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127 episodes
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50 Shades of Planning Samuel Stafford
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- Government
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which 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.
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com (from where you can also sign up for the 50 Shades Newsletter).
Sam shares bits and pieces of planning-related interest on Instagram (@50shadesofplanning) and LinkedIn so please follow those accounts as well.
If you have listened to Episode 45 of 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.
The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
The 50 Shades of Planning Podcast and YouTube channels are 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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Let's get digital
Long-serving Listeners might recall that for Episode 6 of 50 Shades of Planning Sam Stafford published a chat with Euan Mills, then of the Connected Places Catapult, on the potential for digital innovation, urban data, and user-centred design to improve the planning system.
Euan, now CEO and co-founder of Blocktype, got in touch with Sam Stafford earlier this year and asked if he could put together an episode on the progress that has been made over the past five years towards this aim.
This was both a kind invitation and a coincidental one because at around the same time the Spring Budget Statement included reference to “piloting the use of AI solutions to support planning authorities to streamline their local plan development processes, producing plans in 30 months rather than the current average of seven years. This builds on work to date which has already reduced planning officer processing times by up to 30% per application.”
This episode features four conversations that Euan recorded back in March with four people both very knowledgeable and very active in this space. They are Alistair Parvin, CEO of Open Systems Lab; Dr Sue Chadwick, Strategic & Digital Planning Advisor at Pinsent Masons; Matt Wood-Hill, Head of Digital Planning Software at MHCLG; and Paul Downey, Planning Data Service Owner at MHLCG.
During the course of this episode Listeners will learn a lot about how digital innovation, urban data, and user-centred design are improving the UK planning system.
Some accompanying reading.
Blocktype
blocktype.co.uk
Plan X
planx.uk
Planning Data
Planning.data.gov.uk
Open Digital Planning
opendigitalplanning.org
The Future of Planning - How we can rewire the planning system for the digital age
https://medium.com/@alastairparvin/the-future-of-planning-8a1f93e17ae1
Some accompanying listening.
Digital – Goldie (feat. KRS One) (Armand Van Helden Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1dgKcpgKxs
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of 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. You can also sign up for the 50 Shades Newsletter via the 50 Shades Blog.
Any other business.
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford). He shares bits and pieces of planning-related interest on Instagram (@50shadesofplanning) and LinkedIn so please follow those accounts as well. -
Housing by popular demand
One of the new Labour Government’s manifesto pledges is the construction of 1.5 million new homes between now and the end of this new parliament.
“We will ensure local communities continue to shape housebuilding in their area, but where necessary Labour will not be afraid to make full use of intervention powers to build the houses we need”, the manifesto states, which strikes a markedly different tone to the emphatically localist one adopted by the Conservatives upon entering office back in 2010.
So different in fact that according to the Daily Express recently “campaigners have demanded an apology from Sir Keir Starmer for treating nature and communities with “disdain” through his approach to housing policies and energy infrastructure.”
Now seemed like a good time then for Sam Stafford to publish a conversation between old friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor, Catriona Riddell and Paul Miner, and new friends of the podcast Jonathan Werran, Andy von Bradsky and Anna Clarke. This conversation, which is lead by Andrew and recorded online in April 2024 is about an essay collection compiled by Localis called ‘Building by consent – housing by popular demand’.
Localis, of which Jonathan is Chief Executive, asked a wide range of policy experts, local government leaders and industry bodies, to sketch their plan for what a successful planning system that generates community support for development might look like. Andrew, Catriona, Paul, Andy and Anna all provided contributions..
Some accompanying reading.
