The RTPI has recently published the last of a series of five ‘Planning Horizons’ reports to mark its centenary year.  The aim of the series is “to take a long-term and global view of planning and the contribution it can make to challenges in the 21st Century”.  The titles in the series are:
    1. Thinking spatially (June 2014): why places need to be at the heart of policy-making
    2. Future-proofing society (June 2014): responding to climate change and demographic change
    3. Promoting healthy cities (October 2014): recognising how cities influence the health and well-being of their people
    4. Creating economically successful places (November 2014): rising above a narrow development-oriented approach to meet global challenges
    5. Making better decisions for places (November 2014): how governance structures determine the effectiveness of decision-making – public and private.
 
Both transport and land-use planners are increasingly recognising that the effectiveness of what they do in their separate spheres is critically dependent on how well policies and actions are integrated between them.  After a period of dismantling the means of achieving integration between sectors and across wider areas, there are now signs of reviving interest in the issue.  The debate over the regional economic role of High Speed Rail, the interest of LEPs and Combined Authorities in economic and housing issues as well transport, and the failure to tackle an increasingly serious housing problem, all point to the need to join-up decision-making across topics and at a larger geographical scale.  Transport planners, as well as land-use planners, can benefit from the perspectives on offer in this timely series, available free on-line at http://www.rtpi.org.uk/knowledge/research/planning-horizons/.
 
The RTPI have also published a series of Policy Reports over the last year or so, focusing more on current planning policy issues in the UK context (available at http://www.rtpi.org.uk/knowledge/policy/policy-papers/  .  These include ‘Large Scale Housing Development’ (Sept 2013),  ‘Transport Infrastructure Investment’ (Jan 2014), ‘Fostering Growth’ (June 2014) and ‘Strategic Planning’ (December 2014)