a much more emolient approach to development and, crucially, the consideration of green belt land.

Birmingham has rather opportunely engaged in the debate that has been raging this week about the UK's air capacity. The unusual bedfellows of Conservative and Labour MPs, along with business and council leaders from the West Midlands, have today united to call for spare capacity at Birmingham Airport to be used to ease congestion in the south-east.

This group of passionate drum bangers are promoting Birmingham Airport as a means of easing congestion at London's Heathrow and in the south east. They believe that in the long-term, the development of Birmingham Airport as a major gateway at the centre of the UK would reduce unproductive surface travel time and leave Heathrow as a gateway for London and the south-east.

The letter published in today's Daily Telegraph (August 30, 2012) says: "A 'hub airport' in the South East favours a small, congested, and already economically strong part of the country. We need gateways close to the manufacturing, research and development of the Midlands and the North, linking these regions directly to emerging markets.

Perhaps spurred on by images of medal-clutching Olympians piling onto Eurostar trains at St Pancras, HS2 Limited last week took a small, but important step forward. After months of radio silence, the government-owned rail company finally appointed a panel of five agents to advise it on property acquisitions, compulsory purchase orders and compensation for the proposed £32bn High Speed rail link between London and Birmingham.

The multi-million pound two year contract that started at the beginning of this month, is certainly good news for chosen firms GVA, Jones Lang LaSalle, Colliers International, Drivers Jonas and Lambert Smith Hampton. But far more importantly, it should allow property owners along the proposed 140 mile route from London's Euston to Birmingham's Eastside to finally engage substantively with HS2.

While HS2 could bring significant benefits to Birmingham in fourteen years time, landowners have become increasingly frustrated with its impact on major development schemes. And a trio of heavily affected landlords have voiced their concerns. Grainger, Development Securities and Quintain all had schemes underway in the city's Eastside regeneration zone, that have been significantly altered by the HS2 proposals.

Stuart Andrews is head of planning and a partner at law firm Eversheds. Based in Birmingham and with a national remit. Stuart sets out his thoughts (below) on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) ahead of the government's announcment on the moratorium arrangements for the NPPF, and how he thinks English council's may react within the time period until implementation?

We will apparently learn within the next few weeks that the new compact, faster and more effective planning system will have a momentary pause of a few months to allow local authorities to catch their breath. Some may call for oxygen when they realise what faces them and, no doubt, some will ask for more time. The rumour mill suggest that this will be set before the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is issued and is likely to extend until early autumn.

Whilst the NPPF should be adopted by March, the period of grace will come as small comfort to many local authorities. The fact is that council's throughout England will have to use this moratorium to set about a comprehensive planning policy review - in the absence of regional support; in reliance upon informal cross-boundary arrangements; with limited staff resource; and, the added prospect that DCLG will stop the production of regional statistics.

What will they all do? Well, there are some fairly good indicators. The current response appears to fall into four camps.

The potential sale of DTZ has been grabbing the headlines this week and, understandably, much of the coverage has focused on the future of the company's corporate entity. Less attention has been given to the 11 UK regional offices. So I spoke to a number of key agents around the country for a view on what the future holds for these regional offices and their staff?

In Birmingham, Simon Robinson, director at independent Midlands' agent GBR Phoenix Beard, called the news of the proposed sale "stunning," saying: "I thought there would be a period of dust settling first. I would expect all major players to be looking at all or parts of DTZ. I suspect that for regional companies it's still too early for a serious bid but the coming days and weeks will be interesting. We haven't sat down yet and talked about DTZ staff joining us."

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Ewan Cameron, regional managing partner at Scottish agency Ryden, believes DTZ remains a "very strong outfit" north of the Border. "It is strong, but it has lost some staff particularly in its research and planning teams. However, it still has key people on its transactional side of the business. We're not looking at taking on any parts of the DTZ business. I don't see us buying any additional teams as we haven't the appetite and are of a size and scale where we don't need to at present. I haven't heard of anyone else looking to do this either."

Manchester's David Porter, who heads up the city's Knight Frank office, says: "This sale has not come out of the blue at all. It's not a surprise locally, here on the ground it's been expected for some time. I'm sure DTZ has been looking at a variety of options for a while now. In Manchester, it's a large, well respected business and it is doing well. I'm not sure if we'd approach any of DTZ's staff as there's not much churn in the market at the moment and there hasn't been for some time. People are tending to stay where they are."

EGI carried out its own survey on Wednesday, asking the industry who it thought might buy the business? CBRE was voted the most likely candidate by EGi readers with just less than 30% of the votes, with BNP Paribas Real Estate in second place with 18.4%

What do you think is the most likely outcome for the business? Post your comment below...