Shows
50 Shades of PlanningGrey Belt: Policy Guidance and AppealsFor how long Grey Belt remains part of the policy landscape time will tell, but in the here and now it represents very welcome political recognition that the homes the country needs cannot be built without developing land that is currently identified as Green Belt.
The irresistible force, it might be said, has started to shift the immoveable object...
If that dynamic continues it may prompt questions about what the Green Belt should actually be for and, perhaps, a Royal Commission on it’s future, but that is very much for tomorrow.
In the...
2025-06-071h 34
50 Shades of PlanningA Conversation with Michael GoveThis episode is a conversation between Sam Stafford and former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Rt Hon. the Lord Gove.
Famous in political circles. Infamous, some might say, in planning circles.
The Parliament of 2019-2024 was tumultuous for everybody, but for planning specifically it was an especially tumultuous time.
There was the 2020 'Planning for the Future' White Paper, which Mr Gove inherited in 2021, the same year as the Chesham & Amersham byelection. 2022 brought Mr Gove’s Devolution White Paper, his resignation and reappointment, the LURB, then the LURA, the re...
2025-05-2448 min
50 Shades of PlanningIf I Ruled the WorldSam Stafford was down in The Big Smoke recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Matthew Spry, Simon Ricketts, Hana Loftus, Vicky Payne and Mike Kiely.
In a good ol’ fashioned Adam Buxton-style ramblechat they talked about anything and everything. They talked about stat cons; they talked about skills, resources and leadership within LPAs; they talked about the need for efficiency gains in development management to deal with the expected uptick in planning applications; they talked application fees; they talked about power lines; they talked about a national scheme of delegation; th...
2025-04-1259 min
50 Shades of Planning100 Days of LabourSaturday 12 October 2024 marks 100 days of the new Labour Government.
In anticipation of this milestone Landmark Chambers and Town Legal hosted a seminar in London this week to provide an in-depth review of Labour's first 100 days in power and the impact on planning law and policy.
The session was recorded so that Sam Stafford could share it by way of the 50 Shades podcast and planners will be glad that it was recorded because it contains analysis and insight of the highest order. This episode includes:
Rupert Warren talking about the NPPF, local plans and housing...
2024-10-121h 04
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Mike BestIn Hitting the High Notes episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that Listeners can get to know people a little better personally, for every project or stage of their career Sam also asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period. Think of it as town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because usin...
2024-08-311h 04
50 Shades of PlanningLet's Get DigitalLong-serving Listeners might recall that for Episode 6 of 50 Shades of Planning Sam Stafford published a chat with Euan Mills, then of the Connected Places Catapult, on the potential for digital innovation, urban data, and user-centred design to improve the planning system.
Euan, now CEO and co-founder of Blocktype, got in touch with Sam Stafford earlier this year and asked if he could put together an episode on the progress that has been made over the past five years towards this aim.
This was both a kind invitation and a coincidental one because at around the...
2024-07-201h 21
50 Shades of PlanningWhat Do We Want?With a General Election now imminent Sam Stafford thought that it might be interesting to try to compare what is being offered by the main political parties in relation to housing, planning and development with what the housing, planning and development sector would like to see being offered.
In a conversation recorded at Outset Studios in Shoreditch Sam speaks to new friends of the podcast Richard Blyth, Tony Mulhall, Marie Chadwick and Ian Fletcher, and old friend of the podcast Paul Brocklehurst, about the policy proposals that their respective organisations are promulgating.
Richard is Head...
2024-06-2254 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Nick KilbyIn Hitting the High Notes episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that Listeners can get to know people a little better personally, for every project or stage of their career Sam also asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period. Think of it as town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because us...
2024-04-131h 06
50 Shades of Planning🎅🏻The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz - London🤶🏻Well Planning Reform Day finally arrived, just in time for the profession to be able to digest a cavalcade of announcements over Christmas, but not in time for the second and third of the festive 50 Shades episodes.
The podcast will be covering the new NPPF in due course, but put all of that hullabaloo to one side for now and let Sam Stafford and friends take a second look at another exciting year in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and world of town and country planning.
This is the London edition of the 50 Shades of Planning...
2023-12-231h 04
50 Shades of PlanningAn Engaging ConversationA little while ago Sam Stafford was approached by the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC), the professional membership body for clerks to town, parish and community councils across England and Wales, about contributing to an episode of their podcast.
Sam subsequently met Shelley Parker, Linda Carter and Andrew Towlerton at Factory Studios in Bristol in April 2023 for a discussion largely focussed on how parish councils and the development industry can work better together. Shelley, who chaired the discussion, is the SLCC’s external affairs and policy development manager; Linda is currently SLCC president; and Andrew is th...
2023-06-171h 05
50 Shades of PlanningLife LessonsA short while ago friend of the podcast Shelly Rouse got in touch with Sam Stafford asking for suggestions for a lecture that Shelly was giving for another friend of the podcast Charlotte Morphet and her soon-to-be planning grads at Leeds Beckett University.
Shelly was after some words of wisdom to help the students with job hunting and the move into the big wide world of work. Sam and Shelly subsequently opened it up to some of the 50 Shades gang and the level of interest and insight was such that Tom Whitehead proposed that it be turned...
2023-05-0629 min
50 Shades of PlanningPlanning for a Feminist CitySpatial planning can only deliver a safe, healthy and sustainable environment for all if it is sensitive to the needs of all, which means taking into account the different roles women and men have in society and the different expectations and requirements they have from the planning system.
Nobody could argue with that principle, but what does it mean in practice? What does planning policy look like when viewed through a gender lens, how do we plan on a gender inclusive basis at a city-wide scale and what does that look like on the ground?
...
2023-03-081h 33
50 Shades of PlanningLife on the Front Line II‘Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?’
It was that message from a 50 Shades listener that prompted Episode 60 of the podcast, which Sam Stafford called ‘Life on the Front Line’.
At around the same time, Catriona Riddell used a Planning Magazine column to highlight low morale in LPAs, citing hostility towards planners and the planning system from every quarter.
Catriona revisited this theme in another recent column and Sam thought that it would be interesting to revisit 'Life on the Front Line' too.
This episode, like the first on...
