About Ferio Planning

Ferio Planning Ltd was established in 2023 by Lotte Hirst, a Chartered Town Planner with over 10 years’ experience in private practice. Lotte spent 6 years working as the Planning Director for Jaspar Group, a residential/ commercial investment and development company. Under Lotte’s leadership, the team were responsible for securing planning permission for hundreds of new homes and commercial projects from high-end houses to 70 flat schemes. Lotte was responsible for advising on acquisitions; development strategy; developing schemes alongside architects; coordinating teams of specialist consultants; preparing, submitting and negotiating applications; engaging with communities and stakeholders; advising on viability and CIL matters; dealing with post-consent issues such as enforcement or planning conditions and the occasional legal challenge; negotiating favorable S106 agreements; and all things planning (and sometimes non-planning!) in-between. This role gave Lotte insight into the challenges that developers face - from site finding to funding - which throws into sharp focus the need to have an effective development strategy, making the planning process as painless as possible.

Prior to Jaspar Group, Lotte worked at the London office of multinational planning consultancy RPS CgMs, working on a high volume of projects for national student accommodation providers, retailers and housebuilders. Lotte’s career began at a Surrey-based planning consultant, Planit Consulting, led by Janet Long MRTPI. Under Janet’s sound guidance, Lotte gained early exposure to fantastic projects, including extensive work with the film industry, exceptional dwellings under NPPF paragraph 84 (then paragraph 55) and planning inquiries.

Lotte’s experience working in-house at a developer has enabled her to offer so much more than the typical planning consultant project management role. Lotte is motivated by problem-solving, thinking differently and maximising the potential of a site through good design, whilst creating a positive legacy.

Lotte and the team are supported by a network of excellent chartered planners and have industry contacts with a range of specialist consultants and lawyers, including in viability, ecology, architecture, acoustics, highways, heritage, daylight/sunlight, PR and sustainability. Input from these trusted specialists helps the team to balance the competing facets of development projects.

We work on projects across London and the South East, including in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Kent, Essex and beyond, and will work in any location nationally.