Jane Healey Brown was conferred to the Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences in autumn 2025. She is Director of Planning and Global Town Planning Skills Leader at Arup, where she is also head of the Manchester Office. She specialises in planning policy, particularly strategic and local plans, housing, infrastructure, sustainability and regeneration.
Jane Healey BrownFAcSS
Jane is also Visiting Professor of Planning and Geography at the University of Liverpool, Greater Manchester Combined Authority Planning and Housing Commissioner and Non-Executive Director at Irwell Valley Homes. In addition, she is a Board Member of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and Liverpool-Manchester Railway.
Why do the social sciences matter?
The social sciences directly address the lived experience challenges that people face in their daily lives. As a town planner, I see this most clearly through the lens of place-based thinking; understanding how the spaces and environments where people live, work, and interact fundamentally shape their opportunities, wellbeing, and quality of life. The social sciences provide us with the tools and frameworks to understand these complex relationships between people and places. This enables us to design more effective interventions that can genuinely improve lives through enhancements to our built and natural environments.
What inspires you about your work?
Being able to join the dots to help find solutions to real world challenges. Through my roles in consultancy, public sector, academia and on the board of a housing association, I can draw on a range of perspectives and experiences to navigate place-based solutions. Town planners are great strategic thinkers who can translate complex multidisciplinary issues into opportunities to enhance places and lives.
As Arup’s Global Town Planning and Policy Skills Leader and through my work with the University of Liverpool I have had the opportunity to look at shared international challenges and solutions as well as contextualising the challenges experienced in my work in the UK. This dual perspective – local and global, practical and theoretical – allows me to contribute to more nuanced and effective approaches to planning and policymaking.
What are the most important issues for social scientists to tackle?
Supporting people to live their best lives in the context of rising public sector pressures and constraints. This encompasses tackling low productivity, investing in infrastructure, devolved decision-making and rethinking how we provide for the skills we need. The complexity lies in identifying and implementing the most impactful interventions, which often run counter to the priorities of political systems characterised by short-term thinking, limited stakeholder voices, and insufficient engagement with business and other key sectors. Social science must help bridge these gaps, providing evidence-based approaches that can demonstrate long-term value while navigating immediate political and economic realities.
What does being a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences mean to you?
As a town planner working across a range of sectors, becoming a Fellow represents recognition of the vital contribution that planning makes to the social sciences. It acknowledges that place-based thinking and spatial analysis are fundamental to understanding and addressing societal challenges.