50 Shades of Planning Samuel Stafford
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- Government
Sam Stafford started posting on the 50 Shades of Planning blog in 2012 and in 2019 turned it into a podcast. 50 Shades of Planning is about the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which is a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners. If you would like to feature on 'Hitting The High Notes', or know somebody that would make a great guest, please email samstafford@hotmail.com.
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
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com.
As with the 50 Shades Blog, the 50 Shades Podcast is a platform for Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is produced in partnership with Cratus Group.
Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between...
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Grey Belt
Sam Stafford was in London recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Catriona Riddell, Shelly Rouse and Nicola Gooch at Soho Radio Studios. One topic, the hot topic of the past few weeks, dominated the conversation.
“Labour pledges housebuilding drive on Grey Belt with ‘golden rules’ to boost public services, affordable homes and improve green spaces”, so announced a press release dated 19 April.
Keir Starmer has today set out five ‘golden rules’ for Grey Belt housebuilding, pledging to deliver affordable homes, boost infrastructure and public services like schools and GPs, and improve genuine green spaces.
While reiterating that Labour will always take a 'brownfield first' approach to housing development, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner are also pledging to release some land currently classed as Green Belt to build the homes Britain needs.”
On a visit to a housing development today, the pair will outline Labour’s plans to create a new class of 'Grey Belt' land to ensure grey and poor-quality parts of the Green Belt are prioritised, and that any development benefits local communities.
Plenty in there then for the gang to get their teeth in to. They discussed the practical issues associated with creating a new class of designation and how that might rub up against, for example, mandatory BNG. They also talked about how Grey Belt might interact with a mechanism for cross- boundary strategic planning, which Matthew Pennycook has said that Labour will introduce to overcome housing delivery challenges around towns and cities with tightly drawn administrative boundaries. All of that, as you will hear, led them on to local plan reform and what the next version of the NPPF looks like, as well as a remarkable statistic from Shelly on how much a local plan costs to prepare.
Some accompanying reading.
Labour’s planning proposals
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2024/04/labours-planning-proposals.html
The 80-year planning war over a Surrey airfield (£)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-80-year-planning-war-over-a-surrey-airfield-lvjb3svr7
Some accompanying viewing.
What is Grey Belt land and why does Keir Starmer want to build on it?
https://youtu.be/4OvsXqdpy4s?si=S6mfS_uL-R15v-3b
Some accompanying listening.
Darkness on the edge of town – Bruce Springsteen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8HXvt-v5v0
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html -
A Hillside to die on
Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Greg Dickson and Claire Petricca-Riding.
During a conversation recorded at Reform Radio they talked about another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning. They talked about RPs not bidding for Section 106 sites, they talked about the 'Accelerated Planning System' consultation, so the proposals for the new Section 73B, the ten week determination period for major commercial applications, and restrictions on the use of extension of time agreements. They talked about the Flood Risk Sequential Test and touched on the Government response to a consultation on operational reforms to the NSIP process.
Some accompanying reading.
An accelerated planning system
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/an-accelerated-planning-system-consultation/an-accelerated-planning-system
Simon Ricketts’ S73B Blog
https://simonicity.com/2024/04/01/section-73-or-section-73b/
Zack Simons' Flood Risk Sequential Test Blog
https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/buildin-in-the-rain-flood-risk-in-the-courts
Pre-application advice and Planning Performance Agreements
https://www.local.gov.uk/pas/development-mgmt/pre-application-advice-and-planning-performance-agreements-ppas
Power & Partnership: Labour’s plan to power up Britain
https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labours-plan-to-power-up-britain/
A Westminster Hall Debate on 13 March 2024
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2024-03-13/debates/65995D50-E335-444C-8065-405F91548338/PlanningReform
Labour’s planning proposals
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2023/10/labours-planning-proposals.html
Some accompanying viewing.
The fine kind of rain that soaks you through - Peter Kay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8xHtbkhR8
Can you imagine a world without lawyers? - The Simpsons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG3uea-Hvy4
Some accompanying listening
Hillside Song - My Morning Jacket
https://youtu.be/XmLiKGpSC4g?si=4TkfP6YMFgfUYfJ1
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html -
Hitting the High Notes - Nick Kilby
In Hitting the High Notes episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that Listeners can get to know people a little better personally, for every project or stage of their career Sam also asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period. Think of it as town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs.
Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music without the copyright holders permission or a very expensive PRS licensing agreement could land Sam in hot water, so, when you have finished listening, you will have to make do with YouTube videos and a Spotify playlist, links to which you will find below.
Sam's guest for this episode is Nick Kilby, founder and now Chief Executive Officer of Cratus Group, who kindly took the time to meet Sam at Soho Radio Studios in early April 2024.
Nick trained as a Stage Manager and Lighting Designer at Mountview Theatre School and worked in the early 1980s as a stage manager at the Edinburgh Festival and the National Theatre. Having produced his own shows Nick then got into cinema management, including the first Imax at the Trocadero Centre. He then got into politics and in 2006 was elected on to the Royal Borough of Kingston Council, which led to being asked about campaigning and lobbying. After being involved with the Abbey Mills ‘Mega’ Mosque at the end of the 2000s Nick then founded Cratus.
As Nick takes Sam through his six projects they talk about the keys to successful engagement and the role of the councillor in that. They talk about how consultants are only as good as the client lets them be; about what it really means to build communities; and they talk about localism and a certain Mr Eric Pickles.
Some accompanying reading.
All The Lonely People – Mike Gayle
https://www.mikegayle.co.uk/my-books/all-lonely-people
Want to build? Better hire a good lobbyist
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/want-to-build-better-hire-a-good-lobbyist-rc6gsg7qs (£)
My Favourite Building: Sam Stafford – The Piece Hall
https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/117312-prop-my-favourite-building-sam-stafford-the-piece-hall
Some accompanying viewing.
You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiW3oPv1vZc
Some accompanying listening.
McCartney: A Life in Lyrics
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/mccartney-a-life-in-lyrics
Nick’s Spotify playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0bwjKHMaDAsodUAddsBpyr?si=0gPfuF0QTzSdwastIl-w9w&pi=e-D-xwFvBMToSz&nd=1&dlsi=dfe4a97887be4cb4
There is Power in a Union - Billy Bragg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwbzxemJZIc
We can Work it Out -The Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-0if-ca6CE
Elgar Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61: 11. Andante - Nigel Kennedy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLD0jOyTnwU
A Father Now from 3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down - Original Off Broadway Cast
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nlSUmGk0G9IMZQDCW2uVCm3eZlrr8yD6U
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuS5NuXRb5Y
Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso by Ennio Morricone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMZvAbk1kXQ
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html -
Banishing Boxland
The Prime Minister recently announced plans to "turbocharge" development within England's largest towns and cities to mark a Government consultation on strengthening planning policy for brownfield development.
Sam Stafford thought then that now would be a good time to share a conversation that he recorded online in August 2023 with old friends of the podcast David Milner and Rebecca Coley, and new friend of the podcast Mark Aylward, about the redevelopment of big box retail parks.
The prompt for the conversation was a 2018 report that Sam had come across by Create Streets and Policy Exchange called ‘Better Brownfield’, which claimed that there are over 1200 sites across London currently occupied by single-storey big box retail and industrial sheds and that, by ‘banishing boxland’, these sites could accommodate between 250,000 and 300,000 new homes.
Who owns and manages assets like these? What is the market like for big boxes in the new world of online retail? And what are the opportunities presented by, and the barriers to, sites like this coming forward for a mixed-use redevelopment? These are the questions that Sam invited David, Mark and Rebecca to explore with him.
Some accompanying reading.
How to house London’s surging population? Banish “boxland” – by Susan Emmett
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/41218/how-to-house-londons-surging-population-banish-boxland
Better Brownfield
https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/better-brownfield/
Five retail and leisure trends to look out for in the post-pandemic era
https://www.savills.co.uk/blog/article/340262/commercial-property/five-retail-and-leisure-trends-to-look-out-for-in-the-post-pandemic-era.aspx
Pipeline of data centres needs to more than double by 2025 to meet demand for storage in Europe
https://www.savills.co.uk/insight-and-opinion/savills-news/336014-0/savills--pipeline-of-data-centres-needs-to-more-than-double-by-2025-to-meet-demand-for-storage-in-europe
The London Land Challenge; The Industrial Land Market
https://www.savills.co.uk/research_articles/229130/329623-0
Some accompanying listening.