Labour’s planning proposals
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2024/04/labours-planning-proposals.html
A new dawn has broken, has it not?
https://lichfields.uk/blog/2024/july/05/a-new-dawn-has-broken-has-it-not
Sir Keir Starmer accused of 'making enemies' of voters as campaigners demand apology
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1912206/keir-starmer-housing-nature-communities
Building Communities
https://www.localis.org.uk/research/building-communities/
Building Consent
https://localis.org.uk/research/building-consent/
Long-Term National Housing Strategy
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2024-02-29/debates/48BADB17-4BC5-4D4A-81A9-6E80B85533AF/Long-TermNationalHousingStrategy#contribution-F4869BBB-7ECD-49E2-9E36-7AEA3060249D
Neighbourhood Planning Design Coding Guidance
https://neighbourhoodplanning.org/toolkits-and-guidance/neighbourhood-planning-design-coding-guidance/
Independent review of build out: final report
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-build-out-final-report
Start to Finish 3
https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/start-to-finish-3
Streamlining planning to build more homes
https://housingforum.org.uk/reports/key-publications/streamlining-planning-to-build-more-homes/
Some accompanying listening.
Wind of Change - Scorpions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ
50 Shades T-Shirts & Newsletter
If you have listened to Episode 45 of 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 and you can also sign up for the 50 Shades Newsletter via the 50 Shaded Blog. -
What do we want?
With a General Election now imminent Sam Stafford thought that it might be interesting to try to compare what is being offered by the main political parties in relation to housing, planning and development with what the housing, planning and development sector would like to see being offered.
In a conversation recorded at Outset Studios in Shoreditch Sam speaks to new friends of the podcast Richard Blyth, Tony Mulhall, Marie Chadwick and Ian Fletcher, and old friend of the podcast Paul Brocklehurst, about the policy proposals that their respective organisations are promulgating.
Richard is Head of Policy & Practice at the RTPI; Tony is a Senior Specialist at RICS; Marie is Policy Leader at the NHF; Paul is Chair of the LPDF; and Ian is Director of Real Estate Policy at the BPF.
Sam invites them all to outline their respective manifestos and then they focused on two key areas that everybody agreed need to be addressed: the need to get more resources into LPAs and the need to reintroduce strategic planning whilst at the same time getting local plans moving again.
Towards the end of the episode Sam also asks Marie about the issue of RPs not bidding for S106 sites, which is a very live one at present.
Some accompanying reading.
Blue belt, grey belt, wild belt – the manifestos compared
https://lichfields.uk/blog/2024/june/20/blue-belt-grey-belt-wild-belt-the-manifestos-compared
RICS’ Land & Rural Manifesto overview
https://www.rics.org/news-insights/rics-uk-general-election-land-and-rural-manifesto-review
The BPF General Election Manifesto
https://bpf.org.uk/our-work/general-election-2024/
LPDF’s 10 Point Plan for a Step Change in Delivery
https://lpdf.co.uk/latest-lpdf-publications
RTPI’s Planifesto
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/new/our-campaigns/rtpi-planifesto-2024/
Some accompanying viewing.
NHF’s campaign for a Plan for Housing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmM3WLCjcwQ
Some accompanying listening.
Manifesto by Roxy Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjkVYOArUQM
50 Shades - T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of 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 -
Efficiency Savings
In February 2024 Planning published a special report by Joey Gardiner entitled ‘how cost-saving consultants disrupted council planning services’.
Cash-strapped councils have been following management consultants’ advice to split up their planning teams. Staff have been put into central departments to handle additional non-planning tasks. But the upshot, say critics, has been declining performance and a staff exodus.
Joey’s piece highlighted the tumult at Tandridge, which in 2020 was formally threatened with designation over the quality of its decision-making. A subsequent PAS review of the council’s development management service, which was published in 2021, laid the blame squarely on a team structure “developed during the corporate restructure” that it said was “not fit for purpose”.
That local government has borne the brunt of the age of austerity is well known. According to the IFS, during the 2010s, councils’ overall core funding per person fell by an average of 26% in real terms, with higher council tax revenues only partially offsetting a 46% reduction in funding from central government.
Those in the sector know that planning and development has borne the brunt of that. Again according to the IFS, spending per person on planning and development fell by 58% between 2010/11 and 2019/20, which was second only to cuts to services for young people and Sure Start. Perhaps less well known, and what Joey’s article has helped to shine a light on, is the impact on planning services of the kind of whole-authority service transformations that some authorities have undertaken to in order to deal with these financial pressures.
