50 Shades of Planning

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This episode is another in the Hitting The High Notes series, which is 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 projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we 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.

Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 You Tube videos and a Spotify playlist, links to which you will find below.

This episode features a conversation that Sam recorded with Hashi Mohamed at Soho Radio Studios in London towards the end of July 2023.

Regular listeners will recall that Hashi featured in episode 78 of the podcast, which was the reproduction of a conversation between him and friend of the podcast Simon Ricketts about Hashi’s book ‘A Home of One’s Own’.

Sam's conversation with Hashi also takes in ‘A Home of One’s Own’, as well as Hashi’s other book, ‘People Like Us - What It Takes to Make It in Modern Britain’. In addition to the politics of housing and social mobility, you will also hear Hashi talk about his remarkable arrival in this country and a career in the law that has seen him become one of Planning Magazine’s top-rated junior barristers. His ‘Three A’s’ are top tips for any professional and listen out too for the best planning inquiry tale you will hear bar nun.

Sam also marks this 100th episode of the podcast with some extended bonus waffle at the end, which was recorded whilst he was sunning himself in southern Spain.

Hashi’s song selections

Unforgettable - Nat King Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFyuOEovTOE

You’ll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & The Pacemakers

https://youtu.be/OV5_LQArLa0

Shaking of the Sheets – Steeleye Span

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16WqxSMCu0

Changes - Tupac

https://youtu.be/eXvBjCO19QY

Still D.R.E - Dr Dre

https://youtu.be/_CL6n0FJZpk

A change is gonna come – Sam Cooke

https://youtu.be/wEBlaMOmKV4

Hashi’s Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LIyBa2ifAY9EClQMdvrom?si=a8d8417838c3488e

Some accompanying listening.

Analysis: Housing, Planning and Politics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014ptp

Analysis: Adventures in Social Mobility

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04zrkxv?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Gettin’ In The Way – Cooper T

https://youtu.be/BX9UkVoGRj8

Some accompanying reading.

Raising the bar: Hashi Mohamed’s journey from child refugee to top lawyer

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/12/hashi-mohamed-child-refugee-barrister-people-like-us

Hashi’s books

https://www.hashimohamed.com/the-book

The housing theory of everything by Sam Bowman, John Myers and Ben Southwood

https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-everything

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Long-serving listeners might recall that for episode 45 of the podcast Sam Stafford published a conversation recorded with Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, about the then Housing, Communities & Local Government Committee’s recently-published report on the future of the planning system in England. Clive chaired that committee and has been involved in housing and planning-related select committees of different names since 2002. He has been a member of parliament since 1992.

That 2021 report, which considered the ‘Planning for the Future’ white paper of August 2020, highlighted concerns about "the lack of detail, which has made it very difficult to assess the possible practical implications” and concluded that “Government should consult on the details of proposed reforms to prevent unintended consequences and harms resulting from them”.

Here we are a couple of years on and the now Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee, which Clive still chairs, has published another report on reforms to national planning policy and he very kindly made time to record another online conversation with Sam about it. Their wide-ranging, whistle-stop conversation takes in, amongst the other issues covered by the Committee's inquiry, the politics of the NPPF consultation, housing targets, a 'Plan for England', Green Belt (obviously), the Infrastructure Levy and local authority resources.

Some accompanying reading.

The LUHC Committee’s planning reform report

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7281/reforms-to-national-planning-policy/publications/

The HCLG Committee’s 2021 planning reform report

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/634/the-future-of-the-planning-system-in-england/publications/

The LUHC Committee’s report on funding for “Levelling Up”

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/6928/funding-for-levelling-up/publications/

Philip Barnes’ blog on abolishing hope value

https://philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/11/is-it-really-the-hope-that-kills-you/

The UK now spends more on housing benefit than on most government departments

https://www.newstatesman.com/chart-of-the-day/2022/11/uk-spending-housing-benefit-government-departments

Gove’s department hands back £1.9bn meant to tackle England’s housing crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/12/gove-department-hands-back-19bn-meant-tackle-england-housing-crisis

Community Infrastructure Levy review: report to government

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-infrastructure-levy-review-report-to-government

Some accompanying viewing.

Sam’s evidence to the LUHC Committee’s planning reform inquiry

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/be5501c6-ca1a-4aaf-9c69-f444392df7fd

Some accompanying listening.

Episode 90 of 50 Shades of Planning – No hope?

https://pod.co/50-shades-of-planning/no-hope

Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Tame Impala (s/o to Simon Ricketts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wycjnCCgUes

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

This episode is part of an international triumvirate, which has been put together with the help of old friend of the podcast, Ian Wray, and new friend of the podcast, Lucy Natarajan.

Ian, regular listeners will know, is a Professor at the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place at University of Liverpool.

Lucy is one of the editors of the Built Environment journal, a co-founder of Place Alliance, an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes and an Associate Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning.

Ian and Lucy put together the December 2022 edition of Built Environment and sought in so doingto explore ‘the power of plans’. This, they endeavoured to do, by way of a series of internationally commissioned case studies on grand plans that have been shown to work, asking how they worked and why. In this series Sam Stafford explores with Lucy and Ian three of those case studies.

In this episode, in a conversation recorded remotely at the end of November 2022, Sam and Lucy talk to Bob Yaro about New York, a city that has experienced rapid growth, rapid decline and an impressive economic turnaround. New York has long been planned on a city region scale, but the origin of it’s series of great plans lies in a small number of planning pioneers and philanthropists.

That economic turnaround has much to do, despite it not having a statutory function, with the Regional Planning Association, with which Bob is heavily involved and who’s role he describes as “advancing ideas whose time has not yet come".

Some accompanying reading.

Built Environment – The Power of Plans

https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/power-plans

Ian’s recommendation.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/23/the-power-broker-robert-moses-and-the-fall-of-new-york-robert-caro-review

Some accompanying listening

Ian’s recommendation.

New York, New York by Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCdxrfcAtc

Sam’s recommendation

The Only Living Boy in New York by Everything But The Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgA6cpPNXEk

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

This episode is part of an international triumvirate, which has been put together with the help of old friend of the podcast, Ian Wray, and new friend of the podcast, Lucy Natarajan.

Ian, regular listeners will know, is a Professor at the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place at University of Liverpool.

Lucy is one of the editors of the Built Environment journal, a co-founder of Place Alliance, an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes and an Associate Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning.

In this episode, in a recording made online in June 2023, Ian and Sam talk about Shenzen with Mee Kam Ng. Shenzen is a city that, when designated as China’s first Special Economic Zone in the late 1970s was a border town with a population of less than 250,000 and is now the country’s ‘Silicon Valley’, with a population of over 17 million.

Some accompanying reading.

Built Environment – The Power of Plans

https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/power-plans

Ian’s recommendation.

How Asia Works by Joe Studwell

https://groveatlantic.com/book/how-asia-works/#:~:text=In%20How%20Asia%20Works%2C%20Joe,Asia%20and%20why%2C%20and%20for

Mee Kam’s recommendations

Theorising Urban Planning in a Transitional Economy: The Case of Shenzhen, People's Republic of China

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40112599.pdf

Strategic Planning of China's First Special Economic Zone: Shenzhen City Master Plan (2010–2020)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2011.626316

The Story of Shenzhen

https://www.metropolis.org/sites/default/files/resources/the_story_of_shenzhen_2nd_edition_sep_2019_0.pdf

Spatial Planning for Smart Sustainable Development?

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2022.2139075

Some accompanying listening.

Mee Kam’s recommendation.

Story of Spring (Guangdong Province's 30th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up) by Dong Wenhua

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfRHaKwvOxs

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

This episode is part of an international triumvirate, which has been put together with the help of old friend of the podcast, Ian Wray, and new friend of the podcast, Lucy Natarajan.

Ian, regular listeners will know, is a Professor at the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place at University of Liverpool.

Lucy is one of the editors of the Built Environment journal, a co-founder of Place Alliance, an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes and an Associate Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning.

In this episode, in a conversation recorded remotely at the end of November 2022, Sam and Lucy to Jim Steer about Dublin, to which, by common consensus, town planning in the 1960s and 1970s was not kind, with large-scale road building to serve car-dependent suburbs and little investment in public transport. In the early 1990s though an EU-funded Dublin Transportation Initiative put the city on a new path…

Some accompanying reading.

Built Environment – The Power of Plans

https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/power-plans

The Dublin Transportation Initiative

https://voicesofsteer.steergroup.com/post/102i3aj/the-importance-of-process-in-planning-the-dublin-transportation-initiative-par

Jim recommends the following by Frank McDonald:

The Destruction of Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1985
Saving the City, Tomar, 1989
Ireland's Earthen Houses (jointly with Peigin Doyle), A&A Farmar, 1997
The Ecological Footprint of Cities (editor), International Institute for the Urban Environment, 1998
The Daily Globe: Environmental change, the public and the media (contributor), Earthscan, 2000
The Construction of Dublin, Gandon Editions, 2000

Some accompanying listening.

Jim’s recommendation.

Summer in Dublin by Bagatelle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMhWll_mfGk

Ian’s recommendation.

The Maids of Mitchelstown by The Boty Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVE7gZ1GnBc

Sam’s recommendation

Big by Fontaines DC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiLk6G5N-3Y

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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A 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 the SLCC’s national planning advisor.

The conversation, which hopefully busts some myths along the way, touches on the role of the clerk, the role of the ward councillor, localism, the then recent NPPF consultation, the management of public open space, affordable housing and community land trusts.

The SLCC has already shared the recording via it's podcast, but Sam said that he would share it via the 50 Shades platform as well.

50 Shades of Planning is the podcast by planners and for planners so if you would like to use it as a platform for sharing anything that needs talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam at samstafford@hotmail.com or via @samuel_stafford on Twitter.

Some accompanying listening.

Rules of Engagement by King Creosote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcKPu6Yo8q4

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Hitting 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 without the copyright holders permission or a very expensive PRS licensing agreement could land Sam in hot water, so, when you have finished listening to this episode, 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 Steve Quartermain. Steve was the government’s Chief Planner for twelve years, during which time and perhaps most notably he oversaw the introduction of the transformative National Planning Policy Framework. Prior to this, as you will hear, Steve spent thirty years in local government, starting as an unqualified graduate trainee designing local plan covers in Epping Forest and ending having helped to lead Hambleton to beacon council status.

Steve's song selections.

The Battle of Epping Forest by Genesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuIYyXiD5w

OK Computer by Radiohead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTOqwbuQq_U

The theme to All Creatures Great & Small

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6aquEsK_JQ

House of Fun by Madness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QnBccG_ChI

If It Happens Again by UB40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s54m7TIFN7w

I’m Still Standing by Elton John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwVBirqD2s

Steve's Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5XDlkcNbob5NCgcKAxXUGU?si=lXf4qpHVT4araW2SQtGO8g&nd=1

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

This 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.

Simon Ricketts (@sricketts1) is a Partner at Town Legal.

Claire Petricca-Riding (@petriccaRiding) is a Partner and National Head of Planning & Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell.

Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne) is Strategy, Research & Engagement Lead at the Quality of Life Foundation.

Some accompanying reading.

Simon’s ‘All Systems Gove’ blog (which itself includes lots of interesting links)

https://simonicity.com/2022/11/19/all-systems-gove/

Sam’s 'State of Planning' Blog

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-state-of-planning.html

Banking on Brownfield - a Lichfields report

https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/banking-on-brownfield

Michael Gove's speech to the CPS conference

https://capx.co/unlocking-the-change-this-country-needs/

Robert Jenrick and the 'perception of landbanking'

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/government-will-act-on-build-out-rates-jenrick-confirms/5112044.article

The Quality of Life Foundation

https://www.qolf.org/

Simon’s Hillside Parks Blog

https://simonicity.com/2022/11/02/running-down-that-hillside/

Some accompanying listening

Hillside Song by My Morning Jacket

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbxrWHfblKo

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Planning 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, helpfully, are questions that a study to be published by four academics, Geoff Vigar, Abigal Schoneboom, Jason Slade and Malcom Tait, seeks to answer.

Their book, ‘What Town Planners Do’ (from where Sam Stafford pilfered that opening paragraph) offers "a unique insight into the everyday lives of planners and those in associated built environment occupations" and readers are promised "an exceptional account of the micro-politics of a knowledge-intensive profession". "It seeks to put planners and where they work at centre stage".

Sam talks in this episode about the themes of the study and the four ethnographic case studies from which they emerge with three of the study’s authors. Geoff Vigar is a Professor of Urban Planning at Newcastle University; Abigail Schoneboom is a Lecturer in Urban Planning at Newcastle University and Jason Slade is a Lecturer in Town Planning at Sheffield University.