Brighouse on Saturday Night – Roger Davies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PQmACfPhY4
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html -
Capturing the Zeitgeist
This episode is a ramblechat that Sam Stafford recorded in London with friends of the podcast Hashi Mohamed, Simon Ricketts, Nicola Gooch and Andrew Taylor during which they reflected on another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning.
The conversation takes in the back-dating of Section 106 indexation and what that says about local authority finances; the need to consider PPAs, statutory consultees and performance targets in the round; BNG and Sam's debut appearance on Countryfile; the Brownfield Reform Day consultations on a presumption in favour of brownfield development, permitted development rights and the Mayor of London’s call-in powers; and the Competition & Markets Authority's report on the housebuilding industry. All in approximately 45 minutes or so.
Some accompanying reading.
Housebuilding market study final report
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housebuilding-market-study-final-report
Brownfield Reform Day
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2024/02/brownfield-reform-day.html
Biodiversity Unit Finder Map
https://www.futurehomes.org.uk/biodiversityunitfindermap
Short Term Thinking
https://simonicity.com/2023/04/14/short-term-thinking/
Can Local Plan Policies Require Developers To Go Beyond National Standards?
https://simonicity.com/2024/02/24/can-local-plan-policies-require-developers-to-go-beyond-national-standards/
Some accompanying listening.
Zeitgeist by Black Sabbath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3FyNH9v7mU
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html -
Critical Infrastructure
Building GP surgeries, schools and roads is not just difficult it is so difficult, according to no less of an expert on such matters than the Prime Minister, as to be a reason to not even contemplate growing existing towns and cities.
In introducing recent proposals to put “rocket boosters” under construction in existing built-up areas, Rishi Sunak was quoted in The Times as saying that “We need to build homes in the places where people need and want them. There’s little point trying to force large new estates on our countryside and Green Belt when that is where public resistance to development is strongest and where the GP surgeries, schools and roads don’t exist to support new communities.”
It is not uncommon though to see opinion polls from time to time highlighting that for people who are not supportive of more homes being built, building more or improving existing medical facilities would likely change their minds.
It is equally not uncommon though to see stories in the press from time to time with headlines like ‘we love our homes but we’re crying out for schools and GPs’.
Where is the line to be drawn between what applicants should reasonably be expected to provide as part of making a development acceptable in planning terms, and the access to health and education that citizens should reasonably expect their Government to provide for them?
How effective is the planning system in bringing together all of the actors and agencies that are responsible for the delivery of social infrastructure?
What are the barriers to LPAs spending what the Home Builders Federation reports to be £2.8bn in unspent S106 contributions?
These are questions that Sam Stafford explores with some old friends of the podcast and some new friends of the podcast.
The old friends are Andrew Taylor, Gilian MacInnes and Ben Woolnough. Andrew is Group Planning Director at Vistry Group; Gilian has her own consultancy and acts a trainer and interim manager in the public sector; and Ben is Planning Manager at East Suffolk Council.
The new friends are James Cutting and Isabella Buono. James is Head of Planning at Suffolk County Council and Isabella is a Barrister at Landmark Chambers.
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
Our 'new town' with 2,500 homes and 1,000 more to come has no GP, the school is full and the closest supermarket is 25 minutes away - but we do have a nuclear fusion centre
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12392593/Our-new-town-nuclear-fusion-centre-no-GP-school-closest-supermarket-cafe-20-minute-walk-away.html
Section 106 agreements and unspent developer contributions in England and Wales report
https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/section-106-report/?pk_campaign=newsletter_6368
A taxing problem: County Councils “desperate” for CIL money to fund infrastructure
https://www.thedeveloper.live/opinion/opinion/a-taxing-problem-county-councils-desperate-for-cil-money-to-fund-infrastructure
Can You Use Section 106 To Buy Drugs (And To Fund Other Public Services)?
https://simonicity.com/2023/02/18/can-you-use-section-106-to-buy-drugs-and-to-fund-other-public-services/
Mind the Funding Gap: The curious case of s.106 contributions funding NHS services
https://imbusiness.passle.net/post/102i43y/mind-the-funding-gap-the-curious-case-of-s-106-contributions-funding-nhs-service
Some accompanying listening.
School by Nirvana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp86SkWKRQE