2023-02-2551 min
50 Shades of PlanningWhat Does a Good Local Plan Look Like?Local plan-making is in something of a crisis. Lichfields reported in April 2022 on the 11 local plans that had at that time been overtly delayed, paused or withdrawn. Indeed the number of plans published in draft, submitted for examination and adopted in 2022 were all at the lowest level for a decade.
This year is likely to be little better as more and more LPAs initially waited for, and more latterly are digesting, a NPPF consultation and the direction of the reform agenda. Lichfields are now reporting that 38 LPAs have overtly delayed, paused or withdrawn their plans, and this...
2023-02-0457 min
50 Shades of PlanningMore Homes. Better Places. So Far As Possible.It will not have escaped the attention of regular 50 Shades listeners that a consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was launched shortly before Christmas and, knowing that it was coming, friend of the podcast Simon Ricketts arranged one his 'Planning Law Unplanned' Clubhouse sessions for the first week back. Simon kindly agreed to record the discussion so that Sam Stafford could share it by of the 50 Shades platform.
Listeners will hear in this episode an excellent dissection of the motivations behind, key provisions within, and likely impact of, the proposed changes to the...
2023-01-141h 06
50 Shades of Planning🏆 The #Planoraks Awards 2022 🏆Even by the standards of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning 2022 has been quite a year. Who better to review it, Sam Stafford thought, than Zack Simons, one of the most erudite, informed and entertaining thought leaders in the planning profession. Sam and Zack consider some of the year's important planning stories and, excitingly, Zack hands out his 2022 #Planarak Awards.
A point of clarification. In discussing the controversial foreword to the Pre-Submission Spelthorne Local Plan, Sam suggested that it had not been removed from the Submission version. It actually has been.
2022-12-3157 min
50 Shades of Planning🎅🏻The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz - Manchester🤶🏻It’s cold, dark and miserable and, alas, there is little in Michael Gove’s recent Written Ministerial Statement to warm the cockles of a planner’s heart. Hopefully then the return of the 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz will spread some seasonal cheer.
Even by the standards of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning it has been quite a year. With the help of Richard Garlick at Planning magazine, who provided Sam Stafford with some of the most-read stories on PlanningResource.co.uk, Sam quizzes some of the 50 Shades alumni...
2022-12-1730 min
50 Shades of PlanningCall For Evidence - Life on the Front Line IIIt was about a year ago that Catriona Riddell first wrote in Planning magazine about low morale in local planning authorities, which Catriona, Peter Geraghty, Paul Brocklehurst and Sam Stafford followed up with the 'Life on the Front Line' episode (no. 60).
'Life on the Front Line' was informed by a 'Call for Evidence', the submissions to which, mostly anonymised, are reproduced on Sam's 50 Shades blog (link below).
Catriona has again used her Planning magazine column to raise the issue of morale in LPAs, making the point that, one year on, it does not feel like...
2022-12-1303 min
50 Shades of Planning🎄The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz - London☃️It’s cold, wet and miserable and, alas, there is little in Michael Gove’s recent Written Ministerial Statement to warm the cockles of a planner’s heart. Hopefully then the return of the 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz will spread some seasonal cheer.
Even by the standards of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning it has been quite a year. With the help of Richard Garlick at Planning magazine, who provided Sam Stafford with some of the most-read stories on PlanningResource.co.uk, Sam quizzes some of the 50 Shades alumni...
2022-12-1032 min
50 Shades of PlanningCatch UpThis is an old skool, Adam Buxton-style ramble chat 50 Shades episode in which Sam Stafford fills his lunch hour with what he enjoys most: talking about planning with some of his planning friends.
Planning being the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world that it is there was a lot to take in. Sam's conversation with Simon Ricketts, Claire Petricca-Riding and Vicky Payne covers a busy week that included the Autumn Statement; amendments to the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill; what Michael Gove had to say in a keynote speech; COP27 and the Supreme Court's Hillside Parks decision.
2022-11-1953 min
50 Shades of PlanningWhat Town Planners DoPlanning is rarely out of the news these days, certainly in England. It gets mentioned in speeches by party leaders, it garners headlines in the national and local press and has been the focus of multiple reform initiatives, especially over the last twenty years. Yet, these debates largely concern the ‘planning system’ and its policies, targets, methods, legislation and decision-making procedures.
What about the planners themselves? What do they do all day?’ These are not an unreasonable questions for a town planning-based podcast to ask, especially for an episode timed to coincide with World Town Planning Day, and, h...
2022-11-0851 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Home of One's OwnThis episode is published with thanks to Simon Ricketts and his Planning Law Unplanned Clubhouse forum. Simon recently had a Clubhouse chat with Hashi Mohamed about Hashi’s book ‘A Home of One’s Own’ and they kindly agreed to record it so that Sam Stafford could share it via his 50 Shades podcast.
Simon is a partner at Town Legal, author of the Simonicity planning blog and a frequent 50 Shades contributor. Hashi is a broadcaster, barrister and public speaker, and links to his work can be found below, including to his Radio 4 Analysis programme ‘Planning, Housing & Politics’.
These...
2022-10-1556 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Peter DixonHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2022-10-0858 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Stimulating Growth ConversationIt will not have gone unnoticed that the Government published a 'Growth Plan' on Friday 23 September 2022 with implications for the Development Consent Order regime and the introduction of a new Investment Zone concept. Additional information about Investment Zones was published the following day (links below).
Friend of the podcast Simon Ricketts hastily convened one of his 'Planning Law, Unplanned' Clubhouse sessions for the Tuesday evening to which Sam Stafford, along with Iain Thomson, Shelly Rouse, Nicola Gooch and Jonathan Easton, were invited to contribute. This episode then is slightly different from previous ones in that they all...
2022-10-0149 min
50 Shades of PlanningNeutral Impact IIWhen Sam Stafford introduced Episode 38 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast on nutrient neutrality he described the topic of eutrophication as a bit like the podcast itself. A little niche, but very important. Since then, February 2021, whilst the podcast remains a little niche, the nutrient neutrality issue has very much broken into the mainstream of planning consciousness.
