Dr Jason Slade and Professor Malcolm Tait have been awarded the 2025 Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Patsy Healey Award for Academic Excellence.
The award was received at the 2025 RTPI Awards for Excellence ceremony for their book ‘The Future for Planners’, which was written alongside colleagues from UCL, and recognised as the best piece of published research in planning this year.
Dr Slade is a lecturer in Planning and Professor Tait, a Planning Professor in the School of Geography and Planning.
The book emerged from the ESRC 'Working in the Public Interest' project and provides an account of contemporary planning practice in the UK. In particular, it seeks to understand how neoliberal shifts in planning and governance, including greater commercialisation and privatisation, are shaping professional practice.
Head of the School of Geography and Planning Professor Stephen Livingstone said: "Congratulations to Jason and Malcolm on winning the prestigious Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Patsy Healey Award for Academic Excellence 2025 for their book 'The Future for Planners'. This is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates how their research in the School of Geography and Planning is contributing to wider policy and practice in planning."
Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning Dr Michael Martin was also a finalist for the award, nominated for his book ‘Applied Urban Design’, co-authored with Dr Philip Black from the University of Manchester.
Now in their eleventh year, the RTPI Awards for Excellence recognise high quality and impactful spatial planning research. The 2025 award ceremony was held at the Harbour Commissioners Office in Belfast, with awards presented by RTPI President Helen Fadipe.
Find out more on the RTPI website here.