Ellie Philcox, Director, Euan Kellie, on being aspirational, building affordable & overcoming planning predicaments.

Ellie Philcox is a director at boutique planning consultancy, Euan Kellie.

A guest at our recent roundtable on Manchester’s Residential Mix, we were struck by Ellie’s refreshing views on the property sector, stemming from almost two decades in practice.

Though Ellie acknowledges that the development sector currently faces many challenges – from rising interest rates to material affordability and increased costs for planning applications – not to mention the current local authority resource challenges – she believes a governmental refresh, on top of the strong, unwavering confidence and vision held by Manchester and Salford’s City Councils, is providing much-needed clarity to spur the regions’ even further forward.

Picking up the conversation where we left off last month, we sat down with Ellie to discuss some of the consultancy’s upcoming projects with clients including Salboy, Domis, and Kellen Homes, while considering what makes Manchester City Centre thrive; how a region’s balanced property mix requires both affordable and aspirational options to be successful; and the viability of there being spaces for everyone. Here’s how our conversation went…

Tell us about Euan Kellie

“We are a boutique town planning consultancy based in Manchester City Centre. There are six of us and we’re all senior professionals coming from a range of backgrounds. Euan and Kelly are the business owners, and I have worked closely with them since 2005 when we all worked at Drivers Jonas, which subsequently merged with Deloitte to become its real estate segment. We’re all used to working within Manchester and Salford on large projects.

“There are also members of the team with public sector experience. So amongst us, we bring a huge depth of knowledge from working on a range of projects. For our size we definitely punch above our weight. And our clients work with us for our obvious passion – we get stuff done, we’re responsive – when they pick up the phone to us, they can speak directly to the person they’ve dealt with throughout. We have no huge desire to grow but work closely with other consultancies. We realise we are just one part of a much larger machine.

“I’ve been at Euan Kellie for 8-years now and was at Deloitte for 11. Working within a large multidisciplinary team provided great experience, but it’s also good to see a more entrepreneurial approach taken with smaller businesses working together. We have a really nice network of consultants.”

Who typically is your client?

“In terms of project and client type, we range from doing city centre, large-scale urban regeneration schemes for developers such as Salboy, Domis, Property Alliance Group and The Hut Group to small to medium regeneration-led projects, often with a residential focus, we do a lot of work for registered housing providers delivering affordable housing, whether part of a 100% affordable scheme, or a portion of a scheme. Clients as part of this would be Kellen Homes, Great Places, One Manchester, Step Places and Southway Housing Trust. What really drives me personally is being able to contribute towards the delivery of affordable housing within the city .

“A project which outlines perfectly the type of scheme we love to be part of is the Castle Irwell scheme in Salford, the old Salford University student residential site. We supported the University in developing a market facing planning strategy for disposal of this site, and Salboy – another client of ours - bought it. It’s fantastic as it’s created a whole new part of the city.

“You don’t get that many sites that are able to deliver c. 400 new family homes in such a great location, so we love working on this kind of project.”

Is there still enough space in Manchester City Centre?

“In the city centre there’s certainly less than there was, reflecting back to when I started my career. But there are sites where things still need to happen. It often comes down to land ownership, and there are various associated challenges there. Some sites, perhaps pocket sites, do come around time and time again because it’s difficult to make them work. Though it shows the strength of the City Council in that they have a clear vision and strategy for how the city is going to come forward. And the majority of it is covered by Strategic Regeneration Frameworks, and that dictates plans to a certain extent as it outlines what’s acceptable in terms of height.

"So a client can come along and say ‘my building doesn’t work at 6-storeys, can I have 8 or 10?’ and this might not be what the city is looking for. From a developer perspective a couple of extra storeys might not seem to matter, but it’s about seeing the bigger picture of how specific areas of the city are envisaged to come forward - our role is trying to marry the two to unlock the tricky sites.

“Generally, development isn’t getting any easier – projects are stop start and there’s the cost of materials, interest rates, plus all the new technical requirements coming in such as Biodiversity Net Gain, the new Building Safety Act, planning takes longer – a client may own a site and can’t do anything with it, application fees have gone up – it’s difficult to bring projects forward and make them work. I think there can sometimes be a perception that developers make lots of money, but there can often be misconception about the amount of profit gained versus the amount of risk involved.”