Sam and his guests in Episode 38 spoke for the most part about the Solent, which was the first SPA within which Natural England recommended that LPAs withhold planning permission unless negative impacts of development can be ruled out completely. In M...
2022-09-101h 03
50 Shades of PlanningAn Esoteric Discussion about the Planning SystemSam Stafford revisits the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill with regular 50 Shades contributors Claire Petricca-Riding, Vicky Payne and Paul Smith. Their conversation explores what the Bill is and is not, what it may and may not mean, and where it may or may not go next. This episode also touches on design and environmental matters in more detail than the previous episode on the LURB, which was number 71.
Claire Petricca-Riding (@PetriccaRiding) is a Partner and National Head of Planning & Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell. Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne) is an Associate Principal at URBED. Paul Smith (@Paul_SLG...
2022-08-2050 min
50 Shades of PlanningHousing PeopleHousing, 50 Shades listeners, will know, is slap bang in the middle of the intersection between planning and politics and nothing offers both the illustration and impact of this than affordable housing.
Research commissioned by the National Housing Federation and Crisis from Professor Glen Bramley at Heriot-Watt University in 2018 identified a need for 340,000 homes each year in England to 2031, including 145,000 affordable homes.
According though to recent research from Turley and Tetlow King, commissioned by the LPDF, it is estimated that only 35,500 net additional affordable homes have been delivered on average in each of the last ten...
2022-08-0600 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Gentle Conversation about DensityWhere should we build 300,000 new homes every year?
We could build tall buildings, which can have transformative effects on city centres and their skylines, but might not necessarily match delivery with need.
Or we could build urban extensions and new settlements, which could be imbued from the outset with the highest possible design and build standards, but are very difficult to deliver.
Or we could densify, gently, existing suburbs. We could incentivise LPAs, residents and SME builders to upgrade older, less energy-efficient housing stock, especially in those parts of the cities with the...
2022-07-2359 min
50 Shades of PlanningLURB50 Shades listeners are a perceptive bunch and will have a spotted that the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) was introduced to Parliament on 11 May. Whilst the word planning does not appear on the front of the bill it does appear 680 times inside and so, for a planning podcast that purports to have it's figure on the pulse, it is about time that Sam Stafford put a panel together to discuss it.
Helpfully for Sam, Andrew Taylor (@AndrewJTaylor3), past 50 Shades contributor and friend of the podcast, did it for him. Andrew invited Sam to contribute to a National P...
2022-07-0954 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Anna RoseHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2022-06-2558 min
50 Shades of PlanningPlace, Politics and the Piece HallWhen Sam Stafford saw that Create Streets and Onward were bringing their 'Restitch' conference to Halifax's Piece Hall, his favourite building, he could not have been more excited. He was though even more excited when the organisers agreed to let him set up a 'pop-up' recording studio at the back of one of the breakout rooms so as to record conversations with some of the conference's contributors during the day.
This bumper episode then is the accumulation of those recorded conversations and in it you will hear from (broken down into time slots if you are dipping...
2022-06-111h 36
50 Shades of PlanningThree Things (or 'The 50 Shades Manifesto For Sensible Planning Reform')Regular 50 Shades Listeners will know that Sam Stafford recently had dinner with a DLUHC Minister. The conversation during dessert turned, with a set piece Planning Bill off of the agenda, to the three most impactful things that Michael Gove could do to improve the planning system. Sam subsequently shared his thoughts on Twitter (see link below) and they provoked a bit of a discussion, which he thought worthy of exploring further in a 50 Shades episode.
This then is what prompted Episode 65’s 'Call for Evidence' in which Sam invited 50 Listeners to share their own suggestions for practical, pra...
2022-05-2157 min
50 Shades of PlanningLeading From The Front‘Is there a local authority staffing crisis', Sam Stafford asked Catriona Riddell, Peter Geraghty and Paul Brocklehurst in Episode 60. That episode, regular listeners might recall, was informed by a 'Call for Evidence' and Sam invited people across the profession to share their thoughts on what life is actually like on planning’s front line.
It quickly became apparent that Catriona, Peter, Paul and Sam would not be able to do the submissions justice in an hour-long conversation so Sam reproduced them in full on the 50 Shades Blog.
To say that this topic struck something of a nerv...
2022-04-301h 11
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Pete SwiftHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2022-04-091h 00
50 Shades of PlanningCall for Evidence - Three ThingsSam Stafford's Twitter friends might have spotted that he had dinner with a DLUHC Minister last week. The conversation during dessert turned, with a set piece Planning Bill now off the agenda, to the three most impactful things that Michael Gove could do to improve the planning system. Sam subsequently shared his thoughts on Twitter and they provoked a bit of a discussion, which he thought worthy of exploring further in a 50 Shades episode.
This then is a Call for Evidence. Sam would like to know the three most impactful things that 50 Shades Listeners think Michael Gove...
2022-03-3103 min
50 Shades of PlanningThink DifferentlyWhen we think of diversity, and the awareness and inclusion in public life of people of different identities, we perhaps instinctively think of ethnicity, sexuality and age. We perhaps do not think instinctively of neurodiversity. Sam Stafford's youngest boy’s school, for example, had made space in the calendar to raise awareness of ethnicity, sexuality and age discrimination, but not, until it was pointed out, neurodiversity. This despite the fact that around 1 in 7 people in the UK are neurodivergent.
Neurodiversity, for anybody unfamiliar with the term, is the diversity of all human brains, which includes those with Dy...
2022-03-211h 13
50 Shades of PlanningNo Little PlansIs planning for America anathema to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness? Is it true, as ideologues like Friedrich Von Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand have claimed, that planning leads to dictatorship, that the state is wholly destructive, and that prosperity is owed entirely to the workings of a free market?
This is the synopsis of 'No Little Plans', Ian Wray's 2019 book that goes in search of an America shaped by government, plans and bureaucrats, not by businesses, bankers and shareholders.
Ian discusses 'No Little Plans' in this episode with Sam Stafford; Katie...
2022-03-0554 min
50 Shades of PlanningAn Amassing of Think TanksWho are the people and the organisations that have had the most influence over planning during the past couple of years?