To explore this issue further Sam Stafford invited four of the people quoted in Joey’s article to expand upon their experiences with him. They are old friends of the podcast Mike Kiely, Gilian MacInnes and Paul Barnard, and new friend of the podcast Peter Ford. In a conversation recorded at Soho Radio Studios at the end of April 2024 they talked about the pressures that LPAs have been and are under; why the nature of planning services do not lend it to whole-authority service transformations; and the impact of such upheavals. They also talked about whether there are too planning teams and whether Chief Planning Officers could and should be at the top decision-making table.
The episode starts though with a brief conversation that Sam recorded online with Joey Gardiner recently about his special report for Planning. Sam asked Joey how he went about putting the report together; what he found most striking in so doing; and what feedback he has had on it.
Some accompanying reading.
How cost-saving consultants disrupted council planning services (£)
https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1860857/cost-saving-consultants-disrupted-council-planning-services
Tandridge District Council - DM Review
https://tandridge.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s4234/Appendix%20A%20-%20Development%20Management%20Review.pdf
Guildford Borough Council - Development Management Establishment Review
https://democracy.guildford.gov.uk/documents/s26379/Item%208%20-%20DM%20Budget%20Exec%20Report%20revised%20for%20Autumn%202022%20-%20FINAL-%20V4.pdf
How have English councils’ funding and spending changed? 2010 to 2024
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-english-councils-funding-and-spending-changed-2010-2024
Some accompanying listening.
Episode 84 of Room 106
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ep84-how-cost-saving-management-consultants-are-impacting/id1596110607?i=1000649057189
A Shared Sense Of Purpose - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan (Vince Clarke Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpeRnH2FLA4 -
Neutral Impact III (and a bit of Green Belt)
When Sam Stafford first covered nutrient neutrality, in February 2021, he described the process of eutrophication as a bit like the podcast itself: a little niche, but very important.
When Sam published a second episode in September 2022 it had grown in importance to the extent that Prime Minister Liz Truss had pledged to "scrap nutrient neutrality rules".
A Government press release issued in August 2023 stated that “through an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB), the Government will do away with this red tape and allow for the delivery of more than 100,000 new homes desperately needed by local communities."”
The LURB amendments in question were subsequently defeated, nutrient neutrality rules have not been scrapped, and 2 June 2024 marks the fifth anniversary of Natural England’s first advice note for LPAs in the Solent Region. The question that Sam posed in that second Shades episode remains just as pertinent: how far away is a satisfactory resolution in those parts of the country that have been affected?
In order to provide an updated answer to that question Sam invited old friend of the podcast Rachel Jones and new friends of the podcast Andrew Smith and Gemma Nelmes to share their experiences. Rachel is Ecology Manager at Wiltshire Council; Andrew is Head of Development Management at the Lake District National Park Authority; and Gemma is an Associate at Stantec.
Eagle-eyed Listeners may have spotted that the title of this episode is Neutral Impact III (and a bit of Green Belt). Sam has very kindly been invited by Richard Kimblin at No. 5 Chambers and Sarah Young at LUC to contribute to a Green Belt Summit that they are holding on Wednesday 3 July. It is in London, but will be available to view online as well. The three of them had a brief preparatory chat last recently about the spur for the summit and the hopes for it. That chat features in the final section of the episode.
Some accompanying reading.
