Mark Brearley and Euan Mills ask - What are London's strategic planning objectives? Why does the mayor get involved with individual planning applications? Why should we get involved in strategic policy? Who will drive future planning practice?

Mark Brearley is Professor of Urbanism at The Cass at Aldgate (London Metropolitan University) where he leads the Cass Cities initiative. He is an advisor to the governments of Brussels and Flanders on development that welcomes diverse enterprise, and is currently Ateliermeester for the programme Atelier Brussels, The Productive Metropolis. Until 2013 he worked for the Mayor of London as Head of Design for London at the Greater London Authority. He is also proprietor of long established London tray and trolley manufacturer Kaymet, and is spokesman for business association Vital OKR, which he helped to establish. 

Euan Mills is the Urban Futures Lead at the Future Cities Catapult. He has 16 years' experience working in the built environment industry, including 6 years providing design advice to the Mayor of London and his planning team, contributing towards a number of key planning policy and research documents and negotiating major development proposals on behalf of the Mayor. Prior to this he worked as an urban designer at Urban Initiatives, developing masterplans and regeneration strategies for public and private sector clients and set up the Chatsworth Road Neighbourhood Forum and Traders and Residents Association. He is visiting lecturer at a number of universities and has written a number of articles on the impact of new technology on cities.