It’s cold, dark and miserable and, alas, there is little in Michael Gove’s recent Written Ministerial Statement to warm the cockles of a planner’s heart. Hopefully then the return of the 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz will spread some seasonal cheer. Even by the standards of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning it has been quite a year. With the help of Richard Garlick at Planning magazine, who provided Sam Stafford with some of the most-r...
Dec 17, 2022•30 min•Ep. 83
It was about a year ago that Catriona Riddell first wrote in Planning magazine about low morale in local planning authorities, which Catriona, Peter Geraghty, Paul Brocklehurst and Sam Stafford followed up with the 'Life on the Front Line' episode (no. 60). 'Life on the Front Line' was informed by a 'Call for Evidence', the submissions to which, mostly anonymised, are reproduced on Sam's 50 Shades blog (link below). Catriona has again used her Planning magazine column to raise the issue of moral...
Dec 13, 2022•4 min•Ep. 82
It’s cold, wet and miserable and, alas, there is little in Michael Gove’s recent Written Ministerial Statement to warm the cockles of a planner’s heart. Hopefully then the return of the 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz will spread some seasonal cheer. Even by the standards of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning it has been quite a year. With the help of Richard Garlick at Planning magazine, who provided Sam Stafford with some of the most-re...
Dec 10, 2022•32 min•Ep. 81
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 Mic...
Nov 19, 2022•54 min•Ep. 80
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 questio...
Nov 08, 2022•52 min•Ep. 79
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 b...
Oct 15, 2022•57 min•Ep. 78
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 a...
Oct 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 77
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, Shell...
Oct 01, 2022•49 min•Ep. 76
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 E...
Sep 10, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 75
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 &...
Aug 20, 2022•51 min•Ep. 74
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, ...
Aug 06, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 73
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 upgr...
Jul 23, 2022•59 min•Ep. 72
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...
Jul 09, 2022•54 min•Ep. 71
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 a...
Jun 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 70
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 ...
Jun 11, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 69
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 'C...
May 21, 2022•57 min•Ep. 68
‘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...
Apr 30, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 67
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 a...
Apr 09, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 66
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 kno...
Mar 30, 2022•3 min•Ep. 65
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 neurodi...
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 64
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 share...
Mar 05, 2022•54 min•Ep. 63
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...
Feb 12, 2022•58 min•Ep. 62
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 a...
Jan 22, 2022•46 min•Ep. 61
"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 put...
Jan 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 60
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. Cl...
Dec 24, 2021•40 min•Ep. 59
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. Jonatha...
Dec 21, 2021•38 min•Ep. 58
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_Pa...
Dec 18, 2021•38 min•Ep. 57
"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 ...
Dec 11, 2021•4 min•Ep. 56
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 planne...
Dec 04, 2021•53 min•Ep. 55
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, ...
Nov 06, 2021•55 min•Ep. 54