One could make a case for Jack Airey and Policy Exchange. Airey, who joined Localis having graduated in geography, became Head of Housing at Policy Exchange before being appointed Downing Street’s special adviser on housing and planning. In the spirit of Dominic Cummings’ shake-up of government apparatus, the attraction of Airey could have been his Policy Exchange paper called ‘Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century’, some of which found it’s way into the albeit...
2022-02-1257 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Wayne HemingwayHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2022-01-2245 min
50 Shades of PlanningLife on the Front Line"Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?"
Sam Stafford usually likes it when people get in touch with him to suggest topics for 50 Shades episodes, but found this message from a team leader at a local authority striking and sobering.
Is there a local authority staffing crisis? If so why and what can be done about it? Informed by equally striking and sobering responses to Episode 57's 'Call for Evidence' (see below a link to the 'Life on the Front Line' Blog), Sam puts these questions to Catriona Riddell, Peter Geraghty...
2022-01-0858 min
50 Shades of Planning🎅🏻The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz - The Final🎅🏻Sam Stafford and friends are in Manchester for the 50 Shades Christmas night out, but, before hitting the town, there is the small matter of the Festive Christmas Quiz to attend to.
It's the Final so quizmaster Sam tests the successful semi finalists Paul Smith, Vicky Payne, Claire Petricca-Riding and Jonathan Easton on more planning news stories from past twelve months.
Paul (@Paul_SLG) is Managing Director at The Strategic Land Group. Vicky (@Vicky_Payne) is an Associate Principal at URBED. Claire (@PetriccaRiding) is a Partner and National Head of Planning and Environmental Law at Irwin...
2021-12-2440 min
50 Shades of Planning🎄The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz - Semi-Final 2🎄Sam Stafford and friends are in Manchester for the 50 Shades Christmas night out, but, before hitting the town, there is the small matter of the Festive Christmas Quiz to attend to.
In this second semi-final quizmaster Sam tests Tom Whitehead, Mike O'Brien, Jonathan Easton and Claire Petricca-Riding on their knowledge of twelve planning news stories from past twelve months.
Tom (a Twitter Lurker) is Group Town Planning at Brookhouse. Mike (@O_B_1_Mike) is a Director at Pinnacle Planning. Jonathan (@jonnye47) is a full-time Barrister at Kings Chambers and a part-time punster. Claire (@PetriccaRiding) is...
2021-12-2137 min
50 Shades of Planning☃️The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz - Semi-Final 1☃️Sam Stafford and friends are in Manchester for the 50 Shades Christmas night out, but, before hitting the town, there is the small matter of the Festive Christmas Quiz to attend to.
In this first semi-final quizmaster Sam tests Katie Wray, Greg Dickson, Vicky Payne and Paul Smith on their knowledge of twelve planning news stories from past twelve months.
Katie (@kluw) is an Assistant Director at Deloitte Real Assets Advisory. Greg (@GregDickson1) is a Partner at Barton Willmore. Vicky (@Vicky_Payne) is an Associate Principal at URBED. Paul (@Paul_SLG) is Managing Director at The...
2021-12-1838 min
50 Shades of PlanningCall for Evidence - Life on the Front Line"Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?"
Sam Stafford usually likes it when people get in touch with him to suggest topics for 50 Shades episodes, but found this message from a team leader at a local authority striking and sobering.
In a subsequent conversation this person confided in Sam that their team is virtually in crisis mode.
It is probably fair to say that the planning system is in crisis, but then it is also probably fair to say that the planning system is always in crisis…
Th...
2021-12-1103 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Only Constant is ChangeSam Stafford gets back to 50 Shades basics and enjoys in this episode a gently meandering conversation with some of his friends about planning.
Sam could not though resist a typically verbose introduction...
""It is commonly observed”, said Samuel Johnson, “that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm."
One could make a case that when two English planners meet, their first talk is of planning refo...
2021-12-0452 min
50 Shades of PlanningCall for Evidence - Britain's Best and Worst StreetsEpisode 56 will be alone soon, but, in the meantime, Sam Stafford would appreciate your help with preparations for a future episode that he has in mind. This, if you will, is a 50 Shades Call for Evidence.
Create Streets recently tweeted a photograph of Grey Street in Newcastle and asked whether it is Britain’s best street.
It was considered to be one of the best in 2002 when Radio 4’s Today programme and CABE set out to identify Britain’s best and worst streetscapes. Grey Street, High Pavement in Nottingham; Buchanan Street in Glasgow; New Street in Bir...
2021-11-2002 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Coastal PathThe Chief Medical Officer, in their annual report, presents to Government information or ‘surveillance’ about the health of England’s population, offering recommendations to both government and individual organisations as to how to improve the public health system.
In his 2021 report, published in July, Chris Whitty chose to report on health in coastal communities. It concluded that:
There are many reasons for poor health outcomes in coastal communities. The pleasant environment attracts older, retired citizens to settle, who inevitably have more and increasing health problems. An oversupply of guest housing has led to Houses of Multiple...
2021-11-0654 min
50 Shades of PlanningDoing Someone's Bidding"We appreciate that these funds bring challenges to local councils and we want to ensure there are fewer competitions in the future and more consolidated opportunities to access government funding."
So said former Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick to the Local Government Conference in July 2021.
As 'No Place Left Behind' report from the Create Streets Foundation has noted, “despite the extreme pressures of the pandemic, the government has increasingly made funding available to kick start levelling up, with a strong focus on community and place.”
There are:
T...
2021-10-1655 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Fairway to Solve the Housing CrisisThis episode explores two crises, one of which is a very public one and the other a more private one. There is a housing crisis. Millions of people live in unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable homes; young people are living at home with their parents for longer; and the average age of first time buyers gets older.
At the same time there is something of a crisis in golf. There was a spike in 2020 as it became one of the few things that people could do outdoors during lockdown, but the longer term trends in both club membership...
2021-10-0248 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Paul BarnardHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2021-09-181h 02
50 Shades of PlanningOur Friends in the North - Part 2This is the second of two 50 Shades episodes that Stephen Gleave has put together. Stephen is an urban designer and town planner and has been based in the North West of England for nearly 30 years. Stephen was invited to guest edit the Summer 2021 edition of the Urban Design Group’s quarterly journal and Sam Stafford has lent the 50 Shades of Planning podcast as a platform for Stephen to share some of the material that he curated.