Some accompanying reading.

The Working in the Public Interest programme

https://witpi.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/home

What Town Planners Do

https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/what-town-planners-do

Some accompanying listening.

Music To Plan Towns To - Sam's town planning-themed Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/73JzYK9UqCXRiUjQhgSID4?si=hKtgaaweTAeloOk1sEJ85w

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

This 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 are the themes that Simon and Hashi explore in their conversation about ‘A Home of One’s Own’, with some contributions towards the end of the discussion from Lucy Wood, James Pargeter and Kim Power.

Some accompanying reading.

Simon’s Simonicity blog

https://simonicity.com/

Hashi’s website

https://www.hashimohamed.com/

Some accompanying listening.

Planning Law Unplanned

https://www.clubhouse.com/club/planning-law-unplan?utm_medium=ch_club&utm_campaign=7-ikaMXnsZEKQ2GVi2x7xQ-412656

Hashi’s Radio 4 Analysis programme

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014ptp

The Charlatans – A House Is Not A Home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKqJf1r77TM

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Peter Dixon. Peter's studies at Cambridge started with archaeology and anthropology, but finished with land economy. Having started his career as a surveyor with JR Eve, Peter co-founded planning consultancy Hepher Dixon, which was subsequently acquired by Savills, before retraining as a barrister. Their conversation takes in the changing role of the planning consultant, the circular nature of planning policy, Noel Coward, motorway service areas and a football stadium.

Peter's song selections.

Walking on Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUmE-tne5U

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6O1AYUrVQs

Louisa by Noel Coward

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jJpZE1PSlI

Grouch of the Day by Squeeze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP3paAlx54k

Kaddish, Deuz Melodies Hebraiques No 1 by Maurice Ravel (from Camille Thomas’ ‘Voice of Hope)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEZ9wwVbZMQ

Between the Devil and the deep Blue Sea by George Harrison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJEtLjnO7E

Peter's Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3g5MWyrbKY41lyhfxKcfb1?si=PPqbzrwoTg2oxYxi-POGGw

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

It 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 kindly agreed to record that conversation so that some of it could be used and shared by Sam for 50 Shades. You will hear then in the next forty five minutes or so some thoughts from that group on what is known and not known about the Growth Plan and what the implications for planning may or may not be.

Simon Ricketts (@sricketts1) is a Partner at Town Legal.

Iain Thomson (@KingofSurbo) is MD at Bellona Advisors.

Shelly Rouse (@rouse_shelly) is a Principal Consultant at the Planning Advisory Service.

Nicola Gooch (not on Twitter) is a Partner at Irwin Mitchell.

Jonathan Easton (@jonnye47) is a full-time Barrister at Kings Chambers and a part-time punster.

Some accompanying reading.

The Growth Plan

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-growth-plan-2022-documents/the-growth-plan-2022-html

Additional information about Growth Zones

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investment-zones-in-england

Simon's Growth Plan Blog

https://simonicity.com/2022/09/23/what-does-the-growth-plan-mean-for-development-and-infrastructure/

Iain's Growth Plan Blog

https://www.bellona-advisors.co.uk/reports/growth-plan-analysis/

Nicola's Growth Plan Blog

https://imbusiness.passle.net/post/102hxsn/what-truss-did-on-my-holidays-its-much-more-than-just-the-mini-budget

Sam's Growth Plan Blog

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2022/09/in-investment-zone.html

Zack Simon's Growth Plan Blog

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/investment-zones

Some accompanying listening.

Docklands Renewed by Sea Power

https://youtu.be/hCVDjaelqDM

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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When 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 March this year, 2022, Natural England announced that a further 20 catchments covering 42 additional local authorities were also subject to the restriction, which brings to a total of 27, the number of catchments, and 74, the number of LPAs, that are now subject to the restrictions.

The HBF has calculated that at least 100,000 homes are currently delayed because of the nutrients issue.

A further eighteen months on Sam revisits the questions posed in Episode 38. What has the impact of this issue been? How far away is a satisfactory resolution in those parts of the country that have been affected? And, with change afoot for both the post-Brexit environmental assessment regime and the planning system more broadly, what lessons can be drawn for planning at the scale of a river catchment?

Sam's guests in this episode are:

Marian Cameron, Director, Marian Cameron Consultants Ltd;
Max Tant, Flood Risk Manager, Kent County Council;
Rachel Jones, Ecology Manager & Senior Nutrient Project Officer, Wiltshire Council; and
Simon Packer, Director, Turley

Some accompanying reading

George Eustice’s WMS

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-plan-to-reduce-water-pollution

July's Chief Planner Letter

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1093278/Chief_Planner_Letter_with_Nutrient_Neutrality_and_HRA_Update_-_July_2022.pdf

How a Tesco chicken deal may have helped pollute one of the UK’s favourite rivers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/14/tesco-chicken-deal-uk-favourite-river-wye-pollution

Truss vows to ditch nutrient neutrality rules

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/truss-vows-to-ditch-nutrient-neutrality-rules/5118915.article

Achieving nutrient neutrality for new housing development – The economic impact of the under-delivery of housing.

https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/report-achieving-nutrient-neutrality-new-housing-development-economic-impact-under-delivery-housing/

New report finds Natural England significantly over estimates the impact of new housing development on nutrient pollution.

https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/new-report-finds-natural-england-significantly-overestimates-impact-new-housing-development-nutrient-pollution/

Some accompanying listening.

Episode 38 – Neutral Impact

https://pod.co/50-shades-of-planning/neutral-impact

Dirty Water by The Jesus & Mary Chain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na85WcMSqjo

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Sam 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) is Managing Director at The Strategic Land Group.

Some accompanying reading.

The Beginning of the End of Environmental Impact Assessments - Stefano DAmbrosio-Nunez, Irwin Mitchell

https://imbusiness.passle.net/post/102hplw/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-environmental-impact-assessments

How to submit written evidence to Public Bill Committees

https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/scrutinyunit/written-submissions/

Sleepy Suburbs – Centre for Cities

https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/sleepy-suburbs-housing-crisis/

Testing Design Codes in England – Matthew Carmona

https://matthew-carmona.com/2022/06/22/88-testing-design-codes-in-england-21-lessons/

Some accompanying listening.

All You Do Is Talk – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-8aCX5cyYs

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Housing, 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 years.

Delivery is especially poor in the country’s largest urban centres. The largest 19, excluding London, have collectively added around 1,200 affordable homes per annum over the last ten years.

Whether there is a housing crisis, or a challenge, or whether all of this is just a figment of the construction industry’s imagination, will depend upon whether you ask a single parent in emergency accommodation, a politician in electioneering mode or Simon Jenkins. What is indisputable however is that the planning system has a huge role to play in all of this.

Why are we where we are? What are the obstacles to delivering more affordable housing and how might they be overcome?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Antony Pollard, Head of Economics at Turley; Annie Gingell, Principal Planner at Tetlow King; and Marie Chadwick, Policy Leader at the National Housing Federation.

Some accompanying reading.

Housing supply requirements: low-income households & homeless people

https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/homelessness-knowledge-hub/housing-models-and-access/housing-supply-requirements-across-great-britain-2018/

An Affordable Housing Emergency

https://www.lpdf.co.uk/latest-publications

Five things we learned from Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme data

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/five-things-we-learned-from-homes-englands-affordable-homes-programme-data-74347#:~:text=The%20Affordable%20Homes%20Programme%20is,of%20thousands%20of%20affordable%20homes

Simon Jenkins plumbs new depths of housing nonsense

https://capx.co/simon-jenkins-plumbs-new-depths-of-housing-nonsense/

People in housing need 2021

https://www.housing.org.uk/resources/people-in-housing-need-2021/

The damaging legacy of Right to Buy

https://neweconomics.org/2022/05/the-damaging-legacy-of-right-to-buy

Notes from the Green Belt: what’s so very special about Colney Heath?

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/notes-from-the-green-belt-whats-so-very-special-about-colney-heath

Some accompanying listening.

A House Is Not A Home - The Charlatans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LljqVqRPiUI

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Where 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 greatest potential to reduce car dependency. This too though is a challenge. Centre for Cities found that over a fifth of neighbourhoods outside city centres have built no new houses since 2011, while half have built, on average, less than one home each year.

Why are our suburbs the way they are? What are the barriers to densification and how might they be overcome?

Sam Stafford puts these question to Samuel Hughes, Hana Loftus and Ben Woolnough

Samuel (@scp_hughes) is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and Create Streets. Hana Loftus (@hanaloftus), is a Director at HAT Projects and an Associate at Public Practice. Ben (@benhoward_w) is Planning Manager at East Suffolk Council.

Some accompanying reading

‘What have been the impacts of the introduction of the standard methodology for calculating housing need on planning for housing?’ A report for Barratt Developments by the University of Liverpool

https://www.barrattdevelopments.co.uk/~/media/Files/B/Barratt-Developments/materials-and-downloads/uol-standard-methodology-final-report.pdf

‘New settlements in local plans: Not everything in the garden is rosy’ by Matthew Spry at Lichfields

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2020/may/26/new-settlements-in-local-plans-not-everything-in-the-garden-is-rosy/

‘Sleepy suburbs. The role of the suburbs in solving the housing crisis’ by Anthony Breach and Elena Magrini at Centre for Cities.

https://www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Sleepy-Suburbs.pdf

‘Intensification and how to achieve it’ by Hana

http://virtualhana.blogspot.com/2022/04/intensification-and-how-to-achieve-it.html

‘Street Votes - what's the big idea?’ by Hana

http://virtualhana.blogspot.com/2022/04/intensification-and-how-to-achieve-it.html

‘Strong Suburbs’ by Samuel and Ben Southwood for Policy Exchange

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/strong-suburbs/

‘Learning from History’ by Ben Southwood for Create Streets

https://www.createstreets.com/projects/learning-from-history-december-29th/

‘New Suburbia: What is a suburb?’ by Simon Cooke

https://theviewfromcullingworth.blogspot.com/2022/04/new-suburbia-1-what-is-suburb.html

Supurbia by HTA Design

https://www.hta.co.uk/project/supurbia

The Croydon Suburban Design Guide

https://suburbandesign.croydon.gov.uk/

‘Mayor Perry delivers on planning promise to protect Croydon’s local character by removing planning design guide’

https://lbc-app-w-newscroydon-p.azurewebsites.net/mayor-perry-delivers-on-planning-promise-to-protect-croydons-local-character-by-removing-planning-design-guide/

Some accompanying listening

Skirmish in the Suburbs by Snapped Ankles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s714eMCbdX4

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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50 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 National Planning Forum (@nat_plan) seminar on the LURB and, in preparation for the event, which took place on 5 July 2022, Sam invited the other panellists to record a preparatory chat. You will here in this episode then from:

Tony Burton (@Tony4Place), free range consultant on community, planning, design and environment;
Simon Ricketts (@sricketts1), Partner at Town Legal;
Catriona Riddell (@CatrionaRiddel1), Director at Catriona Riddell & Associates; and
Jennie Baker (@1jenniebaker), Associate Director at Lichfields.

PS. Perceptive 50 Shades listeners will also have spotted that the UK Government began to collapse on the evening of 5 July 2022 and that the future of the LURB is uncertain. This though hopefully remains an interesting and relevant discussion.

Some accompanying reading.

The LURB

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3155

The policy paper that accompanies the LURB

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill

Neighbourhood Planners London

https://www.neighbourhoodplanners.london/

Simon's recent LURB blog

https://simonicity.com/2022/07/02/summer-of-lurb/

Lichfields' LURB resource

https://lichfields.uk/the-levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill/

Matthew Carmona's blog on the design code pilots

https://matthew-carmona.com/2022/06/22/88-testing-design-codes-in-england-21-lessons/

The National Planning Forum

https://www.natplanforum.org.uk/

Some accompanying listening.

Everything is simple by Widowspeak

https://youtu.be/mPa08P7e_e0

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Anna Rose. After eschewing a career in fashion, Anna worked as a legal advisor at the National Farmers Union before joining Rugby Borough Council and working her way to become Head of Planning & Culture. After a spell as Service Director at Milton Keynes Council, Anna (@EPlanna) has since 2017 been the Head of the Planning Advisory Service (@pas_team) at the Local Government Association. Sam and Anna's conversation takes in the relationships and skills required to plan strategically and deliver major new development; leadership and systems thinking; and LPA recruitment practices.

Anna's song selections.

Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw

Human - The Killers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIZdjT1472Y

Try – P!NK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCDVfMz15M

Zombie – Jamie T

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PU4d5Iogd4

Tilted – Christine & The Queens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptu3TFmF0Jo

If I Got It (Your Love brought It) – Aaron Frazer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNBg35ItSo

Anna's Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4NqDjMStSYGn3tlmBEYPR0?si=uGKpLS7mSSSyoTI3Sj8QuQ

Some accompanying reading

The Planning Advisory Service

https://www.local.gov.uk/latest-news-pas

Houlton, Rugby

https://houltonrugby.co.uk/

MK Futures 2050

https://www.mkfutures2050.com/

PAS' 'Return To Work' project

https://www.local.gov.uk/return-to-work-planning

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

When 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 in and out):

2m:35s

Ben Page, Chief Executive Officer, Ipsos (@benatipsos)

16m:05s

Andrew Taylor, Group Planning Director, Countryside (@AndrewJTaylor3) & Pete Gladwell, Group Social Impact & Investment Director, L&G (@petegladwell)

28m:48s

Amy Burbidge, Senior Master Development and Design Manager, Homes England (@AmyBurbidge2); Mike Axon, Managing Director, Vectos: and David Milner, Deputy Director, Create Streets (@djjmilner)

49m:00s

Neil O’Brien, Harborough MP & Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DLUHC (@NeilDotObrien)

54m:45s

Nicky Chance-Thompson, Chief Executive, The Piece Hall Trust (@NickyChanThomDL)

01h:07m:00s

Tim Swift, Leader of Calderdale Council (@TimSwift)

01h:23m:10s

Nicholas Boys Smith, Director, Create Streets (@boys_nicholas)

Some accompanying reading

The 'Piece Hall Effect' is bringing millions into Calderdale's economy, new report reveals

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/piece-hall-effect-bringing-millions-calderdales-economy-new-report-reveals-1746319

Some accompanying listening

Gravity by Embrace, live at The Piece Hall (Sam was there)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2421918771409236

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

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, pragmatic changes that, with little fuss and fanfare, could have a positive, meaningful impact on the planning system. Sam discusses the submissions, let's perhaps call them the '50 Shades Manifesto For Sensible Planning Reform', in this episode with Claire Petricca-Riding, Jonathan Easton and Paul Smith.

Claire (@PetriccaRiding) is a Partner and National Head of Planning & Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell. Jonathan (@jonnye47) is full-time planning barrister at Kings Chambers and a part-time punster on Twitter. Paul (@paul_slg) is Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group.

Some accompanying reading.

Sam’s three areas for impactful planning reform

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2022/03/three-things.html

Planning for the better future – RTPI Proposals for Planning Reform in England

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/policy/2021/march/planning-for-a-better-future/

Local development planning in Scotland - regulations and guidance consultation: part B - proposals for development planning regulations

https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-development-planning-regulations-guidance-consultation-part-b-proposals-development-planning-regulations/

The Future of Strategic Planning in England by the County Councils Network and Catriona Riddell Associates

https://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/report-calls-on-government-to-implement-a-new-planning-model-as-two-thirds-of-councils-say-the-pressure-on-their-infrastructure-is-excessive-due-to-housing

RTPI South West Pilot Mentoring Programme for early career planners

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/swmentoring

'The Queen’s Speech – Levelling Up and Planning Reform, what can be legislated for?'

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2022/may/10/the-queen-s-speech-levelling-up-and-planning-reform-what-can-be-legislated-for/

Government response to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee report on The Future of the Planning System in England

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-the-planning-system-in-england-government-response-to-the-select-committee-report/government-response-to-the-levelling-up-housing-and-communities-select-committee-report-on-the-future-of-the-planning-system-in-england

The Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill: Highlights, Headlines and Henry the Eighth

https://imbusiness.passle.net/post/102hof6/the-levelling-up-regeneration-bill-highlights-headlines-and-henry-the-eighth

Local Plans Expert Group: report to the Secretary of State

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-plans-expert-group-report-to-the-secretary-of-state

Sir Oliver Letwin’s independent review of build out

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-build-out-final-report

Some accompanying listening.

The Verve – Three Steps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFiM4FORyC8

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

‘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 nerve is a bit of an understatement. The blog, at the time of this recording, has been viewed over 12,000 times. It does make for uncomfortable reading. Joey Gardiner described it in Planning magazine as a ‘veritable howl of despair’. “It portrays a system on the edge”, wrote Joey, “manned by staff crushed by overwork and pandemic isolation, and suffering regular abuse from the public and even members”.

The position is not uniform across the country, of course, and there are, also of course, lots of good planners in good local authorities doing lots of good work. That being said, based upon that Call for Evidence, there is a very strong case to say that there is indeed a local authority staffing crisis.

So then. What is to be done? Planners know that planning can and indeed should be at the heart of improving existing places and making great new ones. Why doesn’t everybody? Planners know the value of planning, but if local authority planners aren’t being valued, and aren’t being paid their worth, then who can blame them for doing something more rewarding?

Sam explores these themes in this episode with Ben Woolnough, Rebecca Coley, Pooja Agrawal and Paul Frainer.

Ben (@benhoward_w) is Planning Manager, East Suffolk Council; Rebecca (@PlanningGeek) is Head of Planning & Development at Trafford Council; Pooja (@AgrawalPooj) is CEO and co-founder at Public Practice; and Paul (@paulfrainer) is Head of Place/Climate Programme Lead at TPXimpact (latterly Assistant Director – Strategy & Economy at South Cambs and Cambridge City Councils).

Some accompanying reading.

The Life on the Front Line Blog

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/12/life-on-front-line.html

The Design Code Pathfinder Programme

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/communities-empowered-to-shape-design-of-neighbourhoods

Local Government Terms & Conditions (Green Book)

https://www.local.gov.uk/local-government-terms-and-conditions-green-book

East Suffolk's GIS-based Annual Monitoring Report

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/dfbbb431cf6c44c88bc58975e59ce191

Some accompanying viewing.

Public Practice in Greater Cambridge

https://vimeo.com/635177034

Some accompanying listening.

Higher ground by Stevie Wonder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZ3ZG_Wams

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Pete Swift. After graduating in Landscape Design & Plant Science at Sheffield University, and spending some time in Japan, Pete (@peteswifysan) co-founded landscape and design practice Planit. Their conversation takes in the Liverpool International Garden Festival, Michael Douglas in Black Rain and Tom Hicks and George Gillett's tenure at Anfield.

Pete's song selections.

Absolute - Scritti Politti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Mk_JgesEM

Can’t be sure - The Sundays

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yARVs1ZNLjU

Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI

Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIAfiVGluk

Silver (Tidal Wave) - Echo and the Bunnymen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmYB8VejrC8

The System only Dreams in Total Darkness - The National

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O6duDDkhis

Pete's Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3VTPF6fYR45eQhrXJUrwos?si=PgY_UlMITiyVGROEeY3Nrg__;!!CbnuSKVWDws!xq_Lry1gzPm_vSXH2qTUMwK0ui4WeiwCcGwaxdDkr8dJFnOU

Some accompanying reading

Planit

https://www.planit-ie.com/our-projects/

Festival gardens: The fascinating and controversial history behind one of Liverpool's beauty spots

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/story-festival-gardens-wasteland-international-17133347

Why is there a Japanese Kyoto Garden in Holland Park?

https://londonist.com/london/great-outdoors/why-is-there-a-japanese-kyoto-garden-in-holland-park

Liverpool Waters

https://liverpoolwaters.co.uk/

What’s planned for Manchester Town Hall and Albert Square

https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/500354/our_town_hall/7297/our_town_hall_project_-_the_transformation/2

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Sam 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 could do to improve the planning system. Let's not talk in general terms about things like, for example, LPA resources or in radical terms about things like, for example, 'Growth, Renewal and Protection Areas'. Let's not "level the foundations and build, from the ground up, a whole new planning system for England". Let's talk in practical, pragmatic terms about the relatively modest changes that, with little fuss and fanfare, and certainly no requirement for legislation, could have a positive, meaningful impact on what it is that Planners are trying to achieve.

Sam's plan is to review your submissions with some of the regular 50 Shades crew and then he will piece everything together for onward transmission to Mr Gove.

If you are interested in being involved please send your contributions to samstafford@hotmail.com before the end of April.

Some accompanying reading.

Sam's Three Things

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2022/03/three-things.html

Some accompanying listening.

Three is a Magic Number by Bob Dorough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDbeVB4admk

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

When 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 Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD, Dyspraxia and other neurological conditions. The movement is centred around the principle that there is no “normal” or “right” type of brain.

This is manifestly important to planning because a system cannot be considered effective if it is not engaging with, and working for, 15% of the population. This means that we need to talk about neurodiversity within the profession and within the workplace; we need to talk about engaging the neurodiverse in planning; and we need to talk about designing and delivering for the neurodiverse.

Sam discusses these three themes in this episode with Keeley Mitchell (Trainee Planning Officer at Dacorum Council), Krystian Groom (Associate Director at BECG), Jenny Offord (Senior Planning & Enabling Manager at Homes England) and Atefeh Motamedi (Strategic Planner at Atkins).

The Neurodiversity in Planning group, which is mentioned throughout this episode, can be contacted via LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13908485/) or neurodiversityinplanning@outlook.com.

Some accompanying reading.

'Why planning should be more neurodiverse' by Layla Vidal-Martin

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/blog/2021/april/why-planning-should-be-more-neurodiverse/

BECG’s Neurodiversity in Planning Toolkit

https://becg.com/neurodiversity-in-planning-toolkit-launched/

'Why is housing for people with autism a failure?' by Deborah Smith

https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/insight/why-is-housing-for-people-with-autism-a-failure/#utm_source=Place+North+West&utm_campaign=INSIGHT___Latest_expert_tips___2021-07-30&utm_medium=email

'How cities can be redesigned for neurodiversity' by Elissaveta M Brandon

https://www.fastcompany.com/90662691/how-cities-can-be-redesigned-for-neurodiversity

First building design standard for sensory and neurological needs – BSI

https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/media-centre/press-releases/2020/october/project-launch-first-building-design-standard-for-sensory-and-neurological-needs/

'Planning with Autism in Mind: A Six Feelings Framework' by Kyle Ezell

https://www.planning.org/blog/blogpost/9155086/

The Autism ASPECTSS Design Index

https://www.autism.archi/aspectss

'14 Patterns of Biophilic Design' by Terrapin Bright Green

https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/reports/14-patterns/

Some accompanying viewing.

RTPI Webinar Part 1. Designing for Neurodiversity - Autism Friendly Environments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO3X1P4zYmc

RTPI Webinar Part 2. Engagement

https://www.bigmarker.com/rtpi-enterprise/Neurodiversity-in-Planning-Part-2-5c89d09112d3a1fe69ebe8d4

Paddy & Christine McGuiness – Our Family and Autism

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00122vl

Some accompanying listening.

Wu Tang Clan – Think Differently (Instrumental)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxAT7W8i03k

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Is 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 Wray; and, all of the way from the USA as the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast goes global, Karen Trapenberg Frick.

Ian Wray is Honorary Professor and Fellow in the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy at Liverpool University. He was formerly Chief Planner at the North West Development Agency between 200 and 2010.

Katie Wray (@kluw) is an Assistant Director at Deloitte.

Karen Trapenberg Frick (@TrapenbergFrick) is an Associate Professor in City & Regional Planning, at the University of California.

'No Little Plans' was Ian's follow-up to 2016's 'Great British Plans', which Sam, Ian and Katie discuss in Episode 36.

Some accompanying reading.

No Little Plans - How Government Built America’s Wealth and Infrastructure

https://www.routledge.com/No-Little-Plans-How-Government-Built-Americas-Wealth-and-Infrastructure/Wray/p/book/9781138594104

LEGO Can Build a Northern Overground

https://journal.theaou.org/articles/lego-can-build-a-northern-overground/

The essential state - Pandemic, norms and values, and the new authoritarianism

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1473095220969626?journalCode=plta

A Sure Bet: Megaprojects - Not on Time and Not on Budget

https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/Oakland_Bay_Bridge

Some accompanying listening.

For UK Listeners

Jimi Hendrix plays the Star Spangled banner at Woodstock in 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3-b3ViNTMI

For US listeners

The Village Green Preservation Society -The Kinks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7dmu4G8oc

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Who 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 now seemingly-jettisoned ‘Planning for the Future’ White Paper.