Do you think the strength of vision shown by Manchester City Council is leading it to thrive?

“The leadership of Manchester is unrivalled. And its vision is paired with it being a welcoming place to live for people not from the city. I’m a part of that. As are Euan and Kelly. We consider ourselves honorary Mancunians. The city also benefits from great universities, and the retention rate is high – it attracts people who want to be a ‘part of it’ – with international attraction too. All the R&D happening on the Oxford Road corridor is huge, there are amazing job opportunities, and it’s become such a good alternative to London.

“With this in mind, the council has confidence in developing different types of housing. We touched on this in the recent roundtable, but co living, for example, which is an established part of the market in the US, is aspirational, I think, and in Manchester it’s about creating accommodation that supports the attraction of talent. It’s also helping to alleviate the housing crisis by creating the right mix; guiding people to the most appropriate accommodation.

“In addition to Manchester being aspirational, I think Salford is also on that train as well. They too have very strong leadership within the authority – they’re open for business.”

You have travelled a lot – which other cities have got it right?

“I always think about whether a city I visit is somewhere I’d like to live, and I love Buenos Aires – it’s so vibrant. The thing I like about big cities is when there are distinguished areas or quarters with defined characters and roles, and this also applies to Manchester. It helps visitors to understand it and know what’s going on in each part.

“I also loved Seoul – this is the same in terms of defined areas. Their bold, modern architecture is also amazing. Though some of their buildings would have been value engineered out if it were in the UK!”

What do you think about the new government’s housing plans?

“So far, so good. Housing targets have been announced as being reintroduced after disappearing from the Planning Policy Framework in December last year. This is great because we’re still in a national housing crisis so the delivery of housing of all types needs to be done as a priority.

“Having a policy hook – and clarity – is helpful. In Greater Manchester and Salford, housing supply is always overdelivered, so it won’t make a great deal of difference in those areas, but in other authorities – Trafford, for example, where housing is undelivered, the targets give weight to developers.”

Other than targets, then, what do developers want to hear from the government?

“I guess it’s certainty. We’ve been in a period of policy limbo for so long. There are other challenges – but that favour for development is perhaps enough for now. We’re expecting amends to NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) imminently, and that’s the quickest mechanism for some change to be brought in, as it sets the policy at national level and can filter through.

“There’s also the new towns initiative, which, in theory, is great, but we’d need to see some detail behind that. Things take a long time. But reflecting on the previous new towns initiative, with the likes of Milton Keynes, for example – what a success. Tied with it needs to be certainty around infrastructure and investment. There’s also the nuts and bolts of getting planning permission.”

We’re also facing an environmental crisis - do you get a sense that the government will be more strict on developers with this in mind?

“Yes, they’ve said this is the intention, but we’ve not seen any detail yet. The devil will be in the detail.

“In Greater Manchester, we’ve got Places for Everyone, and that’s provided certainty to developers on the release of greenbelt, for example. We have a lot to look forward to. At local level, we’re also two-years clear of local elections, so in terms of decision making it’s a great time to get a planning application in.”

What are your planning bugbears?

“Local authorities being under resourced. I have a huge amount of respect for local planning officers, it’s a really difficult and skilled job. They have to manage various demands from the public, the council, and politically, with a challenging case load, and there’s a lot of pressure on them to deliver. The new government was talking about appointing 300 new officers, but if you break it down it’s not even one new officer per authority. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s a step.”

What are the current planning timescales in Manchester?

“A statutory period for a development in Manchester or Salford currently is around 13-weeks, so if time is of the essence, we encourage clients to enter into a Planning Performance Agreement with the local authority to agree a fixed timetable and have a dedicated officer.

“Timing has an impact on lots of things. If the client owns the site, they are losing money every day that they’re not able to do something with it. The site might also be reliant on funding, and the agreement is work starts on site within a certain timeframe, so that can have an impact on planning delivery.”

If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for?

“Delivering the right housing mix – especially those who need the appropriate supported housing – the more vulnerable sector of society. Having a roof over your head is the very starting point of being safe. In planning, more power should be given to planning officers to make decisions on intermediate accommodation or shelters, I think.”