50 Shades of Planning

Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friend of the podcast Charlotte Leach and new friends of the podcast Andrew Johnston and Lisa Tye. Over the course of an hour so they chatted about a few of the hot topics exercising the planning profession at minute. They talked about ‘the next phase of planning reform’ as set out in a written ministerial statement issued by the Secretary of State last month. That takes in the "unleashing" of development around railway stations; a requirement upon local authorities to notify the Secretary of State where they intend to refuse an application for 150 or more homes; and streamlining statutory consultees. They talked about AI and it’s growing influence on the planning system, and they talked about Section 106 Agreements. They also talked about a topic that has featured regularly on the podcast during 2025, national development management policies, which caused Sam to alight his soap box towards the end of the episode. Listen out too for some exciting mug-related news. Some accompanying reading. Next phase of planning reform Housebuilding around train stations will be given default “yes” Reforms to the statutory consultee system Announcements AI-powered nimbyism could grind UK planning system to a halt, experts warn AI Will Add To, Rather Than Reduce, Planning Delays Unless We Do Something About It Simplifying & Standardising Section 106 Agreement Processes: Proposals for Reform On NDMPs Some accompanying listening. Make It Up As You Go Along – Liam Gallagher & John Squire Any other business. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

Andrew Taylor, Group Planning Director at Vistry, and Ros Eastman, planning consultant, join forces with Ben Phillips, Jonathan Gimblett, Mat Capper, and Emma Williamson to tackle the complexities of planning applications and development delivery. They discuss the rising volume of applications driven by factors like the Grey Belt and emphasize the need for flexibility in decisions and S106 agreements. The conversation highlights the importance of proactive engagement with utility providers and the role of master developers in navigating challenges to ensure efficient project delivery.

This is the second of a series of episodes being led by the oldest friend of the podcast, Paul Smith. Paul put it to Sam Stafford that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Planners here very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he is chatting with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can be learnt. This episodes considers planning in Australia and, specifically, Sydney. This is a conversation that Paul recorded online in July 2025 with Melissa Neighbour. The two of them talked about the politics of Sydney’s housing crisis, gentle density, the merits of a greater than local approach to planning and the benefits and disbenefits of zonal planning. That might all sound familiar to planners in England... Some accompanying reading. The New South Wales Strategic Planning Toolkit A Metropolis of Three Cities: The Greater Sydney Region Plan Some accompanying listening. Music To Plan Towns To Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

In between movin' and shakin' in The Big Smoke recently Sam Stafford took the opportunity to meet a few friends of the podcast at Soho Radio Studios to pick out the highlights from another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning. Sam caught up with, and the episode features, old friends of the podcast Simon Ricketts, Annie Gingell, Shelly Rouse and Hana Loftus, and new friend of the podcast Hayley White. Over the course of an hour or so they talked about affordable housing delivery, specifically the constraints on the use of grant funding by RPs and the (then) rumoured changes to affordable housing thresholds in London. They talked about C.G. Fry and the implications of that Supreme Court decision. They talked in the context of a second letter from the Housing & Planning Minister to the Planning Inspectorate about local plan coverage and whether stepped trajectories should be seen a pragmatic response to changing circumstances or an exercise in cynical can-kicking. And towards the end they touched on National Development Management Policies. Some accompanying reading. London Stalling Will Labour’s London housing boost plan work? Residential development in London Local Plan examinations: letter to the Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate (October 2025) Why stepped housing requirements aren’t justified and should be avoided What does planning permission *really* get you: CG Fry in the Supreme Court — #planoraks Autumn Budget 2025 - LPDF submission to HMT Some accompanying viewing. Panorama – The race to build 1.5 million homes The Planners are Coming Some accompanying listening. The Rolling Stones -Jigsaw Puzzle Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

Charles Goode hosted an event in Birmingham in September 2025 to mark the launch of his book, “The Green Belt, Housing Crises and Planning Systems” (link below). Charles invited Catriona Riddell, Mike Best and James Corbet Burcher to join him at that event and Sam Stafford invited the four of them to record a conversation about the Green Belt beforehand. In a conversation recorded at Birmingham Podcast Studios during the afternoon before Charles’ book launch, the four of them dived as deep into the Green Belt as it might be possible to do. They talked about the role of Green Belt in the national psyche; how it’s role and perceptions of it’s role have changed even when policy has not; and they asked why some places have a Green Belt and why some places do not. They also talked about the future of the Green Belt and the case for a Royal Commission to determine what that might be. Some accompanying reading. The Green Belt, Housing Crises and Planning Systems A Practical Guide to Securing Planning Permission on Grey Belt Land in the Green Belt Outskirts by John Grindrod review – life in the green belt Nimby Watch: Meet the Nimbys turning villages into towns The Green Belt. What it is and why; what it isn't; and what it should be Some accompanying viewing. Andrew Black - The Green Belt Perambulator Some accompanying listening. Coalescence - The Lucid Dream Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

In this engaging discussion, Mike Kiely, Chair of the Planning Officers Society, Annie Gingell, planning consultant at Turley, Gillian Macinnes, public sector planning manager, and Ben Woolnough, head of Planning at East Suffolk, dive into the ethics of planning decisions. They explore the implications of officers based on their recommendations, the importance of impartiality, and the complexities of report writing. The panel also debates the need for transparency in consultant roles and the challenges faced by councils in upholding ethics while navigating member decisions.