One could also make a case for Nicholas Boys-Smith and Create Streets. Boys-Smith, a history graduate, desk officer in the Conservative Research Department and banker, founded Create Streets in 2013; was a co-chair of the Build Better, Build Beautiful Commission; and was appointed by the previous Secretary of State as chair of an ‘Office for Place’.

Conspicuously neither are planners...

Could a case be made for present planning policy being influenced by Think Tanks to a degree not seen since the simplified planning promoted by right-leaning Think Tanks like the Centre for Policy Studies in the 1980s? Either way, it is a reminder of the influence of Think Tanks on the planning policy agenda, which makes it a topic worthy of conversation on a town planning-based podcast.

Why and how do Think Tanks do what they do? Where do policy ideas come from? And how do bright ideas get turned into actual policy?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Samuel Hughes (@SCP_Hughes), Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Senior Follow at Policy Exchange; Anya Martin (@AnyaMartin8), Director at PricedOut and a researcher in the social housing sector; and Matthew Lesh (@matthewlesh), Head of Public Policy at the IEA.

Some accompanying reading.

'Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century' by Jack Airey

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/rethinking-the-planning-system-for-the-21st-century/

‘Beware of ‘Policy Intern Brain’ – the source of so many bad ideas’ by Anya Martin

https://capx.co/beware-of-policy-intern-brain-the-source-of-so-many-bad-ideas/

‘Build me up, level up: popular homebuilding while boosting local communities’ by Matthew Lesh

https://www.adamsmith.org/research/build-me-up-level-up

‘Strong Suburbs’ by Samuel Hughes and Ben Southwood

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/strong-suburbs/

‘Living Tradition’ by Samuel Hughes

https://www.createstreets.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Living-Tradition.pdf

‘Learning from History’ by Ben Southwood

https://www.createstreets.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Tottenham-Paper-1.9.pdf

‘The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform’ by Tom Papworth

https://www.adamsmith.org/news/press-release-free-up-3-7-percent-of-londons-green-belt-to-build-one-million-new-homes-says-new-report

‘A place in the sun’ by Anya Martin

https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/a-place-in-the-sun/

‘Housing Politics in the United Kingdom’ by Brian Lund

https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/housing-politics-in-the-united-kingdom

Some accompanying listening.

Wah Wah (Think Tank) by Happy Mondays

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyERDM7cbSo

Some accompanying viewing.

How policy is formulated in Westminster (Part 2 - Please see episode 55 for Part 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZXpeH28MpM

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Wayne Hemingway. In 1979 Wayne completed a degree in Geography & Town Planning at UCL, co-founding at the same time fashion business Red or Dead. In 1999, having sold the company, he co-founded Hemingway Design, which specialises in affordable and social design. Their conversation takes in squatters, hipsters and Gorillaz.

Wayne's song selections.

Me No Pop (12" version) by Coati Mundi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHN6wBm4sI

(We don’t need this) Fascist Groove Thang (12" version) by Heaven 17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV5dbcOmw6I

Harlem River Drive (album version) by Bobbi Humphrey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVoWOSCkvQ0

Dare by Gorillaz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOR6ib95kQ

The light pours out of me by Magazine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nImOq_eWHEM

Tees Happy (12" version) by North End

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRDUu96mzvw

Wayne’s Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5cDgsrUij1o5Ktf412S6oZ?si=1MSBGIExT36jvU0sdZYAyg

Wayne’s Mixcloud

https://www.mixcloud.com/hemingwaywayne/

Some accompanying reading

Hemingway Design

https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/

Go home to Wayne’s World

https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/property/go-home-to-wayne-s-world-9211553.html

Staiths South Bank – A retrospective

https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/media/3820/Staiths-South-Bank-a-retrospective/pdf/Staiths-Retrospective.pdf?m=636440213994870000

Barratt Developments’ ‘Great Places Initiative

https://www.barrattdevelopments.co.uk/~/media/Files/B/Barratt-Developments/documents/gp-booklet-v1-2014.pdf

Dreamland: Margate amusement park sold for £2.3m

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-56171446

Hipster-led Regeneration

https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/hipster-led-regeneration-wayne-hemingway

Incredible Edible Todmorden

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/09/incredible-edible-yorkshire-towns-food-growing-scheme-takes-root-worldwide

East Point / First Light, Lowestoft

https://firstlightlowestoft.com/east-point-pavilion/

Vintage-by-the-Sea, Morecambe

https://www.decopublique.co.uk/vintage-by-the-sea-1

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

"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 and Paul Brocklehurst, who try to do as much justice to this most weighty of topics as is possible within an hour or so.

Catriona (@CatrionaRiddel1) is a Director at Catriona Riddell & Associates.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/catriona-riddell-b418a322

Peter (@planitpres) is Executive Director at Hertsmere Borough Council and Chair of the Development Management Network at the Planning Officers Society, but contributes to this episode in a personal capacity.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-geraghty-mciob-fcabe-frtpi-frsa-facss-5832899b

Paul Brocklehurst is Chair of the Land Promoters & Developers Federation (@THELPDF) and a former Chief Executive of Catesby Estates.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-brocklehurst-68827b6a

Some accompanying reading.

The Planning town hall resources survey

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1720094/planning-town-hall-resources-survey?bulletin=planning-people&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=eNews%20Bulletin&utm_source=20210915&utm_content=Planning%20People%20(48)::&email_hash

Three reasons for low morale at planning authorities, by Catriona Riddell

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1734244/three-reasons-low-morale-planning-authorities-catriona-riddell

Life on the Front Line, Sam's Blog

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/12/life-on-front-line.html

The Raynsford Review

https://www.tcpa.org.uk/raynsford-review

English Planning: The Fruits of 10 Years of Austerity and Reform, by Peter

https://planning.org/blog/9189021/english-planning-fruits-of-10-years-of-austerity-and-reform/

Where the government’s review of local authority planning resources has got to, by Joey Gardiner

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1735446/governments-review-local-authority-planning-resources?bulletin=planning-weekly-edition&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=eNews%20Bulletin&utm_source=20211210&utm_content=Planning%20Email%20Edition%20(7)::&email_hash=

We need to talk about Local Government: the levelling-up agenda, and the planning system, depends on it, by Nicola Gooch

https://imbusiness.passle.net/post/102heht/we-need-to-talk-about-local-government-the-levelling-up-agenda-and-the-planning

Some accompanying listening.

Keep on keeping on by Curtis Mayfield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-l91O9VxN0

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

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 Mitchell. Jonathan (@jonnye47) is a full-time Barrister at Kings Chambers and a part-time punster.

Some accompanying reading.

January

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-56023895

February

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1706331/authorities-permitted-development-conversions-made-highest-proportion-housing-delivery-2019-20

March

https://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/fall-in-delivery-of-bungalows-as-demand-rises

April

https://imbusiness.passle.net/post/102gvw4/my-what-big-teeth-you-have-high-court-invalidates-cil-liability-notice-issued-2

May

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/delighted-leicester-family-told-can-5444379

June

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-homes-plan-turning-off-tory-voters-chesham-amersham-by-election-loss-6ft6vtkdl

July

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2

August

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/7626005/michael-gove-aberdeen-nightclub-rave/

September

https://www.adamsmith.org/research/build-me-up-level-up

October

https://one.welhat.gov.uk/article/12177/Local-Plan-meeting-put-on-hold

November

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/tulip-rejected-over-embodied-carbon-and-heritage-concerns

December

https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/fareham-luxury-homes-developer-knightsgate-fined-ps40000-after-destroying-habitat-of-rare-dormice-3478346

Some accompanying listening.

Sam's Christmas Crackers - The Ultimate Festive Soundtrack

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Dn44yamtsjrzsYH4rzbld?si=AlBrDD3aQjib3VpLj-sHjg

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

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 a Partner and National Head of Planning and Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell.

Some accompanying reading.

January

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-reforms-make-it-easier-and-cheaper-for-leaseholders-to-buy-their-homes

February

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-for-sustainable-growth-in-the-oxford-cambridge-arc-spatial-framework/planning-for-sustainable-growth-in-the-oxford-cambridge-arc-an-introduction-to-the-spatial-framework

March

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56359865

April

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-56945191

May

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/jenrick-vows-to-stop-architects-imposing-their-visions-on-communities

June

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1720094/planning-town-hall-resources-survey

July

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/07/tory-blue-wall-nimby-Labour-planning-housing-yimby-Greens-Lib-Dems

August

https://srpinventories.co.uk/how-landlords-can-take-advantage-of-new-permitted-development-rights/

September

https://planning.warrington.gov.uk/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=2020/36311&theTabNo=4&backURL=%3Ca%20href=wphappcriteria.display%3ESearch%20Criteria%3C/a%3E%20%3E%20%3Ca%20href=%27wphappsearchres.displayResultsURL?ResultID=2584094%26StartIndex=0%26SortOrder=APNID%26DispResultsAs=WPHAPPSEARCHRES%26BackURL=%3Ca%20href=wphappcriteria.display%3ESearch%20Criteria%3C/a%3E%27%3ESearch%20Results%3C/a%3E

October

https://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/property/404-property-news/48549-major-provider-of-social-housing-loses-3m-high-court-battle-with-council-over-application-of-community-infrastructure-levy

November

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leading-environment-act-becomes-law

December

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-59580929

Some accompanying listening.

Sam's Christmas Crackers - The Ultimate Festive Soundtrack

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Dn44yamtsjrzsYH4rzbld?si=AlBrDD3aQjib3VpLj-sHjg

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

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 Strategic Land Group.

Some accompanying reading.

January

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/right-to-regenerate-to-turn-derelict-buildings-into-homes-and-community-assets

February

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/councils-hit-out-at-governments-unrealistic-new-planning-formula-69616

March

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/budget/budget-2021-rishi-sunak-failed-mention-northern-powerhouse-george-osborne-2014-899302

April

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9486617/Race-retail-parks-town-shopping-areas-footfall-near-EQUAL-level-2019.html

May

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-18/uk-property-wealth-data-2021-show-big-gap-between-black-and-white-homeowners

June

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-06-08/nearly-80-of-towns-getting-share-of-725m-of-government-funding-represented-by-conservative-mps

July

https://placealliance.org.uk/research/design-deficit/

August

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1725416/number-enforcement-notices-drops-lowest-level-ever

September

https://www.centreforcities.org/blog/what-does-the-public-think-about-levelling-up/

October

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/24/the-word-crazy-is-associated-with-the-wrong-kind-of-golf

November

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/yorkshire-to-get-just-two-miles-of-high-speed-track-under-boris-johnsons-integrated-rail-plan-3463377

December

https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/feeding-the-pipeline

Some accompanying listening.

Sam's Christmas Crackers - The Ultimate Festive Soundtrack

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Dn44yamtsjrzsYH4rzbld?si=AlBrDD3aQjib3VpLj-sHjg

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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"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…

There is, of course, the issue of resources. Whilst according to a Planning magazine survey slightly more LPAs are predicting growth in planning department budgets (25%) rather than a contraction (22%), this has to be seen in the context of a 38% real-terms fall in net current expenditure on planning functions between 2010–11 and 2017–18.

Beyond resources though the current crisis feels more like an existential crisis of confidence. Catriona Riddell has written in Planning Magazine about low morale in local planning authorities, citing hostility towards planners and the planning system from what can feel like every quarter.

That low morale is manifesting itself in the ability of LPAs to attract and retain staff. “The biggest headaches surround securing the services of more experienced planners with 10 to 15 years under their belt”, said one head of service to Planning magazine. “There is only so long that vacancies can remain unfilled without a severe knock-on consequences for the delivery of services”.

This then is a 'Call for Evidence' to inform an episode that Sam is planning on the local authority staffing crisis with Catriona Riddell, Peter Geraghty and Paul Brocklehurst. What is life actually like on the front line? Are you a junior officer sat at home physically and operationally distant from your line manager, drowning in files that you have absolutely no chance of dealing with on your own? Are you a planning consultant being pushed by your client to get a scheme to committee being told by a senior officer that they’re already writing one report this month and couldn’t possible write two? Are you a Head of Service desperately trying to find somebody, anybody to help wade through tens of thousands of objections to your local plan consultation? Do you know people that have left the profession altogether? You might be considering that too? What would make you reconsider?

If you have any thoughts that you would like to share, either anonymously or publicly, please email Sam, if you can before the end of December, at samstafford@hotmail.com. All responses will be posted on the 50 Shades blog.

How widespread is the local authority staffing crisis and what can be done about it?

Some accompanying reading.

Planning Magazine's Town Hall Resources Survey

Catriona's Planning Magazine piece on LPA morale

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1734244/three-reasons-low-morale-planning-authorities-catriona-riddell

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Sam 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 reform.

