Rapleys grows planning team in Manchester with Partner hires

Strategic property consultancy Rapleys has added two new Partners to its Planning Division, based in Manchester.

Bernard Greep joins as Equity Partner and Michael Gilbert joins as Partner, both from Stantec.

Rapleys 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.

Bernard has circa 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. Bernard is also an expert witness and was the head of Stantec’s Manchester office, having previously been a co-owner of Peter Brett Associates LLP.

Michael 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. Michael also focuses on successfully 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.

Bernard and Michael will bolster Rapleys’ existing Planning team in the Manchester office, which also includes Commercial and Building Consultancy services covering the wider North West region, whilst linking into the national divisions.

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. We are proud that experts such as Bernard and Michael are attracted by our flexible working culture and innovative People Plan which has seen us become an employer of choice within the industry and accredited with Investors in People at the same time.”

Bernard 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.”

Rapleys has acquired five businesses in the last three years including South West planning consultancy CSJ, commercial business Aston Rose, residential consultancy s106 Affordable Housing, building consultancy and project management specialists BlueBrick Consulting, and office experts Mellersh & Harding alongside its most recent acquisition of the retail agency and investment team from Avison Young.

The strategic property consultancy has seen its revenue grow by 40% over this period of time and is continuing to recruit expertise and acquire businesses that fit the people and client focused partnership across the UK and all services.