50 Shades of Planning

Little 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 have actually achieved and, on the other side of the coin, that you might not have been the only one to have struggled at times. Looking ahead, it is hoped that these episodes serve as a kind of time capsule. Something to listen back on in the future, however it pans out, and remember just what an extraordinary year it has been. Sam's only editorial stipulation was that recordings were about five minutes in length. Whatever people wanted to talk about was completely up to them, but as you will here, the themes that emerge are quite similar. So in this episode you will hear erudite and insightful observations from… Sue Manley;Alistair Lomax;Vicky Payne;Hannah Hickman;Catriona Riddell;Mike Best; andKatie Wray. Sue is a Director at Placemarque (@placemarque) and featured on Episode 28. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-manley-72542627 Alistair (@alistair_lomax) is a Director at the Arc Universities Group and featured on Episode 18. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-lomax-13b00413 Vicky (@Victoria_Payne) is a planner and urbanist at URBED and is a regularly contributor to the podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-payne-6b05b939 Hannah is a Director at Hannah Hickman Consulting and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of the West of England. She featured on Episode 24. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahhickman1 Catriona (@CatrionaRiddel1) is a Director at Catriona Riddell Associate and featured on Episode 21. https://www.linkedin.com/in/catriona-riddell-b418a322 Mike (@bestlaidplan) is a Senior Director at Turley and featured on Episode 9. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-best-083306b Katie (@kluw) is an Assistant Director at Deloitte and featured on Episode 28. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-wray-mrtpi-a91a5827 Some accompanying reading. A blog Sam wrote whilst on furlough leave in April. https://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2020/04/memories-of-200809-career-advice-for-my.html A plug for Sam's brother-in-law's audio visual business (in lieu of having to pay for some kit). https://www.sight-n-sound.co.uk/index.html

The 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 cheer is in short supply, but, fear not, the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast is here to spread some. Sam Stafford is joined in this episode by David Diggle (@Diggs16), Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne) and Shelly Rouse (@rouse_shelly) to share some of their funny career stories. There are contributions too from Jonathan Easton (@jonnye47) and Sam Smith (@SmithSam_). As anybody familiar with the case of the Headington shark will know, any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky. As anybody working within the planning system will attest, it certainly does make place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky...

Planning 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? What though will still have a barrister looking down their nose at if you if you get it wrong? And what can barristers do that solicitors can’t? Sam Stafford is joined in this episode by Simon Ricketts, Constanze Bell (Stanzie to her friends), and Jerry Cahill QC to discuss these questions; the role of the lawyer in the planning system; and to answer the questions that Sam has always been too scared to ask. Ubiquitous planning lawyer Simon (@sricketts1) is a partner at Town Legal LLP (@town_legal). Stanzie is a barrister at Kings Chambers (@KCPlanningTeam) and one of the highest rated juniors according to Planning Resource. Jerry retired in 2018 after over 40 years at the bar (35 with No.5 Chambers), but is keeping his eye in from south west Ireland with Lone Star Land. Some accompanying reading. Simon's Blog (which is definitely pronounced Simon-icity) https://simonicity.com/ Some accompanying viewing. North Square https://www.channel4.com/programmes/north-square Crown Court https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140733/

‘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 public more accepting of new development. As then Secretary of State James Brokenshire wrote in a forward to Policy Exchange’s ‘Building Beautiful Places’ report: ‘to unlock the building of homes at the scale and rate where they are required, we need to overcome public opposition to new development. The promise of beautiful homes and places that add value and character to the area they are built, rather than take away from it, is an essential part of that.’ The public though, when asked about possible advantages that might increase support for more homes being built in their local area, rank higher quality design behind medical facilities, transport links, employment opportunities, affordable housing, green spaces, schools, leisure facilities and shops. Is beauty in the built environment different to good design? Are beautiful, well-designed places and buildings being created because of, or in spite of, the planning system? Can the planning system better enable the creation of beautiful, well-designed places and, if so, how? And would that really overcome perceived public objections to the principle of development? Sam Stafford puts these questions to Jaimie Ferguson, Director at Open (Optimised Environments Ltd); Lisa Mcfarlane, Director and RIBA Specialist Conservation Architect at Seven Architecture; and Paul Smith, Managing Director at The Strategic Land Group. Thanks to Jaimie for the title of this episode. Twitter handles: Sam - @samuel_stafford Jaimie - @jaimieferg Lisa - @lmcfarlane01 Paul - @Paul_SLG Some accompanying reading. Public attitudes to house building: findings from the British Social Attitudes survey 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-attitudes-to-house-building-findings-from-the-british-social-attitudes-survey-2018 Architects hope to tear down garden fences of England's future homes. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/aug/23/architects-hope-tear-down-garden-fences-england-future-homes Strategic Land Group's Research Paper: Perceptions of the design quality of new build homes in England. https://strategiclandgroup.co.uk/2020/07/17/design-quality-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/ Place Alliance's Housing Design Audit for England. http://placealliance.org.uk/research/national-housing-audit/ Some accompanying viewing. Homer is asked to design a car for the company run by his long-lost brother. https://youtu.be/WFZUB1eJb34