In the former case, it is perhaps that, whilst the weather is changeable, the English temperament is not, and passing the time with such platitudinous pleasantries avoids, heaven forbid, the need to have a conversation about anything important.

In the latter case, constant talk of reform seems almost like a similar communal comfort blanket. It relegates responsibility for meaningful change to a higher power to enact at some point in the future, absolving the individual, be that an individual political or an individual planner, of responsibility for change in the here and now.

And what would Dr Johnson make of the language of reform? ‘Fixing’ or ‘solving’ something are absolutist terms being applied to something that is not only manifestly subjective, but also, in the case, of housing and the built environment, a function of an entire culture rather than a single regulatory regime. One supposes though that there is not many votes in ‘improving’ the planning system or ‘alleviating’ the housing crisis…

We need to talk about reform, but not for what it might mean in the future. For the impact that incessant talk of it is having in the present…"

Shelly Rouse, Principal Consultant at PAS (@Rouse_Shelly); Vicky Payne, planner and urban designer at URBED (@Victoria_Payne); and Paul Smith, Managing Director at Strategic Land Group (@Paul_SLG) try to make sense of that.

Some accompanying reading.

Vicky's report of the first Common Good event

https://journal.theaou.org/news-and-reviews/review-common-good-design-and-sustainability-in-the-north/

The RTPI's recent consultation responses

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/new-from-the-rtpi/?contentType=Consultations

'Beware of ‘Policy Intern Brain’ – the source of so many bad ideas' by Anya Martin

https://capx.co/beware-of-policy-intern-brain-the-source-of-so-many-bad-ideas/

Some accompanying listening.

Round and Round by King Creosote and Michael Johnston

https://soundcloud.com/m-j-789958593/02-round-and-round

Some accompanying viewing.

How policy is formulated in Westminster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_AM1W5rHGA

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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The 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 Occupation which lead to concentrations of deprivation and ill health. The sea is a benefit but also a barrier: attracting NHS and social care staff to peripheral areas is harder, catchment areas for health services are artificially foreshortened and transport is often limited, in turn limiting job opportunities. Many coastal communities were created around a single industry such as previous versions of tourism, or fishing, or port work that have since moved on, meaning work can often be scarce or seasonal.

Physical and natural environment? Demography? Housing? Transport? Employment? This, Sam Stafford thought, sounded like a good subject for exploration on a town planning-based podcast. What are the particular issues associated with planning for coastal communities? What distinguishes a successful coastal town from a less successful one? And what role does the planning system have in determining these outcomes?

Sam puts these questions to Louise Wood (@LWood_Cornwall), Service Director for Planning at Cornwall Council; Christopher Balch (@balchplyuni), Emeritus Professor at the University of Plymouth and Non-Executive Director at the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust; and Warren Lever (@ShapeThePlace), Senior Conservation & Design Officer at New Forest District Council.

Some accompanying reading.

Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021: health in coastal communities

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-medical-officers-annual-report-2021-health-in-coastal-communities

'Imagination is key to the revival of Britain’s seaside towns'

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/imagination-key-revival-of-britains-seaside-towns-banksy-norfolk

Levelling up: The seaside town debating what change is needed

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58248594

Select Committee on Regenerating Seaside Towns and Communities - The future of seaside towns

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldseaside/320/32004.htm#_idTextAnchor008

Higher education enables graduates to move to places with better career prospects – but this leads to brain drain from the North and coastal areas

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15621

Trusting the People: the case for community-powered conservatism

https://www.newlocal.org.uk/publications/trusting-people-community/

Blue Deal For Coastal Communities

https://neweconomics.org/campaigns/blue-new-deal

Some accompanying viewing.

Councillors Ray Cox and Roy Evans discuss efforts to regenerate Marine Way in Aldington-on-Sea

https://youtu.be/aeARXMHW4Is

Some accompanying listening.

The Coral - Take me back to the summertime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IREwDVoh558

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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"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:

The Levelling Up Fund (worth £4.8bn);
The Towns Fund (£3.6bn);
A Shared Prosperity Fund worth £1.5bn per annum;
The Future High Streets Fund (£830m);
A Community Renewal Fund (worth £220m);
A Community Ownership Fund (£150m);
High Street Heritage Action Zones (£95m); and
A Welcome Back Fund (£56m).

The funding itself is clearly welcome, but Mr Jenrick was perhaps responding to criticism that all look set to be allocated competitively at Whitehall’s discretion and the National Audit Office did have something to say in 2020 about the discretion being exercised in the distribution of the Towns Fund.

What is the difference between success and failure when bidding for these funds? How hard is it in practice to realise a vision for a place, no matter how compelling and coherent, when implementation relies on a disparate and seemingly ever-evolving funding regime? Surely there is a better way, but what?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Ros Flowers, Economic Growth Senior Manager at Brent Council; Andy Rumfitt, Senior Director at Turley (@AndyRumfitt); and Jaimie Ferguson, Director at Open (@jaimieferg).

Some accompanying reading.

'No Place Left Behind', the report of the Commission into Prosperity and Community Placemaking established by the Create Streets Foundation

https://www.createstreetsfoundation.org.uk/no-place-left-behind/

'Inquiry raises concerns over how £3.6bn towns fund was distributed' - The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/11/inquiry-raises-concerns-over-how-36bn-towns-fund-was-distributed

'Want to ‘level up’ the UK? Just give places the power and money they need' - The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/19/level-up-uk-regions-local-authority-funding

'Fundamental shift in funding to local level needed to help level up English towns' - The National Infrastructure Commission

https://nic.org.uk/news/fundamental-shift-in-funding-to-local-level-needed-to-help-level-up-english-towns-recommends-commission/

'How Labour can rebuild the Red Wall across the North' - Labour for the North

https://labourlist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Labours-Northern-Soul-%E2%80%94-How-Labour-Can-Rebuild-the-Red-Wall-Across-the-North.pdf

'Unlocking the potential of places' - Future Place

https://www.architecture.com/-/media/GatherContent/Test-resources-page/Additional-Documents/2019-Future-Place-report-Unlocking-the-Potential-of-Placespdf.pdf

Some accompanying listening.

You never give me your money - The Beatles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpndGZ71yww

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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This 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 and participation are very much downwards.

These crises intersect. Why, commentators have asked, given an over-provision of golf course supply and an under-provision of housing supply, don’t more golf courses come forward for development? If London’s golf courses, for example, were a borough in their own right it would bigger than Brent and only slightly smaller than Sutton. Given too that 43 of London’s golf courses are within public ownership, mostly the London boroughs themselves, why are they being used to the benefit of the few rather than the benefit of the many?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Russell Curtis, Director at RCKa (@russellcurtis); Tim Lloyd-Skinner, MD at Melior Golf and Regional Director at Golf Management Group (@GMG_Tim); and Kathryn Ventham, Director, at Barton Willmore (@kateventham).

Some accompanying reading.

Russell's 'Golf Belt' Blog

https://golfbelt.russellcurtis.co.uk/

'London golf courses could provide homes for 300,000 people, study says' - The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/26/london-golf-courses-could-provide-homes-for-300000-people-study-says

'Golf’s stranglehold on land in London should be broken' - The New Statesman

https://www.newstatesman.com/2021/09/golf-s-stranglehold-land-london-should-be-broken

Some accompanying listening.

'Straight Down The Middle' by Bing Crosby

https://youtu.be/XDkV_41qEVM

Some accompanying viewing.

'The shot of a champion'. Sam's approach to the 18th at Belton Woods in 2017, the second of his now three wins in the prestigious Disco Steve Invitational Journey (commentary by Sam's friend Nigel).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgG0yevolZY

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

View Details

Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Paul Barnard MBE (@Paul_Planning). Paul is Service Director for Strategic Planning & Infrastructure, his fifteenth job title at Plymouth City Council. Their conversation takes in hostels for the homeless; the Single Regeneration Budget; the importance of both a vision and a political consensus; and distributing CIL via the Crowdfunder platform.

Paul's song selections.

Rubicon by Killing Joke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqBeBuBoKw

Shadowplay by Joy Division

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPt3-lB5Lsc

Home by Depeche Mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZHs-SRJbzU

This is the Day by The The

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZYgKCbFbWY

Gnossiennes by Erik Satie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7kvGqiJC4g

A Night Like This by The Cure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE1nu67-U2I

This must be the place by Talking Heads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gK2fOq4MY

Paul’s Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0IQk1lzFHsKdjDYmAjMX9R?si=AdqGUnMqRTWn8thenEyEWA&dl_branch=1

Some accompanying reading.

A Vision For Plymouth

https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/planningandbuildingcontrol/visionplymouth

Plymouth’s Plan for Homes

https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/housing/planhomes

Plymouth’s City Change Fund

https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/planningandbuildingcontrol/neighbourhoodplanning/citychangefund

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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This 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 'Northern Powerhouse' and what 'levelling up' might mean for placemaking. What are the current active urban designers “up to” across the north? What influence are they having, what are they achieving and what challenges are they facing?

Stephen sought input from a range of academics, consultants and practitioners in both public and private sectors and some of the contributors have kindly taken the time to read their essays for these two 50 Shades episodes.

Part 2 features Leah Stuart at Civic Engineers (@LeahStu) on movement in towns and across the region; Graeme Moore at Oldham Council (@geordiegraeme81) with a view from the front line; Graham Marshall at Prosocial Place (@prosocialplace) on how people are the northern powerhouse; and Matt Doran at Manchester City Council (@iammattdoran) on the future of our town and city centres.

Information on how to join the Urban Design Group and how to get hold of a copy of the Summer 2021 edition of the journal can be found here.

https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/journal/urban-design-159-summer-2021

Some of this contributors to this episode have come together to form Common Good, a non-profit group of practitioners acting in their own time to encourage discussions around sustainable places and good design in the North. Follow @CommonGood_ on Twitter.

Some accompanying watching.

Christopher Eccleston, writer Peter Flannery and executive producer Charlie Pattinson take part in a BFI Q&A to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Our Friends in the North

https://youtu.be/EM6sa_iQAl0

Some accompanying listening.

Northern Skies by I Am Kloot

https://youtu.be/wlmMumA0CMU

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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For 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 mean for placemaking. What are the current active urban designers “up to” across the north? What influence are they having, what are they achieving and what challenges are they facing?

Part 1 features David Roberts at Igloo (@david_igloo) talking about Riverside Sunderland; Vicky Payne at URBED (@Victoria_Payne) talking about an equitable approach to housing design quality; and Jaimie Ferguson at OPEN (@jaimieferg) talking about designing for prosperity (again...).

Information on how to join the Urban Design Group and how to get hold of a copy of the Summer 2021 edition of the journal can be found here.

https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/journal/urban-design-159-summer-2021

Some accompanying watching.

Our Friends in the North on Britbox

https://www.britbox.co.uk/programme/Our_Friends_in_the_North_46176

Some accompanying listening.

Hit The North by Frank Sidebottom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0elCZT8yN0

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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'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 delivered by politicians and think tanks recently, seemingly with the aim of getting things off their desk before the end of term.

July 2021 brought:

A Robert Jenrick speech to the Local Government Association’s annual conference;
A Boris Johnson speech on his vision to level up the United Kingdom;
A Written Ministerial Statement from Robert Jenrick on building beautiful places alongside the revised NPPF and National Model Design Code;
Place Alliance’s Design Deficit report;
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s report on Post-Pandemic Economic Growth and Levelling Up;
The Department for Transport’s Plan for Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain; and
Transparency International UK’s report: ‘House of Cards – Exploring access and influence in UK housing policy’.

Joining Sam to chew over that little lot and to get a feel, as everybody heads either up or down the motorway network for their summer hols, are four friends of, and regular contributors to, the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast.

Simon Ricketts (@sricketts1) is a Partner at Town Legal;
Shelly Rouse (@rouse_shelly) is a Principal Consultant at the Planning Advisory Service;
Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne) is a Senior Consultant at URBED; and
Paul Smith (@Paul_SLG) is Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group.

The 50 Shades of Planning Summer Holiday Reading List.