If you have listened to Part 1 you will know that Stephen set out to explore urban design in the north, the 'No...
2021-09-0459 min
50 Shades of PlanningOur Friends in the North - Part 1For both this episode and the next one Sam Stafford hands over the 50 Shades reins to Stephen Gleave. Stephen is an urban designer and town planner and has been based in the North West of England for nearly 30 years. Stephen was invited to guest edit the Summer 2021 edition of the Urban Design Group’s quarterly journal and Sam has lent the 50 Shades of Planning podcast as a platform for Stephen to share some of the material that he curated.
Stephen set out to explore urban design in the north, the 'Northern Powerhouse' and what 'levelling up' might mea...
2021-08-2850 min
50 Shades of PlanningWhere Are We Now?'Where are we now?' asks Sam Stafford in this episode not in the manner of an exasperated child in the back of a hot car staring out at a traffic jam on the M5, but in the manner of an exasperated planning professional contemplating why, as we hurtle towards the end of the second year of this parliamentary term, the Government’s vision for the planning system, nay the country, remains, let’s say charitably, in embryonic form.
A good indication as to where we are now comes from the raft of reports and speeches published and...
2021-08-071h 00
50 Shades of PlanningAging Well In PlaceHidden in the conclusions of the December 2020 Household Resilience Study (a Covid-specific follow-up to the English Housing Survey) was the striking statistic that 39% of households are under-occupied in that they have two or more spare bedrooms.
It is easy to leap to the assumption, as indeed Sam Stafford admits to in this episode, that these households are elderly people, perhaps single elderly people, rattling around in family homes that they cannot bear to leave. From there it is also easy to assume that by encouraging people to downsize better use can be made of the existing housing...
2021-07-1758 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Bin Lorry Effect‘Well-intentioned highways department rules and guidance have had a devastating effect on new housing developments over the past 80 years. Many have led to roads not streets, units not homes, and ‘could-be-anywhere’ housing developments, not real places with centres and edges. A range of rules have the effect of stopping you getting out and about, preventing you meeting your neighbours, stopping you from creating communities and locking you into car dependence.’
That is a quote from the introduction to ‘The Bin Lorry Effect’, a briefing paper from Create Streets (see link below) about how 'new homes and places are ruined by...
2021-07-0355 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Conversation with Clive BettsDeath, taxes and reform are the three certainties that accompany planners along life’s endless cycleway. Insofar as the latter is concerned, this is one of the more turbulent periods.
White Papers come and White Papers go, but last year’s was particularly notable for it’s almost wholesale reimagining of the planning system.
“Radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War”, wrote the Prime Minister in his foreword to ‘Planning for the future’. “Not more fiddling around the edges, not simply painting over the damp patches, but levelling the foundations and building, fr...
2021-06-1944 min
50 Shades of PlanningSome Are More Equal Than OthersWhat is town planning for? The Royal Town Planning Institute champions the ‘power of planning in creating prosperous places and vibrant communities’. The Town & Country Planning Association ‘works to challenge, inspire and support people to create healthy, sustainable and resilient places that are fair for everyone’. As Raymond Unwin wrote in the foreword to the Housing, Town Planning, Etc, Act of 1909: "Town Planning has a prosaic sound, but the words stand for a movement which has perhaps a more direct bearing on the life and happiness of great masses of the people than any other single movement of our time”....
2021-06-0553 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Ben CastellHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2021-05-151h 00
50 Shades of PlanningFudge"Thanks to our planning system, we have nowhere near enough homes in the right places. People cannot afford to move to where their talents can be matched with opportunity. Businesses cannot afford to grow and create jobs. The whole thing is beginning to crumble and the time has come to do what too many have for too long lacked the courage to do – tear it down and start again."
So said the Prime Minister in the Foreword to 2020’s ‘Planning for the future’ White Paper.
“Instead of new homes being built where demand to live is greates...
2021-05-0154 min
50 Shades of PlanningCracking the Code“We should aspire to pass on our heritage to our successors, not depleted but enhanced. In order to do that, we need to bring about a profound and lasting change in the buildings that we build, which is one of the reasons we are placing a greater emphasis on locally popular design, quality and access to nature, through our national planning policies and introducing the National Model Design Codes.”
So said Robert Jenrick when announcing at the end of January 2021 the Government’s response to the report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission. As well as the cr...
2021-04-1057 min
50 Shades of PlanningHitting the High Notes - Victoria HillsHitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music wi...
2021-03-271h 04
50 Shades of PlanningEA in the UK after the EUAs a 50 Shades of Planning Podcast listener you will be perceptive enough to have spotted that the United Kingdom has left the European Union. Town Planners will have noted in so doing that the regulatory regime for the assessment of environmental impact within the UK’s planning processes has been at least heavily influenced by, and at most grown to mirror, the rules, regulations and judgements emanating from and handed down in Brussells and Strasbourg.
Environmental Assessment is on the Government’s ‘to do list’, though perhaps not very near the top. Environment Minister George Eustice said in July...
2021-03-1256 min
50 Shades of PlanningNeutral ImpactEutrophication might not have been a word that planners came across too often before November 2018, but many now know if they didn’t before then that it is the process by which nutrient-laden water encourages algae growth to the extent that it starves water and sediments of oxygen, forms a barrier to birds feeding, smothers seagrass beds and saltmarshes.
Until November 2018 it was largely the case that an Appropriate Assessment undertaken to accompany development proposals affecting nutrient-sensitive Special Protection Areas (SPAs) would conclude that any impacts could be mitigated against. That month, however, the European Court of Ju...
2021-02-2759 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Unearned IncrementConsensus between economists is rare, but almost all agree that there is a moral argument for the taxation of land.
Planning reform, death and taxes have long been three of life’s certainties. Land taxation and the concept of betterment dates back at least to the time of Henry VI who is thought to have captured the value of land improved by royal investment in flood defences.
Winston Churchill spoke in 1919 of the “unearned increment” accrued by landowners following public investment in infrastructure and called for the state to capture more of this uplift for the pu...
