News

Meaningful engagement with communities will be crucial to the successful creation of new towns - part of the Government’s ambitious target to build 1.5million homes by the end of this Parliament.

So says Lord Gascoigne, Chair of the House of Lords Built Environment Committee, guest on the latest episode of KOR Communications’ Estate Matters podcast.

KOR Communications, based in Exeter for almost twenty years, is proud to be among supporters of the first major building project at Exeter Cathedral for 500 years. 

Businesses based on land and property ownership were among the losers in the Chancellor’s Budget this week (November 26) with a rise in the tax on income earned from property among the biggest blows for landowners. 

In this episode of Estate Matters nothing is off-limits as James Lowsley-Williams, a former professional cyclist, discusses inheriting the Chavenage Estate, documenting everything on his YouTube channel, welcoming film crews for Poldark, and managing family expectations in a multi-generational business.

International Project Management Day, on November 6 2025, is a celebration of the economic and social value of projects and the people who deliver them. KOR Communications provides support for rural and urban schemes, helping landowners and managers get projects, from new housing to renewable energy developments, over the line.

Rebekah Pierce is a farmer and solar grazier in New York state. In this episode, she explains how she got into farming by ‘accident’, but is now paving the way with ‘Agri Energy’ through solar grazing.

Eliza is the owner and managing trustee of the St Clere Estate near Sevenoaks in Kent and the Executive Chair of Trustees of the Chevening Estate, the official country residence of the Foreign Secretary.

Members of the CLA had an opportunity to hear her speak at the Devon AGM in September, hosted by Geoff and Zoe Sayers at Carswell Farm, Holbeton in South Devon

Jake Fiennes, one of Britain’s most high profile and in-demand conservationists, tells the latest edition of KOR Communications’ Estate Matters podcast that the UK needs a natural capital ‘Domesday Book’ to accurately measure the nation’s flora and fauna.

Donald Trump’s views on renewable energy and his support for the continued use of fossil fuels are well-known. 

But expressing those highly negative views in Scotland, which hosts a significant number of wind turbines generating electricity for the UK, has added new impetus to the debate on the visual impact and effectiveness of wind power and renewables more generally.

Dealing effectively with trespassers can be a major problem for landowners who are often not equipped, practically or emotionally, with the skills to protect their property from unwanted visitors.

But a specialist business, staffed almost entirely by former police officers, is providing a service to those vulnerable to incursion, from sports pitch owners to car park operators, and caravan parks to rural estates.

Labour marked its first year in office on July 4th against a background of rebellious backbench MPs, a weeping Chancellor of the Exchequer and some of the lowest poll ratings for Sir Keir Starmer ever recorded for a Prime Minister.

When he’s working on a project, landscape architect Kim Wilkie is very happy if his proposals for change leave local people feeling a little bit uncomfortable.

He tells the latest episode of the Estate Matters podcast: “Unless people are slightly upset with what you’re proposing, you’re probably not taking things far enough.”

Landowners and farmers can help to improve the public’s understanding and appreciation of the countryside if they provide opportunities for people to engage with nature.

So says writer and columnist Patrick Galbraith, author of the book Uncommon Ground, which tackles the relationships people in Britain have with the countryside and how we can improve it.

Dubbed as the ‘Glastonbury of the built environment’ the UK Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) hosted 16,000 delegates in Leeds last week – including KOR’s Senior Public Affairs Consultant, Grace Gladding.

CLA Vice President Joe Evans, with his wife Keeley, could have created a wonderful life away from the Evans’ family estate; until a visit changed their course.

In the latest episode of Estate Matters, they sit down with podcast host Anna Byles to share how they’ve navigated estate legacy.

It is essential that landowners and developers, with a vital part to play in meeting those challenges, build and maintain good relationships with all stakeholders, including local authorities and their elected members. 

Pursuing a career in medicine, Dr Johnny Wake says he never imagined being anything other than a doctor. In the latest episode of Estate Matters, podcast host Anna Byles talks to Johnny about the success of a people-focused approach to estate management.

For landowners, the proposed Land Use Framework offers both a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge because it may impose restrictions on how Estates and farmers can manage their land.

Good communication with neighbours and stakeholders is essential for the sound management of a rural estate, Sir William Worsley tells the latest episode of the Estate Matters podcast.

Large parts of rural Britain are feeling deeply unloved by the Government after the publication of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill promised a cut in the value of compulsorily purchased development land and the Sustainable Farming Incentive was summarily scrapped.

The perennial concern of landowners across the country is that so much of the good work they do goes unrecognised - but if they undertake a project considered in the least bit controversial complaints come flying in.

History will judge landed estates that press ahead with ambitious renewable energy projects kindly, Blenheim Palace managing director Roy Cox tells the latest episode of KOR Communications’ Estate Matters podcast.

There has been a flurry of announcements from the Government since its July election victory on the subject of solving the housing crisis.

The Government’s revised planning policies offer opportunities for landowners and developers to create more homes more quickly – without compromising on the provision of essential infrastructure or abandoning high quality design.

Handing over control of the Escrick Park Estate in Yorkshire to his son, Beilby, was “quite a challenge,” Charlie Forbes Adam admits in the latest Estate Matters podcast from KOR Communications.

How do organisations and individuals communicate with neighbours, stakeholders and the wider public in a media environment that is fast-changing and, in many cases, fracturing?