Borough bridge builder

Planning, 24 April 2009

In a planning career taking in six London boroughs, John East picked up a few lessons about dealing with demands from developers and pitching them to councillors. But now he is looking at projects from the other side of the fence.

Last year, East assumed the role of head of Savills' London planning team. As a former head of planning at Southwark and Brent, he brings his broad experience of the system's operation to the table and sees the skills sets needed in the public and private sectors as complementary.

"After 25 years in local government, the key issue is that you have to have constructive dialogue with members. If you don't have a good relationship with them, you won't get things done," he reflects. "The disciplines are quite similar. It is about understanding developers' needs and being responsive to the concerns of councillors."

East, a devotee of contemporary architecture and a trustee of the Twentieth Century Society, lists working on developments at Tate Modern during his stint at Southwark as one of his public sector career highlights. He also hails the revamp of Wembley Stadium, planned during his time at Brent, as one of his proudest achievements.

"Back in 2000, we set out the development masterplan principles for Wembley. It wasn't easy to pitch a brand new stadium in the middle of a clapped-out industrial estate," he says. "But we worked with the developer Quintain on the area around the stadium and came up with a good strategy, so that was undoubtedly a career high."

On a policy level, East cites his spell at Brent as one of the most challenging but ultimately rewarding times in planning. "Brent in the early 1990s had a dreadful reputation as a 'loony left' council. We were almost given a blank cheque and independence to revamp the system. It was exhilarating to have the ability to change the service."

A hangover from his time in the public service is the use of jargon. East had his fill of it then and now that he is working for the private sector he can afford to be less tolerant of the buzzwords. Prompted by the Local Government Association's recent publication of a list of the 200 worst uses of town hall jargon, East rails against continued mangling of the language.

"I had a look through the phrases the association suggests should be banned. There are so many. When I was in the public sector they used to bring me out in a cold sweat," he recalls. "I always thought that acronyms such as LAA for local area agreement and CAA for comprehensive area assessment were totally incomprehensible to the public."

Some of the choicer phrases that cause East to shudder include citizen empowerment, cohesiveness, coterminosity - which means having common principles - embedded, holistic governance, mainstreaming, pathfinder, potentialities, subsidiarity, tested for soundness and well-being. "Sadly, I have cleared reports in the past that have contained all of the above," he admits.

His only consolation is that the use of acronyms and complicated words seems to have a wider grip on economic development reports and anything coming out of corporate policy units or chief executives' offices. "Possibly the best, though, is 'process-driven'. Shouldn't everything be process-driven?"

East also questions the target culture in the current planning system. "I think that it is counterproductive. You often get to a stage where local authorities have eight to 13 weeks to process an application. Then after seven weeks they tell us that without significant changes they will refuse it or we should withdraw it. Targets are good to an extent, but a bigger push is needed to improve services," he insists.

As to the impact of the credit crunch, the predominantly high-end market in which Savills operates means that the practice is more insulated than most. "In central London, our workload is still high and is holding up well. We are seeing clients take a longer-term view on looking to progress schemes," he reports.

"But the nature of Savills is that we get a lot of bespoke projects in areas such as Kensington and Chelsea," he admits. "We are not complacent at all, far from it, but I think that our reputation means that clients will still continue to come to us." For the RTPI's Planning Consultancy of the Year, the future still looks bright even in these trying economic times.

CV

Age: 48

Family: Separated, with two children

Education: Degree in town and country planning, Newcastle University

Interests: Architecture, photography, modern art, cricket, cycling

2008: Head of central London planning team, Savills

2004: Head of planning and transport, London Borough of Southwark

2001: Assistant director of environment, planning and review, London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames

1999: Secondment, Audit Commission

1993: Director of planning and head of area planning, London Borough of Brent

1992: Head of development control, London Borough of Haringey

1987: Principal planning officer, London Borough of Southwark

1983: Planning assistant, London Borough of Camden