Interesting advertisement in a recent Midweek Herald. Estate agent Greenslade Taylor Hunt is seeking assist in to influencing the draft East Devon Villages Plan by persuading landowners in turn to “to influence planning policy in the villages of East Devon”.

And if landowners don’t want to ‘influence’ planning by turning land into housing estates themselves, GTH will facilitate interaction with a house builder to help to get planning permission.

Seems that it is no longer enough to be an estate agent you have to be a “land and planning specialist” too.

And begs the question: what if an estate agent (or land and planning agent) is assisting with selling a house that he or she knows is next to a possible development site being handled by the same firm? Will they declare an interest?