‘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, including a substantial 52% growth in sales of household goods. ONS data up to 26 July showed that footfall in UK High Streets, retail parks and shopping centres was 60% of what it was a year previously. On the one hand, with just one in six workers back in the office and two-thirds of chief executives predicting a move to low density office usage, the prospects for city centre sandwich shops and bars that rely on lunchtime and after work trade look bleak. On the other hand the prospects for independent businesses in the towns and villages where former commuters might be spending their money look rosier. Can the High Street be saved? Should the High Street be saved? What, indeed, do we even mean by the High Street? What role does the planning system have in answering these questions? Sam Stafford puts these questions to Iain Jenkinson, Rebecca Trevalyan and Bill Grimsey. Iain (@iain_jenkinson) is a Senior Director at CBRE and has spent twenty years advising private and public sector clients on city and town centre regeneration projects. Rebecca (@RTrevalyan) is a co-founder of social enterprise Library of Things and an advocate for community-powered neighbourhoods. Rebecca co-authored the Grimsey Review Covid-19 Supplement Report: ‘Build Back Better’. Bill (@BillGrimsey) is known for his leadership at Wickes, Iceland and Focus, and is arguably the most high-profile advocate for our High Streets, publishing reports in 2013 and 2018, as well as the recent Covid-19 update mentioned above. Some accompanying reading. The Grimsey Review Covid-19 Supplement Report: ‘Build Back Better’. http://www.vanishinghighstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Grimsey-Covid-19-Supplement-June-2020.pdf 'Life after Coronavirus: A new high street is waiting — if we’re brave enough to reimagine access to property' by Rebecca. https://medium.com/@rebecca.trevalyan/life-after-coronavirus-a-new-high-street-is-waiting-if-were-brave-enough-to-reimagine-access-9b123875d6f 'The future of high streets and how we can all play a part' by Chris Sands. https://totallylocally.org/stuff/blog/the-future-of-high-streets-how-we-can-all-play-a-part/ 'A different way to save the high street' by Josh Lowe. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/high-street-shops-community-marks-and-spencer Rebecca's Twitter Mega-Thread on alternative uses. https://twitter.com/rtrevalyan/status/1270662358600425472?s=21 Participatory City. http://www.participatorycity.org/about Some accompanying listening. 'Shopping' by the Pet Shop Boys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoIe_JatFfI

“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 debate sucking all of the oxygen out of the examination process. Whilst the concept was simpler than the 2012 NPPF’s requirement to assess OAN, it could be argued that as merely and ‘starting point’, and with “exceptional circumstances” still to be taken into account, as well as the household projections being fed into the formula seemingly changing as often as the seasons, the standard method has made little, if any, difference to local plan timescales. Here we are now digesting the implications of the proposed 2020 version of the standard method, as well as the further reform included in the housing-focussed ‘Planning for the future’ White Paper. Has the standard method improved plan making? Do the 2020 standard method and the White Paper’s proposals represent a step forwards, a step backwards or step sideways? Or infact does the numbers game simply involve going around and around in circles? Sam Stafford puts these questions to Christopher Young, Queens Counsel at No. 5 Chambers; Shelly Rouse, Principal Planner at Canterbury City Council on secondment at the Planning Advisory Service; and Colin Robinson, Director at Lichfields. Some accompanying reading. The Local Plan Expert's Group report. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508345/Local-plans-report-to-governement.pdf 'The impacts of the standard methodology for assessing the objectively assessed need for housing in local authorities' by the University of Liverpool. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/geography-and-planning/research/sarc/research-projects/ 'Setting a higher standard – a new method for assessing housing needs' by Bethan Haynes at Lichfields. https://lichfields.uk/blog/2020/august/7/setting-a-higher-standard-a-new-method-for-assessing-housing-needs/ 'The new standard method for assessing housing need' by Christopher Young QC. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christopher-young-qc-3097b822_article-on-the-governments-new-standard-activity-6709337597438672897-FdwJ

