Rapleys adds two senior Manchester planners
Both arriving from Stantec, Bernard Greep joins the firm’s planning division as equity partner and Michael Gilbert as partner.
Rapleys said it has been on a strategic growth initiative for the last three years and, since the beginning of 2025 alone, has hired six other new partners and opened a new office in Cardiff, while acquiring five businesses.
Greep has 27 years’ experience and acts for national and local housebuilders, developers, land promoters, landowners/investors and public sector organisations.
He has a strong track record in achieving allocations and planning permissions for residential, retail and mixed-use schemes across the UK, producing masterplans and implementation plans, providing policy advice and developing site assessment methodologies.
He is also an expert witness and was the head of Stantec’s Manchester office, having previously been a co-owner of Peter Brett Associates.
Gilbert has 18 years’ experience of town planning and acts for a range of private and public sector clients, including national and local housebuilders, strategic land development companies, private landowners, operators and commercial investors.
He also focuses on promoting sites through the development plan process and securing planning permission for a wide range of residential, supported living, retail and mixed-use schemes across the UK. Gilbert also worked at PBA before the business was bought by Stantec.
Both will bolster Rapleys’ existing planning team in the Manchester office, which also includes commercial and building consultancy services across the North West.
Robert Clarke, senior partner and head of the planning division at Rapleys, said: “Rapleys has gone from strength to strength since our repositioning in 2022. Each acquisition and recruit has been carefully selected to fit the culture of our business which is people-led and best-in-class in the areas and services we choose to focus on.
“Bernard and Michael are excellent examples of this strategy, bringing with them decades of first-class experience and knowledge to our national planning division and our Manchester-based team. Welcoming them into the team will help us in our continuing aspiration to build our strength within the Greater Manchester area as well as supporting the growth of the planning division across other areas of the country.”
Greep added: “Rapleys is one of the leading planning consultancies nationally in the UK, whilst also being multi-disciplinary. This provides a compelling business model with plenty of work to share across all disciplines. Furthermore, its agility as a partnership and focus on further growth – of the right kind – is hugely attractive.
“We have known the Rapleys Manchester planning team for some time and look forward to working with them to build market share in the region, as well as nationally and across disciplines, and to leverage our shared client network and expertise.”
Firms acquired by Rapleys include South West planning consultancy CSJ, commercial business Aston Rose, residential consultancy s106 Affordable Housing, building consultancy and project manager BlueBrick Consulting, and office expert Mellersh & Harding.
The business has also recently swooped for a six-strong retail agency and investment team from Avison Young.
