50 Shades of Planning

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...

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...

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, i...

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 co...

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 disc...

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 mu...

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 contributo...

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 th...

‘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 a...

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 mu...

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...

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 wa...

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 se...

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-...

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 mu...

"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...

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 Managi...

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)...

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 D...

"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...

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...

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 man...

"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...

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 a...

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 mu...