Our May 2026 Newsletter
May has been a busy month across the industry, with our team attending a number of key events, including UKREiiF, to share insights around the current challenges facing planning, infrastructure and development delivery. Alongside this, we hosted our Northern Spring Drinks & CPD Event in partnership with the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF) as well as our online webinar. Katie Glaze and Grant Vasey explored why sustainability must move beyond traditional RIBA stages and why real building performance depends on evolving use, ownership, and occupant insights. In our May podcasts, we discussed cut and fill strategies and their impact on development delivery, as well as insights into shaping successful, liveable developments through highways and acoustic design. Also in this month’s newsletter, we look back at our latest article, which explored the growing pressures on the development sector and how to reduce delivery risk during geopolitical uncertainty.
Mitigating the Impact of Global Uncertainty
With the development sector facing growing pressures, including energy price volatility, supply chain disruption, and broader geopolitical uncertainty, implementing resilience strategies is more important now than ever.
In our latest article, Mitigating the Impact of Global Uncertainty, we explored the key growing pressures and examined how integrated design, early coordination and proactive value engineering can help protect project viability, reduce delivery risk and support long-term resilience across developments.
May Podcasts by Brookbanks
This month we released two new episodes of the Brookbanks Podcast, covering key topics across development delivery, infrastructure and design coordination.
In episode one, Cut & Fill Strategies in Development Delivery, Ben Wakeling and Toby Crayden explored how early material planning and coordinated earthworks strategies can help reduce project risk, improve programme efficiency and support more sustainable site outcomes in more ways than you may first consider.
For episode two, Melanie A’Lee and Tom Quaife-Jones discussed how transport planning and acoustics work together to shape successful, liveable developments.
They highlighted how movement, access and noise considerations interact across sites, alongside the importance of early coordination between disciplines to reduce planning risk, improve connectivity and support better overall scheme delivery for both developers and occupants.
Catch up on both episodes via our YouTube channel for more insights into planning, engineering, development and infrastructure delivery here.
Webinar: Rethinking Sustainable Buildings
If you were out and about at UKREiiF you may have missed our monthly webinar for May.
During the lunchtime session, Katie Glaze and Grant Vasey explored why sustainability must move beyond traditional RIBA stages and why real building performance depends on evolving use, ownership, and occupant insights.
To understand more about how buildings truly perform over time, and how to design realistically to meet sustainability goals, watch back now.
Industry Events
May has been a busy month across the industry, with key events taking place, including UKREiiF, the Home Builders Federation AGM & Annual Lunch, the Property Week RESI Awards, the BRENDAs, and the IHEEM Wales Regional Conference.
We also hosted our Northern Spring Drinks & CPD Event in partnership with the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF) to bring together industry professionals in Manchester to share insights on the latest changes to planning and utilities and to give an update on the NPPF. A big thank you to our speakers Lee Witts, Mathew Capper, and special guest Jon Suckly of Asteer Planning for hosting such an informative session.
If you met any of our team out and about at events this month, please do connect with them on LinkedIn. They would be happy to connect, either in person or online, to continue the conversation about industry challenges, policy updates, or your projects.
Let’s Have a Catch-up
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter.
We work across the UK and are always happy to connect, either in person or online, to chat about industry challenges, policy updates, or how we can help with a project.
Drop Owen Smith, our Client Relationship Manager, an email and he will happily introduce you to any of our team.
Email: owen.smith@brookbanks.com
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More News
Our July 2026 Newsletter
August 17, 2026
This month, we’ve continued to explore many of the key themes currently influencing the built environment, from sustainable drainage and climate resilience through to structural efficiency, site disposal and long-term project performance. A particular highlight from the past month was the publication of our new report, written in conjunction with the Home Builders Federation (HBF), examining Sustainable Drainage Systems and the opportunities we’ve identified in Wales to support greater consistency, certainty and efficiency ahead of guidance becoming legislation across England. This month, we also shared some exciting leadership news as we continue to grow and evolve following our recent partnership with CBPE. Plus, read on to take a look back at our latest thought leadership article covering development viability, as well as three podcast episodes from the past few weeks.