2021-02-041h 10
50 Shades of PlanningCan the British plan?'Can the British plan? Sometimes it seems unlikely. Across the world we see grand designs and visionary projects: new airport terminals, nuclear power stations, high-speed railways, and glittering buildings. It all seems an unattainable goal on Britain's small and crowded island; and yet perhaps this is too pessimistic. For the British have always planned, and much of what we have today is the result of past plans, successfully implemented...'
This is the synopsis of 'Great British Plans' by Ian Wray that Sam Stafford cannily pilfers for the introduction to this episode in which Sam discusses the...
2021-01-2056 min
50 Shades of PlanningReflections on 2020 - Part 2Is it right that old times be forgotten, asks Robert Burns in the opening line of Auld Lang Syne. Instinctively one might want to say yes to that insofar as 2020 is concerned. Much has been lost, but it’s also right to say that much has been gained too. We are at home more, a trend that might have happened at a much slower pace if at all in some places, and we are perhaps working more patiently and emphatically with each other, which is a trend that probably would not have happened at all. It has made us ap...
2020-12-2744 min
50 Shades of PlanningReflections on 2020 - Part 1Little did Sam Stafford know when recording Episode 14 in Manchester at the end of February 2020 that every episode for the rest of the year, and who knows how far beyond, would need to be recorded remotely.
This is the first of two episodes that feature reflections on 2020 from past contributors to the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast. It is hoped that it serves two purposes. More immediately, it is hoped that in taking the time to listen you get chance to reflect on what you might have been through this year. It might help you realise what you...
2020-12-1833 min
50 Shades of PlanningTall StoriesThe nights have drawn in. It’s impossible as in previous years to nip out for a pint in order to escape Strictly or Celeb (at least it is in Tier 3). A long, inhospitable winter will have to be endured before there is any possibility of a springtime shot in the arm and a return to something approaching normal. Sprinkled on top of this bleakness for planners is that the handling of the White Paper arguably makes planning’s systemic challenges harder to tackle than should have been hoped for.
Yes it’s fair to say that good c...
2020-12-0452 min
50 Shades of PlanningLegal EaglesPlanning law is a serious business. If the lawyers need calling in then typically something going very well needs safeguarding or something going very badly needs salvaging. If lawyers do get called in then matters also get very formal. A protocol for this and a correct way of doing that. Lawyers and the law are to be revered...
Planning law seems more important, more influential and more high-profile than ever. Planning lawyers themselves though seem more accessible, more engaging and more approachable. Are the protocols, processes and procedures for liaising with our learned friends becoming less stuffy...
2020-11-181h 10
50 Shades of PlanningBeauty Is In The Eye Of The Freeholder‘We want to ensure that we have a system in place that enables the creation of beautiful places that will stand the test of time’ states the 'Planning for the future' White Paper. Not just well-designed places. Beautiful places.
The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, set up to advise government on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods, proposed that beautiful placemaking be a legally enshrined aim of the planning system.
There is a school of thought promulgating the idea that beauty will help make the publi...
2020-10-1653 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe High Street is dead, long live the High Street.‘Vital and Viable’, the good practice guidance that accompanied the old PPG6 included a large survey of planning authorities. A fifth of town centres in 1995, it was reported, were then thought to be ‘declining’, while only a few metropolitan cities and historic towns thought of themselves as ‘vibrant’.
What would the results of such a survey be now?
Oasis, Warehouse, Debenhams and Cath Kidston have filed for administration and between M&S, John Lewis, Boots and WH Smith 14,000 jobs could be at risk.
According to the ONS, online sales in March were up 13% year-on-year...
2020-09-301h 10
50 Shades of PlanningThe Numbers Game“At the moment, some local authorities can duck potentially difficult decisions, because they are free to come up with their own methodology for calculating ‘objectively assessed need’. So, we are going to consult on a new standard methodology for calculating ‘objectively assessed need’, and encourage councils to plan on this basis.”
So said the ‘Fixing our broken housing market’ White Paper in February 2017.
It might have been hoped that the introduction of the standard method in 2018 would breathe new life into the non-housing chapters of local plans that were struggling to breathe on account of the numbers deba...
2020-09-171h 09
50 Shades of PlanningPlaces and SpacesA place, in the urban context at least, is its buildings, the spaces around them and the hustle and bustle of people making their way betwixt and between them.
The only place that many people have known for a while though is home. On the one hand we have got to know our local environs more, but, on the other, and as we creep tentatively back into towns and cities, how will we find urban places now? The buildings are less densely populated and might soon need to be used for different things. The spaces have more...
2020-09-0851 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Conversation with Chris FindleyIn a piece written during a recent period of furlough leave Sam Stafford posited that a career is like climbing a mountain in that the real reward is at the top when you can sit back, with the greatest possible perspective, and take it all in.
Sam gets the chance to test that theory in this episode by chatting to Chris Findley who, as many North West-based 50 Shades listeners will know, recently retired after a 42 year career that included 26 years at Salford City Council.
The conversation takes in Chris' early experiences in Beverley and Leicester...
2020-08-251h 02
50 Shades of PlanningPlanning Reform DayThe decorations have been taken down, the uneaten party food has been frozen for next time and all of the summary emails from planning consultants have been diligently saved in the ‘Government Policy’ folder. Another Planning Reform Day has been and gone, but this was a bigger one than usual. The sector had been whipped into a frenzy ever since Policy Exchange, from whence Downing Street’s housing and planning advisor came, published it’s ‘Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century’ report in January. ‘It’s this week!’. ‘No I’ve heard it’s next week’. It’s a White Paper’. ‘No, it’s...
2020-08-141h 00
50 Shades of PlanningJet Zero‘This moment gives us a much greater chance to be radical and to do things differently’, said the Prime Minister with typical understatement in his Dudley speech at the end of June. ‘To build back better, build back greener, build back faster.’
Who could possibly disagree with that? Nobody, which is probably why the phrase was drafted like that. It means all things to all people, but the creative ambiguity, nee intellectual incoherence, is illustrated by the catchy ‘Jet Zero’ reference in that Dudley speech and lofty ambitions for the world’s first zero emission long haul passenger plan...