This is the fourteenth episode in Sam Stafford's Hitting the High Notes series. If you have not listened to one of these before the basic proposition is that Sam 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 though you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music without the copyright holders permission or a very expensive PRS licensing agreement could land Sam in hot water, so, when you have finished listening, you will have to make do with YouTube videos and a Spotify playlist, links to which you will find below. Sam's guest for this episode of Hitting The High Notes is Alice Lester who, planners might have read back in June 2025, is stepping down from her role as Corporate Director for Neighbourhoods & Regeneration at Brent Council. In a conversation recorded at Soho Radio Studios at the end of July 2025, Alice takes Sam through her career to date. Alice talks about her early days in development control, rising through the ranks in Westminster and Camden; her decade or so at the Planning Advisory Service; her involvement with Wembley Park and encounters with Tony Pidgley; and her drive to make it easier for the people of Brent to build kitchen extensions... Some accompanying listening. Alice’s Spotify playlist London Calling – The Clash Love Is A Losing Game – Amy Winehouse Freedom! 90 – George Michael Shake It Off – Taylor Swift (Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding Our House – Madness Some accompanying reading. Charles Goode’s Green Belt Book Launch and Discussion Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

Sam Stafford was in London recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Nicola Gooch, Catriona Riddell, Andrew Taylor, Annie Gingell and Iain Thomson. Over the course of an hour or so at Soho Radio Studios they enjoyed a good ol’ fashioned 50 Shades-style ramblechat about a few of the hot topics exercising the planning profession at the moment. They talked water neutrality and about statutory consultees, specifically the need to engage utility providers with the Spatial Development Strategy process. They talked about the merits of locally-set application fees. They talked about grant funding for affordable housing; the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill, which led on to Assets of Community Value; the use of hotels for the accommodation of asylum seekers; Level 7 Apprenticeships; and they talked about data centres. Some accompanying reading. Crest Nicholson Operations Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government & Anor [2025] EWHC 2194 (Admin) (22 August 2025) Chief Planner’s Newsletter Devolution or revolution? – a brief guide to the changes proposed by the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill English devolution: Area factsheets Planning Law Is Being Used For Politicking About Asylum Seekers RTPI warns Housing Minister of major threat to planning profession from apprenticeship restrictions Data centres to be expanded across UK as concerns mount Data centres as vital as NHS and power grid, government says Grid delays now rival planning as chief threat to project delivery Decoding Data Centers: Opportunities, risks and investment strategies Life on the Front III Some accompanying viewing. Fawlty Towers S1/E2 - 'The Builders' Some accompanying listening. What’s Going On? – Marvin Gaye Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

This is the first of a new series of episodes being led by Paul Smith, who regular 50 Shades listeners will know is the Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group and a Housing Today columnist. Paul put it to Sam Stafford recently that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he will chat with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what planners in England can learn. First up, the USA, and a conversation with Emily Hamilton, who is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center, which is part of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. Paul and Emily talk amongst other things about the role of federal government, “comprehensive plans” and whether there is a link between more liberal zoning arrangements and housing affordability. Some accompanying reading. Transit orientated zoning in Washington DC Zoning code accidentally abolished in Charlottesville Zoning out American families Planorama: How the English planning system can learn from abroad Some accompanying viewing. US Zoning, Explained Some accompanying listening. Special Economic Zone – Sex Swing Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friends of the podcast Ian Wray, Claire Petricca-Riding and David Diggle, and new friends of the podcast Charlotte Leach and Louise Fountain. Over the course of an hour or so they enjoyed a good ol’ fashioned 50 Shades ramblechat. They talked about the increasingly rancorous nature of planning and whether a sense of fractiousness and febrility is driving the rise of Reform as a political force. They also talked about New Towns and Ian’s 'Northern Arc' proposition, and, towards the end, they swapped holiday reading recommendations. Some accompanying reading. The Rise of Reform How Britain's high street decline is fuelling Reform UK's rise: 'There's a sense that politics has failed' We won’t let residents block big new towns, says planning minister (£) On New Towns ‘We have to move’: historic village of Tempsford reels from plan to swell its 600 residents to 350,000 A ‘once in a generation’ opportunity for the UK’s next wave of new towns The reality of the Northern Arc The Planning Alliance Life on the Front Line III The 50 Shades Book Club When The Circus Leaves Town - Dave Proudlove Nairn’s Towns - Ian Nairn Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall A waiter in Paris – Edward Chisholm The Danish Way of Parenting - Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl  Why We Get The Wrong Politicians - Isabel Hardmen Great British Plans – Ian Wray Some accompanying viewing. Nairn across Britain Nairn's Journeys - Football Towns (Huddersfield and Halifax) Some accompanying listening. Episode 36. Can the British plan? A Fresh Dawn For North Cheshire - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan Any other business. 50 Shades T-Shirts! If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here. Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.