Adam is a development management specialist and professional town planner (MRTPI) with over 20 years’ experience in both the public sector and academia. He is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Birmingham.

Adam joined academia after working in local government as a development management officer; dealing with a diversity of development proposals, he gained experience in both urban and rural contexts working on a diversity of planning applications across the planning spectrum, from Green Belt areas and open countryside to inner city redevelopment projects. Adam continues to emphasise applied planning practice within his teaching and research and embraces partnership with industry within his work.

Adam now lectures and researches in planning regulation/systems, placemaking, urban place and social change, urban design, regeneration, development management, enforcement, planning implementation, decision making/policy interpretation, and history. He is particularly focused upon the planning decision making and implementation space.

He is an experienced researcher, leading and working on a diversity of small-scale research projects for clients ranging from community groups, Arts Council England, Public Health England, RTPI, RTPI Enforcement Network, WECA, LGA/PAS, and the Welsh and Dutch Governments. Recently Adam was part of the academic team who delivered a project exploring improving post-planning processes to deliver better places for the West of England Combined Authority (winner of the 2021 RTPI Sir Peter Hall Award for Research Excellence). He also recently investigated the implications of the Use Classes Order in England from a regulatory, spatial, social, economic, and environmental perspective with regards the AirBnB phenomena within Bristol. Adam’s most recent research work includes a project for LGA/PAS in partnership with LUC reviewing best practice and guidance in the use of Planning Performance Agreements and pre-application enquiries, two projects for Arts Council England exploring arts and culture based regeneration (one in partnership with Gloucester City Council, Reef, and Kier development), a project concerned with biodiversity net gain working with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and a study considering the opportunities and challenges of urban rewilding.

Adam is an External Examiner at Anglia Ruskin University, has undertaken programme review exercises for Birmingham City University, University of Dundee, and the University of Ulster, and is a Member of the RTPI, RGS, and HEA. Adam is also a member of the Regional Activities Committee for the RTPI South West.