2020-08-0755 min
50 Shades of PlanningDCOs, NPSs and NSIPs.Will the Government's much vaunted radical reforms to the planning system allow Development Consent Orders (DCOs) to apply to large-scale, residential-led development proposals? It is an idea that has been around since DCOs, as wells as NPSs and NSIPs, were introduced by the Planning Act 2008, but perhaps now it’s time has come.
As well as considering the efficacy of the DCO regime as it relates to infrastructure projects, an expanded DCO regime is considered in a report by Barton Willmore, Copper, Womble Bond Dickinson and Hannah Hickman.
Sam Stafford discusses the report (link below) in...
2020-07-2851 min
50 Shades of PlanningCrosstown TrafficThe need for people to travel and the way in which they can travel has changed dramatically in a short period of time and, early on during the Coronavirus crisis especially, there was a sense that this change had the potential to be more permanent than temporary and contribute to the ‘Building Back Better’ agenda. As lockdown starts to ease though and traffic starts to flow again, or rather to not flow again, what is the sense of that change now? Is the window for a fundamental modal shift from car to two wheels and two legs closing? Has the...
2020-07-161h 01
50 Shades of PlanningRules of EngagementThe grinding gears of the planning system need to be kept moving. On that most people can agree. Applying a little bit of lubricant within the bits of the system that largely pass the public by, extending consents and flexibility on things like CIL payments, for example, are relatively simple and relatively uncontroversial. What about though those bits of the system that are exposed to the outside world? The bits that rub up against public expectations. How, for as long as social distancing lasts, and indeed beyond, can the public continue to be engaged with the planning system in...
2020-07-011h 01
50 Shades of PlanningEverybody Needs Good NeighboursWhere does the recent run of local plan failures at St Albans, Sevenoaks, Wealden and Chiltern & South Bucks leave the Duty to Cooperate (DtC)? As well as being bad law it seemed obvious to most practitioners at the time that the DtC was bad planning and a regression from the Regional Spatial Strategies that it sought to replace. What hope is there that forthcoming devolution and planning White Papers will tackle the underlying technical and political issues that undermine the DtC? If they do not, what hope is there for the Government’s aim, as set out in a Mar...
2020-06-1958 min
50 Shades of PlanningAPC, easy as 1,2,3.Sam Stafford, wary halfway through his career of becoming a world-weary, cynical member of the town planning establishment, seeks to recapture some of his zest by chatting in this episode to three newly and soon-to-be qualified planners about the first few years of their careers.
Charles Jones works for Pegasus in Bath, Cathy O’Toole works for Pegasus in Birmingham and Tillie Baker works for Arup in Manchester. Sam's conversation with them takes in their experiences at university and the transition from there into the world of work.
Cathy and Tillie were commended by the Ro...
2020-06-0953 min
50 Shades of PlanningStay Alert > Keep Planning > Improve LivesSam Stafford gets some of the 50 Shades gang back together for the type of Friday afternoon, Adam Buxton-style ramblechat that would have taken place in the pub a few months ago. Will the post-pandemic world really not be the same? Old habits do die hard after all. Perhaps a ‘90% world’ in which life will be close to ‘normal’ but subtly different?
Sam's conversation with Paul Smith, Vicky Payne and Tom Whitehead takes in density, green space, civic space, active travel and city governance.
Paul Smith is the Managing Director of Strategic Land Group and is on Twitte...
2020-05-2757 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe CaMKOx Arc. Behind the curve?In a 2016 interim report on the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor, or the Arc, the National Infrastructure Commission identified the area as having “the potential to be “the UK’s Silicon Valley – a world-renowned centre for science, technology and innovation”.
The Arc seems to have been 'the next big thing' since then, but is that potential any closer to being tapped? Is there any evidence that it really is a “national priority” and “one of the world’s greatest economic opportunities” as Robert Jenrick described it as Treasury Minister, or, as Chuck D suggested, is it best not to believe the hype.
2020-05-1443 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe London Plan. Capital Punishment?Is there any substance to Robert Jenrick’s criticism of Sadiq Khan’s London Plan or is it just the victim of some Punch and Judy-style, blue on red oneupmanship?
Sam Stafford discusses this question, and, if devolution and planning white papers are to encourage more mayoral Spatial Development Strategies, the lessons from London for elsewhere, with Alice Lester (Operational Director - Regeneration, Growth & Employment, Brent Council), Rob Krzyszowski (Head of Planning Policy, Transport & Infrastructure, Haringey Council) and Andrew Taylor (Head of Planning, Countryside Properties).
Twitter Handles: @samuel_stafford, @AliceatBrent, @robzowski and @AndrewJTaylor3.
Some...
2020-05-0150 min
50 Shades of PlanningGreen Belt. Sacred Cow?'I began to see what a sacred cow the Green Belt has become' said Minister for Housing & Local Government Richard Crossman in 1964.
The Green Belt is a political behemoth that has long loomed over the planning system. In this episode Sam Stafford asks Paul Miner, Strategic Planning & Devolution at CPRE, and Kathryn Ventham, Planning Partner at Barton Willmore, whether housing need is becoming a sufficiently irresistible force to shift hitherto immovable Green Belt boundaries?
Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford. @PaulMiner3 and @kateventham.
Some accompanying reading and viewing:
John Grindrod’s ‘Outskirts’
http...
2020-04-2255 min
50 Shades of PlanningPlanning and CoronavirusRobert Jenrick set out on 12 March 2020 proposals “to bring Britain’s planning system into the 21st century as part of plans to get the country building”. Within a week it was announced that schools were closing and local authority staff, including planning officers, have been dealing with a public health emergency.
Sam Stafford is joined in this episode by Jonathan Easton, Barrister at Kings Chambers; Anna Rose, Head of the Planning Advisory Service at the Local Government Association; and Stefan Webb, Place Director at FutureGov to discuss the impact of Coronavirus on the planning system.
Twitter ha...
2020-03-281h 16
50 Shades of PlanningThe Fast-Paced, Ever-Changing, Rock and Roll World of Town and Country Planning2020 looks set to be another significant year for planning policy. Already it has seen the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’s final report, ‘Living with beauty’, a report from Policy Exchange called ‘Rethinking the planning system for the 21st century’, and the Government’s First Homes consultation. Sam Stafford and his guests Tom Whitehead, Vicky Payne and David Diggle discuss their significance to the forthcoming Budget and White Paper, and this Government’s agenda more broadly.