A 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 demands upon them from restaurateurs, cyclists, pedestrians and urban dwellers coming out for air. There is less hustle and less bustle. How permanent might these changes be and how might the certainty and confidence with which new places have been created be affected as a result. How will the pandemic change the nature of place? Sam Stafford discusses these themes in this episode with Ruairidh Jackson (Founding Director at Start Advisory), Sue Manley (Director at Placemarque) and Katie Wray (Assistant Director at Deloitte). Katie and Placemarque are on Twitter at @kluw and @placemarque, and Start Advisory is on Instagram at @start_advisory. Some accompanying reading. 'Coronavirus: we’re in a real-time laboratory of a more sustainable urban future' by Paul Chatterton. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-were-in-a-real-time-laboratory-of-a-more-sustainable-urban-future-135712 'The city and the virus' by Max Nathan. https://medium.com/@maxnathan/the-city-and-the-virus-db8f4a68e404 ‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?' by Peter C Baker. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/how-will-the-world-emerge-from-the-coronavirus-crisis Some accompanying listening. Places And Spaces by Donald Byrd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbgblfgsQI

In 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, the seemingly endless rounds of planning reform and the transformation of Salford Quays. Some associated reading. Place North West's coverage of Chris' retirement https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/profile-findley-looks-back-on-26-years-at-salford/ Sam's blog on his career to date http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2020/04/memories-of-200809-career-advice-for-my.html

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’ report in January. ‘It’s this week!’. ‘No I’ve heard it’s next week’. It’s a White Paper’. ‘No, it’s a Policy Paper…’ And so it went on until, all of a sudden, everybody agreed that it was midnight and then, like a general election result, planners had to decide whether to stay up really late or get up really early (or both). And now, a few days later and as the excitement subsides, we are left to ask ourselves what the ‘Planning For The Future’ White Paper really means. Is it ‘radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War’, as Her Majesty’s Government would have us believe or is it ‘a developer's charter that will see communities side lined in decisions’ as Her Majesty’s Opposition would have us believe? The Government put together a task force to draft the White Paper and for this episode Sam Stafford puts a 50 Shades task force together to interpret it. Matthew Spry (@mspry_) is a Senior Director at Lichfields; Ruth Stockley (@RuthStockley3) is a barrister at Kings Chambers; and Anna Rose (@EPlanna) is Head of the Planning Advisory Service at the Local Government Association. Some associated reading. Planning for the future https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future Changes to the current planning system https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changes-to-the-current-planning-system Lichfields' analysis'  https://lichfields.uk/grow-renew-protect-planning-for-the-future/the-white-paper/ Rachel Coxcoon's Twitter thread about zero carbon homes https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1293202597990596609.html Simon Ricketts' blog about the White Paper https://simonicity.com/2020/08/07/for-the-future/ Some associated watching. HIGPNFY with Chris Katkowski QC https://youtu.be/fE6KD4K8ugk

‘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 plane. The short-term priority is to try to save jobs and livelihoods, but that means restoring high-carbon sectors such as aviation. The reduction of net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050 became law in the UK in June 2019. As the Committee on Climate Change recently noted though, whilst “initial steps towards a net-zero policy package have been taken this was not the year of policy progress that the Committee called for.” The pandemic is a chance to reset the economy and to bring together the seemingly dichotomous nature of greener versus faster, but what would ‘building back better’, if it isn’t just vacuous sloganeering, mean for planning. Sam Stafford puts this question to Hugh Ellis, Director of Policy at the TCPA; Jon Lovell, co-founder of Hillbreak (@Lovell_Jon); and Claire Petricca-Riding, Partner & National Head of Planning and Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell (@PetriccaRiding). Some accompanying reading: 'The sustainable, responsible and impact investment landscape', by Caroline McGill at Hillbreak https://www.hillbreak.com/impact-finance-part-i/ The Future Homes Standard: changes to Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations for new dwellings https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-homes-standard-changes-to-part-l-and-part-f-of-the-building-regulations-for-new-dwellings The TCPA responds to the Prime Minister’s ‘Build, build, build’ announcements https://www.tcpa.org.uk/news/press-release-the-tcpa-responds-to-prime-ministers-build-build-build-announcements Reducing UK emissions: 2020 Progress Report to Parliament https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/reducing-uk-emissions-2020-progress-report-to-parliament/ Some accompanying listening. Big Jet Plane by Primal Scream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpY-vjLjTM