Robert Jenrick’s speech to the Local Government Association’s annual conference

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/local-government-association-annual-conference-2021-secretary-of-states-speech

Boris Johnson’s speech on his vision to level up the United Kingdom

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-prime-ministers-levelling-up-speech-15-july-2021

A Written Ministerial Statement from Robert Jenrick on building beautiful places (published alongside the revised NPPF and National Model Design Code)

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-20/hcws21

Place Alliance’s 'Design Deficit' report

http://placealliance.org.uk/research/design-deficit/

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s report on Post-Pandemic Economic Growth and Levelling Up

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/365/business-energy-and-industrial-strategy-committee/news/156781/governments-levelling-up-agenda-risks-becoming-an-everything-and-nothing-policy-say-business-committee/

‘Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain’ by the Department for Transport

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-decarbonisation-plan

‘House of Cards – Exploring access and influence in UK housing policy’ by Transparency International UK

https://www.transparency.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/publications/House%20of%20Cards%20-%20Transparency%20International%20UK%20%28web%29.pdf

The Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021 seeking a national strategy to improve the health of coastal communities

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chief-medical-officer-annual-report-2021

Some accompanying listening.

Holiday by Happy Mondays

https://youtu.be/kYRF7qcBMDg

50 Shades T-Shirts!

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Hidden 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 stock.

Why wouldn’t somebody want to move to a more manageable property or to a more sociable retirement community? It’s easy to paint a mental picture of ‘housing for older people’ without thinking too much more about it. Indeed, as Sam also admits, ‘housing for older people’ was the working title for this episode.

This episode is about challenging those, and other, assumptions and preconceptions. Is the UK actually unique amongst our Western friends in not having a culture of downsizing? If we should is that for the state or the market to foster? Why is the development community not responding to an aging population with more bespoke accommodation and, if more could be encouraged, what should it look like and where should it be?

Sam puts these questions to Silvia Gullino, Associate Professor in City Making at Birmingham City University; Graham Marshall, Director at ProSocial Place and Honorary Senior Fellow at Liverpool University; Rhiannon Corcoran, Professor of Psychology and Public Mental Health at Liverpool University; and Shannon Conway, Residential Director at Glenbrook Property.

Twitter handles:

@SilviaGullino
@BCU_Planning
@prosocialplace
@rhiannoncor
@PlaceWellbeing
@ShannonConway99
Glenbrookprop

Some accompanying reading.

Housing for older people - a report from the CLG Committee

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcomloc/370/370.pdf

Homes for healthy ageing: Understanding the challenges - A Catapult Future of Housing blog

https://cp.catapult.org.uk/news/housing-the-elderly-understanding-the-challenges/

Last Time Buyers - a report from L&G

https://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/assets/portal/files/pdf_175.pdf

Rightsizing: Reframing the housing offer for older people - a report based on research undertaken by PHASE at Manchester School of Architecture

https://www.msa.ac.uk/media/msaacuk/documents/research/Rightsizing_MSA.pdf

Guild Living wins planning appeal after ‘ageism’ row - Housing Today

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/guild-living-wins-planning-appeal-after-ageism-row/5112492.article

The ten key design criteria that make up the HAPPI principles from the Housing Learning and Improvement Network

https://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/Design-building/HAPPI/

Some accompanying viewing

The Sopranos - ‘Green Grove is a retirement community...’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1KfNAtgGM4

Some accompanying listening

Older by Band of Horses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdIYUI21s8

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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‘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 highways regulations and how we can fight back'.

Can we, as planners, look at the schemes that we are involved with and confidently say that we would want to live on that road?

Are we creating places that are accessible for people aged 8 to 80?

Are we submitting and approving applications that follow desire lines for pedestrians and cyclists?

Are we supporting a 21st Century user hierarchy that places pedestrians and cyclists at the top, private motor vehicles at the bottom, and public transport in the middle?

If not, why not?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to David Milner, Deputy Director at Create Streets; Anna Parsons, Associate Design Director at Catesby Estates; and Alexis Edwards, Transport Development Team Leader at BCP Council.

David and Alexis are on Twitter at @djjmiler and @MrAlexisEdwards. Anna is not on Twitter.

Some accompanying reading.

'The Bin Lorry Effect' by Create Streets

https://www.createstreets.com/projects/the-bin-lorry-effect-11th-january/

Traffic in Towns – The Buchanan Report

https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/udlibrary/traffic-towns-buchanan-report

‘What’s wrong with modelling the ‘worst case’?’ by Rachel Aldred.

http://rachelaldred.org/writing/consultations/whats-wrong-with-modelling-the-worst-case/

‘What is the status of Manual for Streets?’ by Andrew Lainton

https://andrewlainton.wordpress.com/2021/01/31/what-is-the-status-of-manual-for-streets/

Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2): 2020 to 2025

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-investment-strategy-2-ris2-2020-to-2025

Traffic signs manual

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-signs-manual

'Transport appraisal: a pathway to poor decision making?' by Andy Cope of Sustrans

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/opinion/2018/october/transport-appraisal-a-pathway-to-poor-decision-making

Some accompanying listening.

Less Than Useful by Ned's Atomic Dustbin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYqfB44lEF0

Some accompanying viewing.

'How bins should be collected', by H.J Simpson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwzV9SlNOTM

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

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Death, 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, from the ground up, a whole new planning system for England.”

And since? Well there has not been a dicky bird from the Government, which is perhaps still wading through the 44,000 submissions to the consultation, and the debate, such that one can have a debate about a Planning Bill that has not been written yet, seems to have been captured by those who do not like whatever might be in it.

What then to make of the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Select Committee’s report on the future of the planning system, which concluded with concerns about "the lack of detail, which has made it very difficult to assess the possible practical implications. The Government should consult on the details of proposed reforms to prevent unintended consequences and harms resulting from them”.

Does the Select Committee’s report provide proponents of the White Paper with the homework required to make the proposals more palatable? Or does the report provide opponents of the White Paper with enough ammunition to hole it below the water line? And what is a Select Committee anyway?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Clive Betts MP, the Chair of the HCLG Committee who you will hear 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'. This quote now features on a 50 Shades of Planning Podcast t-shirt, which is available to buy in black or white and in S, M and L sizes. If you would like one please email samstafford@hotmail.com.

Some reading to accompany this episode.

Planning for the future

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future

The future of the planning system in England, a report by the HCLG Committee

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/634/the-future-of-the-planning-system-in-england/publications/

Notes on planning reform: “the algorithm warmed us all up”, by Zack Simons

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/notes-on-planning-reform-the-algorithm-warmed-us-all-up

Taking Stock - The geography of housing need, permissions and completions, by Lichfields

https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/taking-stock-the-geography-of-housing-need-permissions-and-completions

Some accompanying listening.

White Paper by Finley Quaye

https://youtu.be/GK8osGlsVgE

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What 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”.

Who is town planning for? How are we to reconcile these lofty ambitions with the fact that black and other minorities are at least twice as likely to be deprived of green space compared to a white person in the UK; with the fact the average amount of money accrued by owning property over the last decade is £150,000 for the average white family and £0 for the average black family; and with the fact that whilst 3% of White households live in overcrowded accommodation, that figure rises to 22% for Black households, 23% for Indian households and 35% for Pakistani and Bangladeshi households.

Does planning remain a progressive force for social justice or has it become a regressive tool for the preservation of the status quo?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Danny Dorling (@dannydorling), Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography and Fellow of St Peter's College at Oxford University; Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne), planner and urbanist at URBED; and Ben Southwood (@bswud), Head of Housing, Transport & Urban Space at Policy Exchange.

Some accompanying reading.

Covid spread as overcrowding doubles among private renters in England.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/24/covid-spread-as-overcrowding-doubles-among-private-renters-in-england

'Capital cities: How the planning system creates housing shortages and drives wealth inequality'.

https://www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-06-13-Capital-cities-how-the-planning-system-creates-housing-shortages-and-drives-wealth-inequality.pdf

How London's property boom left Black Britons with nothing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-18/uk-property-wealth-data-2021-show-big-gap-between-black-and-white-homeowners

One in three adults in Britain 'do not have a safe or secure home'.

https://www.bigissue.com/latest/one-in-three-adults-in-britain-do-not-have-a-safe-or-secure-home/#:~:text=One%20in%20three%20adults%20in%20Britain%20do%20not%20have%20a,housing%20crisis%20than%20white%20people.

Resourcing Public Planning

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/policy/2019/november/resourcing-public-planning/

A housing design audit for England.

http://placealliance.org.uk/research/national-housing-audit/

The cost of the cuts: The impact on local government and poorer communities.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/Summary-Final.pdf

All that is solid: How the great housing disaster defines our times and what we can do about it.

http://www.dannydorling.org/books/allthatissolid/

Deciphering the fall and rise in the net capital share.

https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/deciphering-the-fall-and-rise-in-the-net-capital-share/

Some accompanying listening.

Fixer Upper by Yard Act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJj3soqn-4

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Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Aecom Director Ben Castell (@ben_castell). Their conversation takes in the New Deal For Communities; CABE; good practice design guides; the Housing Market Renewal Initiative and neighbourhood planning.

Ben's song selections.

Brickbat by Billy Bragg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgKKZSF04Ks

Clandestino by Manu Chao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSEUH4KRfN8

Police & Thieves by Junior Murvin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlP3J3J3Upw

Honest Life by Courtney Marie Andrews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cv0ATLNDJQ

Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town by Kenny Rogers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1e9p6J89rQ

NW5 by Madness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1J2-_u9DOM

Ben's Spotify playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6IXe20tZ0BPbd4kwTa6iN3?si=uDSo6r43TjuwQ-rEZkwcEA&dl_branch=1

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"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 greatest, they will now be built where a group of Conservative backbenchers in the south east think people should live.”

So said Paul Brocklehurst, Chair of the Land Promoters & Developers Federation, in response to the Government’s decision not to proceed with the changes to the standard method for calculating local housing need that were consulted upon in parallel to the White Paper.

Whilst the second iteration of the standard method represents business as usual for the majority of LPAs, for the 33 London authorities and 19 other largest cities the new standard method represents, at face value at least, something of a headache. That is, of course, unless the new standard method is exposed in short order as the sticking plaster that many take it for. If not the ‘mutant algorithm’ though, and not this second iteration, then how should a standard method be calculated? And if a Government with a healthy majority cannot tackle what could have been a relatively straightforward change to the standard method how likely now are the genuinely reformist elements of the White Paper?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Christopher Young QC of No. 5 Chambers (@No5Planning); Shelly Rouse (@rouse_shelly), Principal Consultant at the Planning Advisory Service (@pas_team); and Colin Robinson, Director at Lichfields (@LichfieldsUK).

Some accompanying reading.

Government response to the local housing need proposals in "Changes to the current planning system.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changes-to-the-current-planning-system

Chris' Topic Paper - 'It's the housing numbers, Stupid.'

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christopher-young-qc-3097b822_article-on-the-governments-new-standard-activity-6709337597438672897-FdwJ

Lichfields' blog - 'Your Official Top 20: The new Standard Method and the cities/urban centres uplift'.

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2021/january/11/your-official-top-20-the-new-standard-method-and-the-citiesurban-centres-uplift/

Lichfields' blog - 'Mangling the mutant: change to the standard method for local housing need'.

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2020/december/16/mangling-the-mutant-change-to-the-standard-method-for-local-housing-need/

Inside Housing - 'Councils hit out at government’s ‘unrealistic’ new planning formula'.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/councils-hit-out-at-governments-unrealistic-new-planning-formula-69616

Some accompanying viewing.

Dumb & Dumber - Official Trailer

https://youtu.be/l13yPhimE3o

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“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 creation of an ‘Office for Place’, which is to support local communities in determining the standard for all new buildings in their area, the NPPF is to be revised to place greater emphasis on beauty, place-making and, of course, tree-lined streets.

In addition, a new paragraph 127 of the NPPF will state that all LPAs should prepare design guides or codes consistent with the principles set out in the National Design Guide and the new National Model Design Code (NMDC).

The NMDC itself though, as one of it’s authors, David Rudlin of URBED has admitted, is not a code at all but a guide to writing codes.

An increased emphasis on the design quality of new development, and a national framework for design standards for LPAs to set policy and determine individual decisions by, can only be a good thing. There seems to be a huge leap though from where we are now to all LPAs having a design code or guide in place within three years, which the Chief Planner has written to them requesting. And what, for example, is the Code’s relationship with the White Paper? Are Codes for every street or just ‘Growth’ and ‘Renewal’ areas? And whilst agreement on what constitutes a good design code should be easy to achieve, agreement on what constitutes good design, let alone beautiful design, is perhaps harder achieve. Are expectations for what a NMDC can achieve being set unrealistically high?

Joining Sam Stafford to discuss these issues in this episode are Paul Smith, Vicky Payne, Louise Wood and Ben Woolnough. Paul (@paul_slg) is Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group; Vicky (@Victoria_Payne) is a planner and urban designer at URBED; Louise (@LWood_Cornwall) is Service Director for Planning at Cornwall Council; and Ben (@benhoward_w) is Major Sites & Infrastructure Manager at East Suffolk Council.

