At a ceremony on Friday 12th July ONH: Planning for Good was awarded the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Award for Small Planning Consultancy of the Year, South East region.
ONH: Planning for Good is a small social enterprise working across most of England. The team consists of planners, architects and urban designers. ONH’s team has a strong bond with its social mission: to enable community supported, high-quality and sustainable development, engaging successfully with local communities along the way.
Angela Makinson, Chair of Horsford Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, a client of ONH, spoke about the benefit working with ONH in support of their nomination. “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Horsford and whilst there is still some way to go, we could not have arrived at this point without ONH. Their style is collaborative and inclusive.” Angela credits ONH with helping the village in Norfolk to consider using planned development to resolve infrastructure issues in Horsford and praised ONH’s innovative suggestions and technical abilities that made next steps possible for the village.
One of ONH’s key working areas is supporting communities in writing Neighbourhood Plans. Neighbourhood Plans are one of the most successful ways that local communities can engage in plan making for their area. A record 18 plans were made with ONH’s input in 2022-2023, as part of 43 community-led planning projects. ONH also delivered £125k of in-kind support as part of their social enterprise offer. The combined projects also planned for 2,750 new and deliverable homes – substantially more than the 2,350 stalled project homes at Liverpool Central Docks mentioned by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
As regional winners, ONH progress forward for consideration at the RTPI National Awards, with national finalists announced in October.
“ONH are honoured to be recognised as part of the exemplar projects and work in planning across the South East. I work with an excellent team, each bringing their own knowledge, skills and different backgrounds to everyday life in the office and when we work together on projects. In most of our projects we work closely with communities, at the coal face so to speak, and we therefore share the award with them.” Leani Haim, Planning Director at ONH Planning for Good.
“As an architect working with the ONH Planning Team has been a positive experience. ONH’s approach of planning positively for change reaches back to the golden age of planning purpose – creating beneficial impacts for communities. My message is: let’s move away from the confrontational planning rut the country has been in for far too long. Let’s go back to planning with aspiration.” Brendan O’Neill, Director at ONH Planning for Good
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