Lord Matthew Taylor has advised successive governments on planning and housing policy. In 2006-8 he conducted the Government’s rural planning review “Living Working Countryside’, which laid the foundations for the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework and introduced Neighbourhood Planning.

In 2011-12 he led the Government review of all the planning practice guidance sitting behind the NPPF, creating the whole of the National Planning Practice Guidance suite leading the DCLG planning team in all of the new guidance development. In 2015 he developed his ‘Garden Village’ proposal, published by Policy Exchange and adopted as national policy at the March 2016 Budget, and rolled out as the Garden Village and Garden towns Programme. He continues to advise and work alongside Government, Homes England and many local authorities, but is primarily focused on supporting the private sector in developing compelling and successful new community proposals through his own consultancy business. He chairs the strategic partnership delivering the Carclaze Garden Village in Cornwall, and is retained to advise a variety of significant new Garden Community and major urban regeneration projects across England, as part of the multidisciplinary core teams involved in master-planning, promotion, and key stakeholder engagement. He also chairs Kensa Group, the UK market leader in Ground Sourced Heat Pumps, which recently received significant investment by L&G. Former chair of the National Housing Federation and President of the National Association of Local Councils, Matthew is an Honorary Member of the RTPI, Visiting Professor of Planning at Plymouth University, and Senior Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University’s School of Planning.

Lord Taylor works with Jo Cowen Architects on all our masterplanning team, providing strategic design advice.