Some accompanying reading.

National Model Design Code

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/957205/National_Model_Design_Code.pdf

Guidance Notes for Design Codes

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/957207/Guidance_notes_for_Design_Codes.pdf

Design Skills in English Local Authorities

https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/otherpub/design-skills-english-local-authorities

‘Unlocking The Code’ by David Rudlin

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/opinion/unlocking-the-code-with-one-of-its-authors/5110463.article

Some accompanying listening.

Code of the Streets by Gang Starr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kwZUeog30

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Unlike Desert Island Discs 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 to this episode, 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 Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of the RTPI. Their conversation takes in Victoria's early work at Wycombe District Council, her move, via Steer Davies Gleave, to the Greater London Authority and from there her role at the Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation.

Victoria's song selections.

Born Slippy (Nuxx) by Underworld

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiMrrleH_hI

Empire State Of Mind Part (II) Broken Down by Alicia Keys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHagigQRKqU

One Day Like This by Elbow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NFV8dHrZYM

We Built This City by Starship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1b8AhIsSYQ&list=PL6wOMbu1YOMf3upseLQzqThCAnl4iMjxf&index=162

Another Brick In The Wall (Part II) by Pink Floyd

https://youtu.be/YR5ApYxkU-U

You Get What You Give by New Radicals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL7-CKirWZE

Victoria's Spotify playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5IxkETjpfPe4rAMsUnr87y?si=LEgI_Y_RQnW0yYM9JTlK6Q

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As 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 2020 that a new consultation on changing our approach to environmental assessment and mitigation in the planning system would be launched that Autumn. It wasn’t, but when it does appear what will it herald for EA in the UK after the EU?Is Brexit a welcome opportunity to reset EA on to a more proportionate footing? Is Brexit an unwelcome threat to a well-established regulatory regime that could be exploited through gaps in an ever-evolving planning process? Might Brexit actually be both?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Janice Morphet (Visiting Professor at UCL), Simon Ricketts (Partner at Town Legal LLP) and Lucy Wood (Director in the National Infrastructure & Environmental Planning Team at Barton Willmore).

Simon is on Twitter at @sricketts1 and Janice is @janicemorphet. Lucy wisely steers clear.

Some accompanying reading.

George Eustace’s speech on environmental recovery (July 2020).

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/george-eustice-speech-on-environmental-recovery-20-july-2020

‘Environmental Impact Assessment fit for the 21st Century’ by William Nicolle and Benedict McAleenan.

https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Planning-Anew.pdf

‘Brexit & Planning’ by Simon.

https://simonicity.com/2020/12/27/brexit-planning-an-update/

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals by the Public Accounts Committee.

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/138912/time-is-running-out-government-must-move-on-from-aspirational-words-and-start-taking-the-hard-decisions/

‘Since I Left EU – The Future of Environmental Assessment’, a Town Legal Webinar.

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/fBb38De_I4Yj_k3pdgTb-tU_ND_s0bmvcec2hWwWykytvXxfms3GzplB-ie0MyjUXIRcvgLdnUPizMlV.WMevhO6_9R0nDfLx?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=1ccFNtFCRsiD014UPCtfGQ.1611249256049.2050083b081ea8cc0a1284d86864b609&_x_zm_rhtaid=371

Some accompanying listening.

'Frogs, Toads and Newts' by Frits Wentink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJHCRDvlEos

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Eutrophication 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 Justice ruled in two joined cases relating to the EU Habitats Directive, which together are know as the ‘Dutch case’. Depending on your point of view, this judgement either significantly raised the assessment bar or provided welcome clarification on how the Directive should have been being interpreted anyway. Either way, subsequent advice from Natural England, at first in relation to the Solent SPA, recommended that LPAs in and around sensitive areas should withhold planning permission unless negative impacts of development can be ruled out completely.

Eighteen months later the ramifications of the requirement for nitrogen and phosphorous neutrality are still being felt. What has the impact of this issue been? How far away is a satisfactory resolution in those parts of the country that have been affected? And, with change afoot for both the post-Brexit environmental assessment regime and the planning system more broadly, what lessons can be drawn for planning at the scale of a river catchment?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to James Cording (Turley), Max Tant (Kent County Council), Graham Horton (Natural England) and Marian Cameron (Marian Cameron Consultants Ltd).

Some accompanying reading.

Version 5 of Natural England’s ‘Advice on Achieving Nutrient Neutrality for New Development in the Solent Region’.

https://www.push.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Natural-England%E2%80%99s-latest-guidance-on-achieving-nutrient-neutrality-for-new-housing-development-June-2020.pdf

‘Solent nitrogen neutrality: 18 months on, where are we now?’ by Turley.

https://www.turley.co.uk/comment/solent-nitrogen-neutrality-18-months-where-are-we-now

The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s Nitrate Reduction Programme

https://www.hiwwt.org.uk/reducing-nitrates-solent

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Consensus 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 public benefit.

The MHCLG Select Committee concluded in it’s 2018 Land Value Capture report that ‘there is scope for central and local government to claim a greater proportion of land value increases through reforms to existing taxes and charges, improvements to compulsory purchase powers, or through new mechanisms of land value capture.’

History has shown though that attempts to capture land value increases have had mixed success. Is it actually possible to capture a fair share for the community without discouraging owners from bringing land to market? Liz Peace, referring to her work as Chair of the 2017 CIL Review Group, said that ‘it is probably the most intellectually difficult thing I have ever grappled with’.

Councillor Martin Tett of the Local Government Association told the MHCLG Select Committee that “if it was easy everyone would have done it years ago”.

How much value is it right to capture, how should it be captured and who should spend it on what?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Richard Harwood OBE QC, Toby Lloyd and Gilian Macinnes.

Richard (@richardharwood2) is Joint Head of Chambers at 39 Essex Chambers and a case editor of the Journal of Planning and Environment Law

Toby (@tobylloyd) is a consultant at BuiltPlace, former Head of Policy at Shelter and a former special advisor inside No. 10.

Gilian (@GilianGMAC) is a Director at Gilian Macinnes Associates, Interim Head of Planning & Development at Ashford Borough Council and a member of the CIL Review Group.

Some accompanying reading.

'Land Value Capture: Attitudes from the housebuilding industry' by RICS.

https://www.rics.org/uk/news-insight/research/research-reports/land-value-capture-attitudes-from-the-house-building-industry-on-alternative-mechanisms/

The Compulsory Purchase Association's submission to the MHCLG Committee.

https://www.compulsorypurchaseassociation.org/files/Submission-to-the-Housing,-Communities-and-Local-Government-Committee.pdf

The MHCLG Committee's Land Value Capture report.

https://www.compulsorypurchaseassociation.org/files/House-of-Commons---LVC---Committee-Report---Sept-2018.pdf

'Land Value Capture' by Richard Harwood.

http://www.compulsorypurchaseassociation.org/files/Land-Value-Capture-paper-final.pdf

'A New Approach To Developer Contributions' by the CIL Review Team.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/589637/CIL_REPORT_2016.pdf

'Grounds for Change - The case for land reform in modern England' by Shelter.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1779418/Grounds_For_Change.pdf

Planning for the Future; Challenges of introducing a new Infrastructure Levy need to be addressed' by Christine Whitehead, Tony Crook and John Henneberry.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lselondon/planning-for-the-future-challenges-of-introducing-a-new-infrastructure-levy-need-to-be-addressed/

Some accompanying listening.

Taxman by The Beatles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DGn7eUU4kA

This Land Is Your Land by My Morning Jacket (Woody Guthrie cover).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AvTezD4XIU

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'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 book with both Ian and his daughter, and past 50 Shades contributor, Katie Wray (@kluw).

The book takes in London's squares, Milton Keynes, 'HS1', the motorways and the secret first electronic computers. Sam, Ian and Katie's conversation takes in the glorious revolution, black swans, lawyers, lobbyists and mavericks.

'Great British Plans' can be heartily recommended to students of history and as well as students of town planning. The relationship between planning and politics is a path well-trodden, but perhaps less well appreciated is the relationship between planning and the culture, the institutions and, indeed, the institutional culture of this scepted isle. It is easy to see how electoral priorities drive short-term political decision-making, but the book explores the factors at play, or more often in fact not at play, in longer-term political decision making, which will be of interest to anybody interested in why change happens, or more often in fact, why change does not happen.

Great British Plans.

https://www.routledge.com/Great-British-Plans-Who-made-them-and-how-they-worked/Wray/p/book/9780415711425

Some accompanying listening.

Ian's band’s lockdown version of Blue Skies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP-KkkoE4mM&ab_channel=OutoftheBlueJazzOrchestra

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Is 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 appreciate more the old times before 2020. The simple joy of just being with people, which we have learnt not to take for granted again. We can also take heart from the simple fact that, having faced down the challenges that this year has presented, we can be a little less fearful of whatever else is around the corner.

You will have spotted, all being well, the ‘Part 2’ in the title of this episode and so have already listened to Part 1, but if not, and it is by no means mandatory to have done so, this is the second of two episodes that feature reflections on an extraordinary year from past contributors to the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast. Sam Stafford's only editorial stipulation was that recordings were about five minutes in length. Whatever people wanted to talk about was completely up to them.

You will hear in this episode erudite and insightful observations from:

Lisa McFarlane;
David Rudlin;
Greg Dickson;
Andrew Taylor;
Stanzie Bell;
Claire Petricca-Riding;
Vanessa Eggleston; and
Mark Parkinson.

Lisa (@lmcfarlane01) is a Director and RIBA Specialist Conservation Architect at Seven Architecture and featured on Episode 31.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mcfarlane-ba-hons-barch-msc-che-riba-sca-ihbc-3ab5412

David (@Davidurbedcoop1) is a Director at URBED and featured on Episode 12.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/djrudlin

Greg (@GregDickson1) is a Director at Barton Willmore and a regular contributor to the podcast.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-dickson-4762263a

Andrew (@AndrewJTaylor3) is Group Planning Director at Countryside and featured on Episode 17.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-taylor-frtpi-42555131

Stanzie is a Barrister at Kings Chambers (@KCPlanningTeam) and featured on Episode 32.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanze-stanzie-bell

Claire (@PetriccaRiding) is a Partner and National Head of Planning and Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell and featured on Episode 25.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairepetriccariding

Vanessa is a Partner at i-Transport and featured on Episode 23.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-eggleston-6132131b0

Mark (@MarkA_Parkinson) is Chief Executive Officer at Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and featured on Episode 9.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-parkinson-972816b3

Some accompanying reading.

The blog Sam wrote whilst on furlough leave in April.

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2020/04/memories-of-200809-career-advice-for-my.html

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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; and
Katie 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

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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...

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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/

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‘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

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‘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

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“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

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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

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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

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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

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‘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

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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 this episode with co-authors Tom Carpen (Barton Willmore), Kevin Gibbs (Womble Bond Dickinson) and Hannah Hickman (Hannah Hickman Consulting).

LinkedIn profiles:

Tom - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-carpen-7102578b/

Kevin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-gibbs-24a39734/

Hannah - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahhickman1/

Some accompanying reading.

‘Can development consent orders help meet the challenges of our time?' by Barton Willmore, Copper, Womble Bond Dickinson and Hannah Hickman:

http://www.bartonwillmore.co.uk/Knowledge/Intelligence/2020/Can-Development-Consent-Orders-help-meet-the-chall

'Housing - Nationally Significant Infrastructure?' commissioned by Bond Dickinson and Quod:

https://www.quod.com/news/housing-crisis-demands-central-government-intervention/

'Unlocking Britain' by the Social Market Foundation:

https://www.smf.co.uk/publications/unlocking-britain/#:~:text=In%20a%20guest%20publication%20for%20the%20Social%20Market,recover%20and%20prosper%20in%20the%20wake%20of%20COVID-19.

'Following Orders: five actions necessary for DCOs and the NSIP regime to be used for large-scale housing' by Lichfields:

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2020/july/7/following-orders-the-five-actions-necessary-for-dcos-and-the-nsip-regime-to-be-used-for-large-scale-housing/

'The New Towns Question (Again)' by Simon Ricketts:

https://simonicity.com/2020/07/11/the-new-towns-question-again/

Some accompanying viewing.

The best of Jerry Springer's Final Thoughts:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3iobgi

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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 car to two wheels and two legs closing? Has the planning system, or at least the regulatory regime, helped or hindered that? What might the lasting impact of the pandemic be on travel patterns and how will the planning system have to respond to that?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Brian Deegan (Design Engineer at Urban Movement), Vanessa Eggleston (Partner at i-Transport) and Paul Smith (MD of Strategic Land Group and a person who rides a bike).

Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford, @bricycle and @paul_slg. Vanessa is on LinkedIn.

Some accompanying reading.

The latest on the cycle lane at the end of Paul’s street.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/support-a56-cycle-lanes-grows-18596708

Manchester’s Cyclops Junction.

https://news.tfgm.com/news/manchester-opens-uks-first-cyclops-junction

The Urban Design Group’s survey on street design practice.

http://www.udg.org.uk/content/street-design-uk-pilot-survey-2018

‘The end of the rush hour?’ Vanessa’s blog.

https://strategiclandgroup.co.uk/2020/06/09/the-end-of-the-rush-hour-guest-post-by-i-transport/

Robin Lovelace’s Rapid Cycleway Prioritisation Tool.

https://theconversation.com/cities-must-act-to-secure-the-future-of-urban-cycling-our-research-shows-how-138156

The International Transport Forum’s Decarbonising Transport initiative.

https://www.itf-oecd.org/decarbonising-transport

Some accompanying listening.

Crosstown Traffic by Jimi Hendrix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-xyGFI_Nq8

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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 lasts, and indeed beyond, can the public continue to be engaged with the planning system in a way that allows applications and local plans to not only progress, but to progress in ways that are sensible, fair, and perhaps most importantly, lawful.

Sam Stafford discusses these issues with Greg Dickson, Director at Barton Willmore; Sarah James, Policy & Membership Development Manager at Civic Voice; and Kevin Whitmore, Head of North & Midlands at BECG.

Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford; @GregDickson1; @jamesslf and @kevin_whitmore.

Some accompanying reading.

Temporary changes to the publicity requirements for certain planning applications:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/consultation-and-pre-decision-matters#covid19

Sarah's blog 'Going from the physical to the digital':

https://civicvoiceblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/going-from-the-physical-to-the-digital/

Kevin's blog 'Reflections from a virtual world':

https://becg.com/blog/reflections-from-a-virtual-world/

Publicity requirements for the London Plan (in the Business & Planning Bill):

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-current-spatial-development-strategies-available-digitally-draft-guidance

Publicity requirements for other local development documents (a Written Ministerial Statement by Lord Greenhalgh):

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Lords/2020-06-25/HLWS311/

Some accompanying listening.

Rules Of Engagement by King Creosote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcKPu6Yo8q4

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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 do not, what hope is there for the Government’s aim, as set out in a March 2020 policy paper, for local plan coverage across England by 2023?

In this episode Sam Stafford discusses the DtC with Catriona Riddell (Catriona Riddell & Associates), Zack Simons (Barrister at Landmark Chambers), and Peter French (Senior Policy Officer at the County Councils Network (CCN)).

Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford; @CatrionaRiddel1, @zacksimons and @peterpfrench.

Some associated reading:

Zack's Planoraks Blog:

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/teamwork-failing-the-duty-to-cooperate

'County Councils & Strategic Planning: A review of current & emerging practice', by Catriona Riddell Associates and the CCN:

https://thinkhouse.org.uk/site/assets/files/1605/ccn.pdf

'Unleashing counties’ role in levelling up England' by Grant Thornton and the CCN:

https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/insights/unleashing-counties-role-in-levelling-up-england/

Some recommended viewing:

Good Neighbours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzaPcIXEoUo

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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 Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) for their Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) submissions in 2019 and this episode may be of particular interest to anybody currently pursuing the Associate and Licentiate routes to RTPI membership (https://www.rtpi.org.uk/membership/assessment-of-professional-competence/).

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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 governance.

Paul Smith is the Managing Director of Strategic Land Group and is on Twitter at @Paul_SLG.

Vicky Payne is a planner and urbanist at Urbed and is on Twitter at @Victoria_Payne.

Tom Whitehead is Group Town Planning Manager at Brookhouse Group and is on Twitter, but does not want you to know that.

Some reading to accompany this episode:

The pandemic will reduce inequality—or make it worse.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-29/how-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-affect-inequality?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=url_link&utm_content=economics&cmpid%253D=socialflow-twitter-economics&sref=dcitGkK3

Past pandemics changed the design of cities. Six ways COVID-19 could do the same.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-22/coronavirus-pandemics-architecture-urban-design

The city and the virus.

https://medium.com/@maxnathan/the-city-and-the-virus-db8f4a68e404

A backlash against cities would be dangerous.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/urban-density-not-problem/611752/

Coronavirus is not fuel or urbanist fantasies.

https://www.curbed.com/2020/5/20/21263319/coronavirus-future-city-urban-covid-19

‘We’ve seen nothing like this since the 1930s’ - how will Greater Manchester’s economy bounce back from coronavirus?

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/weve-seen-nothing-like-1930s-18170878

If you would like to help support the East Lancs Railway:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/displayCharityCampaignPage.action?charityCampaignUrl=ELRsupportfund

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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.

Sam Stafford discusses the Arc proposition with Tim Burden, Director at Turley; Bridget Rosewell, economist and National Infrastructure Commissioner; and Alistair Lomax, Director at the Arc Universities Group.

Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford, @timburden03, @brosewell and @alistair_lomax.

Some accompanying reading.

The National Infrastructure Commission's report

https://www.nic.org.uk/publications/partnering-prosperity-new-deal-cambridge-milton-keynes-oxford-arc/

Tim's think piece

https://www.turley.co.uk/comment/oxford-cambridge-arc-lets-just-get-it

Some recommended viewing.

The Arctic Monkeys at Reading in 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMxJhZc2sBI

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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 accompanying reading.

The Secretary of State and the Mayor's recent correspondence:

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/london-plan/new-london-plan/secretary-states-response

Some recommended listening.

Alice's appearance on a proper podcast:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fgp5

Some recommended viewing.

A classic episode of Bottom:

https://youtu.be/wUlgdjZuSZ4

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'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’

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/14/outskirts-by-john-grindrod-review

Ipsos Mori polling for the CPRE on public attitudes towards the Green Belt

https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/attitudes-towards-green-belt-land

Ipsos Mori polling for Housing The Powerhouse on attitudes towards housing development in Greater Manchester

http://www.housingthepowerhouse.com/downloads/Housing%20the%20Powerhouse%20-%20Ipsos%20MORI%20Opinion%20Poll%20Press%20Release.pdf

'The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform' by the Adam Smith Institute

https://www.adamsmith.org/news/press-release-free-up-3-7-percent-of-londons-green-belt-to-build-one-million-new-homes-says-new-report

‘Planned up and be counted ‘ local plan making under NPPF 2012’ by Lichfields

https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/planned-up-and-be-counted

‘This Blessed Plot – This Other Eden’ - A film for the Council for the Preservation of Rural England

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/rural-england-aka-this-blessed-plot-this-other

‘The myth of the countryside idyll’ by Steve Middlehurst

https://stevemiddlehurstidentityandplace.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/a5-research-the-myth-of-the-countryside-idyll/

Keith Joseph’s 1964 South East Study

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/19/newsid_2570000/2570681.stm

A Policy Briefing Paper by the Landscape Institute

https://www.landscapeinstitute.org/policy/green-belt-policy/

The London Society’s Position Paper

https://www.londonsociety.org.uk/post/londons-green-belt

‘The Proud City’ – A film outlining plans for the post war reconstruction of London, featuring Patrick Abercrombie and JH Forshaw.

https://archive.org/details/ProudCity

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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 Stefan Webb, Place Director at FutureGov to discuss the impact of Coronavirus on the planning system.

Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford, @jonnye47, @EPlanna and @Stef_W.

Some links:

Planning Inspectorate Guidance:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-planning-inspectorate-guidance

ADSO and LLG letter to MHCLG on decision-making and democracy:

https://www.adso.co.uk/letter-to-sos-covid-19-implications-for-local-authority-governance/

Greater Flexibility For Planning Permissions:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/5997/1729942.pdf

The Landmark Chambers paper:

https://cached.offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk/NewsAttachments/RLP/LandmarkSOSletter.pdf

Simon Ricketts’ Blog:

https://simonicity.com/2020/03/21/what-to-do/

The Planning Advisory Service’s resource:

https://local.gov.uk/pas/pas-topics/coronavirus

The RTPI survey to inform discussions with Governments across the UK and Ireland:

https://r1.dotmailer-surveys.com/b43esd27-db4kml95

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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 broadly.

More information on the topics discussed in this episode can be found here:

Living with beauty

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/building-better-building-beautiful-commission

Rethinking the planning system for the 21st century’

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/rethinking-the-planning-system-for-the-21st-century/

First Homes

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/first-homes

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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.

https://yimbyalliance.org/about-us/

Matt Thomson (@MattThomson42) is Head of Planning at CPRE. Matt is a professional town planner with over 15 years’ experience in local government and was formerly head of policy and practice at the RTPI.

https://www.cpre.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/meet-our-spokespeople/

Barbara Weiss founded Barbara Weiss Architects in 1987. Barbara has been involved in the Skyline Campaign that 'aims to stop the devastation of London by badly designed tall buildings in the wrong location'.

http://www.barbaraweissarchitects.com/the-practice/people/barbara-weiss

Some reading associated with this episode:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/building-better-building-beautiful-commission

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/jan/new-housing-design-england-overwhelmingly-mediocre-or-poor

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/comment/dont-forget-a-lot-of-housing-design-is-getting-better/5103978.article

https://www.londonyimby.org/research

Some listening associated with this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICG0MuzEYzw

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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: 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

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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 at every tier of public policy-making?

These questions are the basis of a conversation that Sam Stafford has in this episode with Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and latterly Chief Executive of the Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation; Peter Rees CBE, Professor of Places & City Planning at UCL and former Chief City Planner at the City of London; and Nicki Linihan of NJL Solutions and latterly interim Director of Planning at the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation and former Head of Planning and Transport at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

The Raynsford Review can be read here:

https://www.tcpa.org.uk/raynsford-review

The RTPI’s research into the role of Chief Planning Officers can be read here:

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/knowledge/research/projects/chief-planning-officers/

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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 council plans to reclaim land from sea for homes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-47142979

March

The latest act in the GMSF play.

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-latest-installment-in-long-running.html

MHCLG’s resourcing and skills survey.

https://local.gov.uk/pas/pas-topics/monitoring/survey-planning-departments-2019

April

In memory of the Englishman who kept a shark on his roof.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/in-memory-of-the-englishman-who-kept-a-shark-on-his-roof/amp

May

The National Audit Office’s investigation into the government’s land disposal strategy and programmes.

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/investigation-into-the-governments-land-disposal-strategy/

June

Juries for plan-making.

https://landforthemany.uk/

July

Record temperatures across Europe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49108847

August

The Towns Fund.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservatives-general-election-marginals-public-funding-money-a9201141.html

September

Robert Jenrick likes tree-lined streets.

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/housing-secretary-launches-national-design-guide-to-end-ugly-development/10044606.article

October

The CPRE likes Green Belt.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/comment/paradise-lost-cpre-and-the-state-of-the-green-belt/5102352.article

November

Government confirms fracking moratorium and drops proposed permitted development rights.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/843801/Government_Response_to_the_shale_PDR_Consultation.pdf

December

How does your garden grow?

https://lichfields.uk/media/5638/how-does-your-garden-grow_a-stock-take-on-planning-for-the-governments-garden-communities-programme.pdf

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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 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 guests explore during the discussion, brings into sharp focus the difficulties that policy planners have planning for greater-than-local issues without a statutory basis to do so.

Sam and Mike's previous blogs on the shortfall can be found here:

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2018/08/devolution-birmingham-shortfall-4.html

https://mikesbestlaidplans.wordpress.com/2017/04/21/nobody-said-it-was-easy/

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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 work with the UK2070 Commission (http://uk2070.org.uk).

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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 and officers.

https://www.local.gov.uk/Pas-probity-planning

An objector singing at Reading’s planning committee (13 mins).

https://channel.royalcast.com/readingboroughcouncil/#!/readingboroughcouncil/20160907_1

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Sam 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.

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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 (https://www.grosvenor.com/our-businesses/grosvenor-britain-ireland/rebuilding-trust) that looks at levels of public distrust in placemaking and large-scale development. Thanks to Vicky for the title of this episode.

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Sam 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...

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Sam Stafford and his guests Vicky Payne and Paul Smith discuss the forthcoming 'Accelerated Planning' Green Paper and swap holiday stories.

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Sam 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.

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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?’

50 Shades of Planning: Recent Episodes

Samuel Stafford