I imagine "hope in the heart" of every planner and urban designer following a place-focused speech from Burnham: lnkd.in/p/eU3f98wi

Can’t tell if I am saddened or relieved that I don’t have time to write a blog post linking Tuchel’s strategic “kit of parts” approach to the England team to planning and design in the UK

Is anyone else’s LinkedIn starting to give…Facebook energy? I don’t want to come over all Jacob Rees Mog but there’s…not as much work stuff on there anymore

Worth a read

I’d say I agree with about 85% of this institute.global/insights/pol...

Great first day at UKREiiF - enjoyed speaking with London’s Deputy Mayor for Housing, Tom Copley, and COO of Berkeley Group, Piers Clanford, about the challenges and opportunities of regeneration in London, and joining The Land Trust’s discussion on how to make New Towns feel like home.

I exchanged a runners nod with Andy Burnham on the Manchester canal when I was training for the Manchester 10k, so can confirm he has been running at least 1 other time in the last 5 years. My DMs are open for what I assume will be a significant volume of media enquiries

I keep misreading ”Al Carns“ (lowercase l) for “AI Carns” (uppercase I) I personally can’t wait to start using it alongside Chat GPT, Claude Sonnet, Notebook LM etc What will you use Al Carns for?

The dual ambition to increase delivery and improve quality sits at the heart of most conversations I'm having across policy right now, so I'm pleased to have put together this panel next week. I'm very grateful to Joanna, Andrew and Michelle for being involved.

“key decisions, which may seem sound in isolation, are rarely joined up in the way that we really need” is a sentence that applies across all sorts of contexts and sectors. I’m just completing a project on stewardship that deals with this, and about to embark on another with a broader remit

New painting - “Unknown”. Trying to portray comfort in ambiguity, the unknown as somewhere to gently stay for a while www.instagram.com/p/DX8lIfhiOP...

This was excellent www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

"Sludge in the system" captures housing delivery challenges - but sludge is not evenly distributed. Short article on where issues cluster, prioritisation and reform without destabilisation. open.substack.com/pub/vickypay...

On BNG announcements, clarity, and sector as ecosystem www.linkedin.com/posts/vicky-...

Day? 2026?! Come on man isn't this all just a series of continuously evolving states? Don't box me in like that share.google/DbXbZ5ph5ccH...

New piece: neighbourhoods and policy systems degrade in the same way - what might it look like to design for entropy? open.substack.com/pub/vickypay...

Wonderful when a line of curiosity springs up and there is a podcast already in the ether on that very topic. Do you too want to know the conceptual, political, cultural and financial history of the channel tunnel?! Well- here you go: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

My audio companions on the train to Wales:

Brief reflections on Q1 A lot of this quarter has been about joining the dots between different policy areas (water, nature, design, planning, stewardship) and engaging with the interplay of quality and delivery. Some highlights:

A lot from this can be applied to improving the planning and development system as a whole, bringing forward specific policy initiatives and to long term development sites podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

Thoughts on New Towns, National Housing Bank, design quality and delivery www.linkedin.com/posts/vicky-...

Emerging into a perfect early spring evening after shortlisting for the Housing Design Awards. Design = more essential than ever as a route to the best possible outcomes in a constrained delivery context. Excited to see some great northern schemes giving hope for addressing UK design inequality.

Isaac Julien at Victoria Miro Beauty, complexity, layered imagery all held in the darkness and enclosure of the room and soundscape. Tone of hopeful wisdom, like receiving a prophecy. Enough narrative to give form, enough ambiguity to feel potent www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/...

First substack on Citrini, unstable systems and a return to superstition vickypaynewrites.substack.com/p/the-age-of...

www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic super interesting in many ways but primarily on the idea of “non cyclical cycles”, broken feedback loops and an absence of systemic self correction.

Lunchtime listen 🎧 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

I’ve been painting more this year. It seems to need the same interplay of something + nothing that I recognise from strategic work. Something = attention, planning, discussion, analysis, research. Nothing = deliberate inattention, void, stepping away, moving the body, letting the mind wander.

“an exploratory evening…that will examine the complex notion of 'self. Discover links between faith, beauty and expression; experiment creatively with self-portraiture; and experience the connective power of music” www.instagram.com/p/DTQXE6KjvE... @britishacademy.bsky.social

Currently free on Audible 😍 This and “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius are very accessible and appealing to my millennial ear, being presented essentially as listicles and concise inspirational quotes

Our conciousness depends on embodiment, feelings, friction with nature and relational contact with other people podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

🆕What happens when planning rules are clearer and more predictable? Our latest briefing examines Croydon’s Suburban Design Guide and its impact on small-site housing delivery. 👇 buff.ly/vLNo0r9

I've learned everything I can about this chart and what it means for planning for more houses in cities. The report is out tomorrow! You can watch me talk about the chart and more at the launch event tomorrow, 2pm. Sign up here: www.centreforcities.org/event/what-b...

A politically provocative title, but actually concise summary of stats around constrained supply, depleted demand and affordability issues: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/r...

The publication of the new Design and Placemaking PPG lands in a system that is simultaneously being asked to go faster and do better. Thinking in terms of system improvement rather than trade-offs, how does it sit within the wider policy picture? www.linkedin.com/pulse/design...

Entries for the 2026 Housing Design Awards are now open! I am pleased to join the ranks of the many excellent judges this year on behalf of Future Homes Hub Submit your entry by 6th March: hdawards.org

Reflections from last night's Planning Future New Year's Reception www.linkedin.com/pulse/system...

New blog post, The A In Section 106A simonicity.com/2026/01/25/t...

Home ownership is slipping further out of reach for millions of people in England. We’ve just published Broken Ladder: The Affordability Gap, which shows how rising costs and tighter lending are preventing first-time buyers from turning demand into home ownership. 🧵👇

👌🏻 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/r...

The new Design and Placemaking PPG is out - great to see, and prompting a wave of nostalgia for the pandemic labour of love that was working on the National Model Design Code 🥲 www.gov.uk/government/c...

As I come up to six months as Head of Place and Nature at Future Homes Hub, I’ve been reflecting again on a recurring theme in my work: what it actually takes to deliver “better places” in practice, not just in principle.

When the Manchester Guardian calls, the people of the North heed the call. And if those people are me, we inject Manchester Liberalism, even from across the Pennines, right back in to the paper of Northern record. Get your fill. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In 2025 I hosted a series of one-off mentoring calls for International Women's Day. I'd like to do a similar, more experimental, series in Spring 2026 blending my art practice + strategic thinking. Any left-field ideas for how we could use a 1hr call slot in that vein - let's hear them!

At the Future Homes Hub, we’ll be supporting the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to explore how we can both reduce the complexity of the adoption process and ensure more consistent standards. Looking forward to getting stuck into this: www.linkedin.com/posts/vicky-...

The @lichfieldsuk.bsky.social analysis of the Government’s proposed policy for unlocking growth around rail stations hits @thetimes.com in this piece by Emma Duncan: www.thetimes.com/article/dd1c... (£) Original blog including more details of the analysis is here: lichfields.uk/blog/2025/de...

Brief overview of Matthew Pennycook's statement today on the NPPF and support for small/medium developers: www.linkedin.com/posts/vicky-...

Yes 😍 connectivity-tool-lite.dft.gov.uk/app#6/51.196...