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PODCAST

50 Shades of Planning

Samuel Stafford

50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and its aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives. 50 Shades episodes include "Hitting The High Notes", which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and

government politics

All Episodes

01:00:12

Planning Reform Day

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/08/14

The 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’

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00:55:10

Jet Zero

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/08/07

‘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

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00:51:39

DCOs, NPSs & NSIPs

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/07/28

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,

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01:01:23

Crosstown Traffic

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/07/16

The 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

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01:01:46

Rules of Engagement

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/07/01

The 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

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00:58:40

Everybody needs good neighbours

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/06/19

Where 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

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00:53:58

APC, easy as 123

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/06/09

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

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00:57:35

Stay Alert > Keep Planning > Improve Lives

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/05/27

Sam 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

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00:43:57

The CaMKOx Arc. Behind the curve?

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/05/14

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

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00:50:29

The London Plan - Capital Punishment?

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/05/01

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

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00:55:54

Green Belt, Sacred Cow

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/04/22

'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

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01:16:28

Planning & Coronavirus

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/03/28

Robert 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

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00:52:20

The fast-paced, ever-changing, rock ‘n’ roll world of...

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/02/28

2020 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

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01:05:40

How and where can and should more homes be built?

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/02/11

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)

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00:47:49

A conversation with David Rudlin

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/01/24

Sam 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:

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01:01:06

Reasons to be cheerful

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/01/08

Is 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

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00:48:18

The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz

50 Shades of Planning ·

2019/12/13

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

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00:55:19

How to plan strategically without strategic planning

50 Shades of Planning ·

2019/11/08

10 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

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00:41:36

A conversation with Bob Kerslake

50 Shades of Planning ·

2019/10/23

Sam 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

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00:42:20

Planning committees: cauldrons of human emotion

50 Shades of Planning ·

2019/09/26

If 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 links: 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

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186 results

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