100,000 more homes to be built via reform of defective EU laws
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/100000-more-homes-to-be-built-via-reform-of-defective-eu-laws?pk_campaign=newsletter_6337
Natural England and Dorset Wildlife Trust buy Lyscombe farm
https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/24310589.natural-england-dorset-wildlife-trust-buy-lyscombe-farm/
Claims that developers are responsible for water pollution are a load of poo
https://capx.co/claims-that-developers-are-responsible-for-water-pollution-are-a-load-of-poo/
Is the Government backtracking on environmental protection?
https://capx.co/is-the-government-backtracking-on-environmental-protection/
PAS Nutrient Neutrality Programme
https://www.local.gov.uk/pas/topics/environment/nutrient-neutrality-and-planning-system
Natural England Framework for Wetland Mitigation Proposals
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/6543a2f8de0348f683187ff268a79687?item=4
Information on Nature Based Solutions as Nutrient Mitigation
https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6680815300509696
Natural England’s nutrient mitigation scheme for developers
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-englands-nutrient-mitigation-scheme-for-developers
CIRIA publishes new guidance on SuDS construction
https://www.ciria.org/CIRIA/News/CIRIA_news2/CIRIA_publishes_new_guidance_on_SuDS_construction.aspx
Green Belt Summit Details
https://www.no5.com/2024/05/greenbelt-summit/
Fields in Trust
https://fieldsintrust.org/
England’s nature chief calls for building on green belt to solve housing crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/18/england-nature-chief-tony-juniper-thinks-green-belt-land-solve-housing-crisis
The Green Belt. What it is and why; what it isn't; and what it should be
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-green-belt-what-it-is-why-it-is.html -
Love Thy Neighbourhood Plan
What are we to make of neighbourhood planning? Friend of the podcast Ben Castell considers it a “grassroots planning revolution”. Perhaps less favourably it conjures for others images of corduroy and tweed-clad councillors convening a parish council working group to thwart plans for an incinerator or, worse still, new housing.
With neighbourhood planning now part of the furniture, but with the current opposition and possible next Government talking about ‘taking planning up a level’, Sam Stafford thought it time for the podcast to evaluate the story of neighbouring planning so far, which is lead in this episode by the afore-mentioned Ben Castell.
Ben is Planning Director at AECOM, where he has worked with a number of neighbourhood planning groups, and has also had two stints as Chair of his local Neighbourhood Forum.
Ben convened a group of planners with nuts-and-bolts experience in this field for a conversation recorded online in April 2024.
Samantha Banks is the Neighbourhood Planning Programme Manager at Locality, which has provided the government’s Neighbourhood Planning Support Programme since 2013. Samantha previously worked as the Neighbourhood Planning Manager at Herefordshire Council, leading a team that supported over 100 town and parish councils produce neighbourhood plans.
Graeme Markland has been the Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Officer at Thame Town Council since 2016 and before that was a technical and planning officer at Luton Borough Council and the Luton and South Bedfordshire Joint Technical Unit.
Leani Haim is a Planning Director at ONH, which provides planning and development services to town and parish councils, neighbourhood forums, landowners and developers. ONH has supported over 200 neighbourhood plan projects.
Now it is fair to say that Ben, Samantha, Graeme and Leani are all neighbourhood planning enthusiasts and for balance, in addressing the question as to how successful the enterprise has been, a more sceptical voice was required. About two thirds of the way through then Listeners will hear from another friend of the podcast, Simon Ricketts, who fits that bill and who kindly recorded his thoughts in advance so that Ben, Samantha, Graeme and Leani could mull them over in the final section of the episode.
Some accompanying reading.
Independent research on the impacts of neighbourhood planning
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-research-on-the-impacts-of-neighbourhood-planning
Neighbourhood planning in England: A decade of institutional learning
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305900623000107#bib169
Locality’s Key Neighbourhood Planning Data
https://neighbourhoodplanning.org/toolkits-and-guidance/key-neighbourhood-planning-data/
Locality’s Toolkits and Guidance
https://neighbourhoodplanning.org/toolkits-and-guidance/
Neighbourhood planning areas
https://communities.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d195c3134caa46b5a638ad0c4f0cce77
Planning Practice Guidance
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/neighbourhood-planning--2
Some accompanying listening
You Woke Up My Neighbourhood – Billy Bragg (Ben’s choice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnHxAxaara0
Who’s In Control? – Sea Power (Sam's choice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Lf0IiEZt8
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