Remembering Professor Tony Crook

Tony used his wealth of policy knowledge forged from more than four decades in the sector to elevate CIC’s voice in housing and planning matters as the Chair of CIC’s Housing and Planning Panel. As planning and housing rose up the agenda during the last government and in the new administration, Tony ensured that the panel, which he began chairing in 2018, worked in an extremely agile way and could react to the plethora of consultations on proposed policy changes. He would convene meetings of panel members to develop CIC’s response– usually held after a habitual constitutional morning jog in his much loved Peak District, his family home for many years. He also represented CIC on the Construction Leadership Council’s housing and planning sub-group and would regularly take the lead on government policy responses, skilfully coalescing a range of views from across the industry into an effective and unified stance. House building was in his blood, he was the son of a small family builder, as he would often tell his colleagues on the housing panel.

Tony had a sharp analytical approach to dissecting policy announcements forged through decades of conducting hugely important research at the University of Sheffield.

At the time of his passing, he was Emeritus Professor of Town & Regional Planning at Sheffield University. He was its former Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor between 1999 and 2008 where he took a wider role, and was responsible for academic planning, HR and capital projects. Before that he was Head of Town & Regional Planning (the department's former name) and also the Head of the Department of Landscape.

Tony’s research focused on the supply side of the private rented housing sector and the use of the planning obligations to secure affordable housing, infrastructure and capture land value. His work has appeared in 250 publications, including books, research reports and journal articles and he won numerous prestigious awards.

Tony was very active in the world of policy and practice and as well as being Chair of CIC’s Housing he was also member of the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Trustee Board and Chair of its Education and Life Long Learning Committee.

Additional posts he held over the years included board membership of the Architects Registration Board and council member of the Academy of Social Sciences; Chair of The Conservation Volunteers (one of UK’s major green charities); Deputy Chair of the Orbit Housing Group (one of the UK's largest not for profit provider of affordable homes); director of Orbit Homes; member of the Board of Trustees of Shelter (the national housing and homelessness charity); independent Chair of the review of governance of Rotherham council (appointed by the Commissioners on behalf of the Secretary of State); and trustee of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (which is funded by the UK governments to secure economic and social regeneration of the former coalfields).

Throughout his professional life Tony was bestowed with numerous honours in recognition of his work. He was appointed CBE in the 2014 New Year's Honours List for services to housing and the governance of charities. He was elected a Fellow of the RTPI in 2001 in recognition of his distinguished contribution to planning research and it awarded Tony with its Distinguished Service Award in 2021.

Furthermore, he won the RTPI Research Excellence Award in 2016 for his book Planning Gain, co-authored with the late Professor John Henneberry and Professor Christine Whitehead (LSE). A more recent paper, again co-authored with Professor Christine Whitehead 'Capturing development value, principles and practice: why is it so difficult?' won the RTPI’s Sir Peter Hall award for research with an impact on public policy.

Although in ill health, Professor Crook continued to work for both CIC and CLC until the last weeks of a life that had been devoted to professional and public service.