More information on the topics discussed in this episode can be found here:
Living with beauty
https://www.gov.uk/gover...
2020-02-2852 min
50 Shades of PlanningHow and Where Can and Should More Homes be Built?Sam Stafford chats with John Myers (YIMBY Alliance), Barbara Weiss (Barbara Weiss Architects) and Matt Thomson (CPRE) about how to build more and better homes and more and better places.
Adding storeys, mansion blocks and other forms of gentle densification are agreeable in principle, but how can they be encouraged in practice? Do we build up in the meantime? Not everybody likes tall buildings. Do we build out in the meantime? Lots of people like the Green Belt...
John Myers (@YimbyAlliance) worked as a lawyer, an analyst and in technology before cofounding London Yimby in 2016.
2020-02-111h 05
50 Shades of PlanningA Conversation with David RudlinSam Stafford chats with David Rudlin, Principal and Director of URBED, about his book Climax City, co-authored with Shruti Humani, which is a critical exploration of the growth of cities and masterplanning. The conversation takes in David's first role at Manchester City Council where he worked on the early stages of Hulme's redevelopment, as well as the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize, which David and URBED won for their work on delivering a garden city.
David's contact details: http://urbed.coop/team/david-rudlin
Climax City: https://www.architecture.com/riba-books/books/urban-design-planning-housing-and-infrastructure/planning/product/climax-city-masterplanning-and-the-complexity-of-urban-growth.html
2020-01-2447 min
50 Shades of PlanningReasons to be CheerfulIs planning in England, as asserted by the Raynsford Review, really less effective than at any time in the post-war era? Chris Shepley, a former Chief Planning Inspector and member of the Raynsford Review panel, said that the report was produced at a time when planning is probably at its lowest ebb since 1947. Really? Does the breadth and influence of the profession now not make it more impactful than ever? As a consequence of that is it not more important than ever that planners have influence at every tier of public policy-making?
These questions are the basis...
2020-01-081h 01
50 Shades of Planning🎅🏻The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz🎄Full of festive cheer (and sherry), Sam Stafford quizzes Greg Dickson, Paul Smith, David Diggle, Andrew Jalali, Vicky Payne and Tom Whitehead on some of the stories that have caught the eye in 2019. Expect an attempt at humour at the start, an appearance from a very special guest at the end and some bad cracker jokes in between...
For those interested in the topics that are discussed there is some reading here:
January
Mr Brokenshire’s big intervention stick.
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2018/08/mr-brokenshires-big-intervention-stick.html
February
Portsmouth co...
2019-12-1348 min
50 Shades of PlanningHow To Plan Strategically Without Strategic Planning10 January 2020, as planners working in the West Midlands will know, is the date by which the 37,900 home shortfall identified in the Birmingham Development Plan needs to have been accommodated by the other local planning authorities in the Greater Birmingham Housing Market Area. In this episode Sam Stafford chats with Mike Best (Senior Director at Turley (@bestlaidplan)), Mark Parkinson (Economic Development & Planning Policy Manager at Staffordshire County Council (@MarkA_Parkinson)), and Craig Jordan (Head of Economic Growth & Development at Lichfield District Council) about the progress that has been made towards meeting this deadline. The shortfall issue, as Sam and his...
2019-11-0855 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Conversation with Bob KerslakeSam Stafford chats with The Right Honourable The Lord Kerslake, who, as former Chief Executive of Sheffield and Hounslow councils; Chief Executive of the HCA; and Permanent Secretary of DCLG, has had a unique insight into workings of the English planning system. Sam and Bob discuss balancing the books at Sheffield City Council and the need to accelerate devolution and develop a spatial plan for England in order to rebalance regional inequalities, which are two of the recommendations of Bob's work with the UK2070 Commission (http://uk2070.org.uk).
2019-10-2341 min
50 Shades of PlanningPlanning Committees - Cauldrons of Human EmotionIf you’re involved they’re terrible, but if you’re just observing they’re terrific. In this episode Sam Stafford and his guests Katie Dean and Mike O’Brien discuss the cauldrons of human emotion that are planning committees.
Some accompanying reading.
A House of Commons Library Briefing
https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01030
A Lichfields research paper
https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/refused-for-good-reason
PAS guidance on probity in planning for councillors and officers
https://www.local.gov.uk/Pas-probity-planning
Some accompanyi...
2019-09-2642 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Data DaySam Stafford chats with Euan Mills of the Connected Places Catapult (https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/) about how digital innovation, urban data, and user-centred design can improve the UK planning system.
2019-09-0947 min
50 Shades of PlanningTrust Me, I'm A Planner.Sam Stafford and his guests Vicky Payne and Paul Smith explore a possible link between the cinematic portrayal of property developers as wrong 'uns and this survey from Grosvenor that looks at levels of public distrust in placemaking and large-scale development. Thanks to Vicky for the title of this episode.
2019-08-1648 min
50 Shades of PlanningA Conversation with Sean AnsteeSam Stafford chats with Sean Anstee CBE about the interaction of politics and planning from the point of view of a ward councillor, Council Leader and member of a Combined Authority. Talk also turned to Sean's campaign to be mayor of Greater Manchester during the 2017 election and the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework...
2019-08-0544 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Need for SpeedSam Stafford and his guests Vicky Payne and Paul Smith discuss the forthcoming 'Accelerated Planning' Green Paper and swap holiday stories.
2019-06-2651 min
50 Shades of PlanningImage RightsSam Stafford and his guests David Diggle, Tom Whitehead and Andrew Jalali discuss whether modern design is s***, whether the planning profession has an image problem, and the role of planning in tackling climate change.
2019-05-2446 min
50 Shades of PlanningPlanning. Huh, Good God. What Is It Good For?Sam Stafford and his guests Paul Smith, Greg Dickson and Vicky Payne consider recent reviews on the efficacy of the sector, as well as news stories that have been given national prominence, and ask ‘is planning working?’
2019-04-1543 min