Michael Gallagher

Director of Planning, Transport and Housing, North West Regional Assembly

Wide planning policy experience during his formative years in local government has been hugely beneficial for Newcastle University planning graduate Michael Gallagher in his role as director of planning, transport and housing at the North West Regional Assembly.

Initially keen to work for the Ordnance Survey, Gallagher was talked into planning by friends in the profession. Preparing regeneration initiatives, local plans, housing land studies, IT strategies, population surveys and leaflets explaining the planning process are just some of the tasks he has turned his hand to in a 20-year career that started  with councils in the North East.

This autumn Gallagher is playing a crucial role as the assembly's lead presenter at a public hearing into the assembly's draft strategy. He is well equipped to grapple with the key issues facing the North West, especially the link with housing. "In the past there have been divisions between housing professionals and planners, whereas in reality the issues and solutions they work towards are the same," he says.

Local government policy teams are often where the buck stops and that accounts for the variety, he reflects.  "If you don't know what to do with something, you send it to planning. If you don't know what to do with it in the planning department, you send it to forward planning. So you get a variety of stuff and you learn the ropes on a lot of different things."