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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 it"s 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

government politics

All Episodes

00:59:50

If I Ruled the World

50 Shades of Planning ·

2025/04/12

Sam 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

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01:40:58

Back in Black

50 Shades of Planning ·

2025/03/29

The fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning has been especially fast-paced, ever-changing and rock and roll of late.How then to try to catch up? Sam Stafford thought that the best way of doing so was to reprise the ‘Labour of Love’ episode that he published back in August of last year. Here then you will hear elements of nine conversations recorded online between friends of the podcast old and new about nine themes of the Government’s crystalising reform

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01:05:32

A Brief History of Planning 2010-2024

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/10/19

Back in March 2024 friend of the podcast Catriona Riddell gave a lecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning that she called ‘Strategic Planning in England - Where did we go so wrong?’.Sam Stafford couldn’t be there that night, but Catriona shared her slides on LinkedIn and they read to Sam almost like a ‘Brief History of Planning 2010-2024’, which he thought a good subject for an episode. As well as Catriona, who was Director of Planning at the South East England Regional Assembly when

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01:04:33

100 Days of Labour

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/10/12

Saturday 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

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00:52:56

Not the NPPF

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/10/05

Last week, on NPPF deadline day, Sam Stafford was in Manchester and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Katie Wray, David Diggle, Greg Dickson, Mark Parkinson and Claire Petricca-Riding at the studios of Reform Radio.Conscious that the podcast has covered the revised NPPF in episodes 128 and 131, they talked about some of the other current hot planning topics. They talked about brownfield passports and why existing tools in the box are not being used already; they

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00:53:57

The YIMBY Crowd

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/09/21

"‘The moment has come’: pro-building Labour YIMBYs are set to raise the roof" was the title of a piece in the Observer ahead of the Labour Party Conference (link below).For many of the most ambitious of the new cohort of Labour MPs, this is the fashionable campaign of the moment, not for economic growth but as a social justice movement – and one that many of the new millennials entering parliament hope to stake their careers on. Inside Labour it is not a left-right divide, but some of its

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00:55:56

The Masterplan

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/09/07

If you have listened to episodes 125 and 128 you will know Sam Stafford sought to cover, pre-publication, what could and should be in the new version of NPPF. With the consultation deadline now starting to loom large, this episode seeks to cover what is actually in it.Sam was in London earlier this week and caught up with friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor, Hashi Mohamed, Vicky Payne and Simon Ricketts at Soho Radio Studios. They will need no introduction to regular listeners, but for new

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01:04:55

Hitting the High Notes - Mike Best

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/08/31

In 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

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00:50:41

To rebuild or to retrofit?

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/08/17

To rebuild or to retrofit? That is the question posed by former Secretary of State Michael Gove’s intervention in planning applications for the redevelopment of M&S’ Oxford Street store and the former Museum of London building.According to the Climate Change Committee, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from buildings account for 23% of the UK total. How can we create energy-efficient, carbon neutral and climate resilient new buildings and what is needed to accelerate the

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01:44:41

Labour of Love

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/08/03

Sam Stafford has mentioned previously that the podcast would consider the new Government’s reform agenda and this is an attempt at doing so. The specifics of the NPPF consultation will be covered in more depth in due course, but what Listeners will hear in this jam-packed extravaganza of an episode is an exploration of that reform agenda in it’s broader sense.In anticipation of the NPPF, Sam invited some of the Shades alumni to discuss some of the policy areas of most interest to them and how

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01:21:32

Let's get digital

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/07/20

Long-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

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00:59:04

Housing by popular demand

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/07/06

One of the new Labour Government’s manifesto pledges is the construction of 1.5 million new homes between now and the end of this new parliament.“We will ensure local communities continue to shape housebuilding in their area, but where necessary Labour will not be afraid to make full use of intervention powers to build the houses we need”, the manifesto states, which strikes a markedly different tone to the emphatically localist one adopted by the Conservatives upon entering office back in

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00:54:29

What do we want?

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/06/22

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

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01:05:10

Efficiency Savings

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/06/15

In February 2024 Planning published a special report by Joey Gardiner entitled ‘how cost-saving consultants disrupted council planning services’. Cash-strapped councils have been following management consultants’ advice to split up their planning teams. Staff have been put into central departments to handle additional non-planning tasks. But the upshot, say critics, has been declining performance and a staff exodus. Joey’s piece highlighted the tumult at Tandridge, which in 2020 was formally

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00:58:06

Neutral Impact III (and a bit of Green Belt)

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/06/01

When Sam Stafford first covered nutrient neutrality, in February 2021, he described the process of eutrophication as a bit like the podcast itself: a little niche, but very important.When Sam published a second episode in September 2022 it had grown in importance to the extent that Prime Minister Liz Truss had pledged to "scrap nutrient neutrality rules". A Government press release issued in August 2023 stated that “through an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB), the

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00:59:32

Love Thy Neighbourhood Plan

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/05/18

What are we to make of neighbourhood planning? Friend of the podcast Ben Castell considers it a “grassroots planning revolution”. Perhaps less favourably it conjures for others images of corduroy and tweed-clad councillors convening a parish council working group to thwart plans for an incinerator or, worse still, new housing.With neighbourhood planning now part of the furniture, but with the current opposition and possible next Government talking about ‘taking planning up a level’, Sam

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00:47:21

Grey Belt

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/05/04

Sam Stafford was in London recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Catriona Riddell, Shelly Rouse and Nicola Gooch at Soho Radio Studios. One topic, the hot topic of the past few weeks, dominated the conversation.“Labour pledges housebuilding drive on Grey Belt with ‘golden rules’ to boost public services, affordable homes and improve green spaces”, so announced a press release dated 19 April. Keir Starmer has today set out five ‘golden rules’ for Grey Belt

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00:46:16

A Hillside to die on

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/04/20

Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Greg Dickson and Claire Petricca-Riding.During a conversation recorded at Reform Radio they talked about another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning. They talked about RPs not bidding for Section 106 sites, they talked about the 'Accelerated Planning System' consultation, so the proposals for the new Section 73B, the ten

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01:06:14

Hitting the High Notes - Nick Kilby

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/04/13

In 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

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00:48:50

Banishing Boxland

50 Shades of Planning ·

2024/03/23

The Prime Minister recently announced plans to "turbocharge" development within England's largest towns and cities to mark a Government consultation on strengthening planning policy for brownfield development.Sam Stafford thought then that now would be a good time to share a conversation that he recorded online in August 2023 with old friends of the podcast David Milner and Rebecca Coley, and new friend of the podcast Mark Aylward, about the redevelopment of big box retail parks. The prompt

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