Yussuf Mwanza of Guyanese parentage started his planning career in London Borough of Brent as a Junior Planning assistant studying on a day release basis to gain his professional qualifications. After moving between different Council planning departments and the Private sector he setup and founded MZA in 1997 and has never looked back.

From his work in local planning authorities Yussuf Mwanza was acutely aware that certain applicants particularly those from the BAME community through no fault of their own simply did not understand the planning system, could not afford a planning agent or just framed their application incorrectly. As such he noticed that a disproportionate number of applications from the BAME community were refused and subsequent enforcement action taken.

As a result of this when he started MZA Planning Yussuf made a deliberate effort to reach out to these groups. Often this included minority groups seeking to submit applications for a range of developments including changes of use, enforcement appeals, householder developments etc. From the outset, MZA has strived to work with the disenfranchised and underrepresented groups but also serves a much wider client base. Yussuf has been a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute since 1994.

MZA Planning has recently been shortlisted as a Finalist in the prestigious RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence in the category of Small Planning Consultancy of the Year.
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