Sam Stafford's Blog

I am finishing this blog at the start because as I dot the i’s and cross the t’s on something that I have been cogitating over for the last week or so the  Prime Minister  has today empathised that building 1.5 million homes before the end of the parliament is a key part of the Government’s ‘plan for change’. To that end, building 1.5 million homes I mean, I have read a few bits and pieces recently that lead one to wonder whether the obstacles to doing so are systemic, and so can be legislated or mandated away, or are perhaps more deep-seated than that. Many in the housing sector are hard-wired to oppose new owner-occupier housing or housebuilders themselves. The reasons are endless – design quality, landbanking, ecology, sprawl, profit, water, nutrients, heritage, traffic, doctor’s capacity, sufficient permissions already, etc, etc. So wrote Philip Barnes in a recent blog, within which Mr Barnes seeks to draw a line between Trapped , Daniel Hewitt’s podcast on the housing em...

One of the secrets to consultancy, I learnt, is to answer a question before it is asked and the release tomorrow by MHCLG of the net additional dwelling data for 2023/24, which Neal Hudson has already predicted does not look pretty for the South East (see below), may very well prompt Ministers to ask why there has not yet been an increase in applications for new homes. Were that question to be asked of me this is what I would say... Firstly, the proposed changes to the standard method and the Grey Belt proposition are, in my humble opinion, ‘game changers’. There is a sophistic argument to be had about whether the presumption has actually been strengthened pursuant to the 2012 iteration, but, regardless, it will be triggered in many more LPAs than is the case presently and Grey Belt, a tightening here and a clarification there, is a route to securing consent on sites years earlier than might otherwise be the case. Whilst the 50% affordable Golden Rule may have spooked some parties wit...

If you are involved they are terrible, but if you are just observing they are terrific. That is how, way back in the day..., I introduced Episode 7 of 50 Shades of Planning. If you are reading a town planning-based blog then the chances are that you will have participated in a planning committee previously, will know immediately what I mean, and will have your own tales to tell. If you are not a planner though or have not been subject to this unique ‘cauldron of human emotion’ (which is what I called Episode 7) then you should watch Wokingham ’s planning committee take over an hour to debate the merits of a proposed communications kiosk in Woodley recently (I only knew about this because I saw somebody last week who had to sit through this discussion whilst waiting for the next application, but you could probably pick any planning committee at any council on any day of the year and see something similar). Yes, of course, not all planning committees are akin to putting the fate of a tr...

Picture the scene. In the back of a taxi on the way to giving a speech about housing, a Minister, long-enough in post to have become sufficiently well-read on housing need and brownfield capacity, solicits ideas from their team on how to take the public on a journey that ends with the building of houses on land currently in the Green Belt. “Come on people! "We need something between ‘brownfield first’, which is clearly not enough, and protecting genuine nature spots, which is clearly a given." “ Grey Belt, Minister ?” “Go on...” “Well, poor-quality scrubland, mothballed on the outskirts of town, like that disused garage in Tottenham that Siobhan McDonagh keeps going on about*. We can prioritise ugly, disused grey belt land, and set tough new conditions for releasing it.” “Splendid...” That may or may not be how Grey Belt came into being (it is interesting to note that unlike the stock-based standard method and a national scheme of delegation it is not a concept that, as far ...

Of the very, very many things announced by Michael Gove in the ‘Falling back in love with the future’ speech of December 2023 one of the most interesting and potentially most significant was the “rapid three-month review into the statutory consultee system” to be led by Sam Richards. Richards is campaign director and chief executive at Britain Remade and had been a special advisor on energy and the environment at Number 10. The then Secretary of State said that he believed that stat cons are "an important check and balance within our planning system, safeguarding the environment, respecting heritage and ensuring health and safety considerations are properly taken into account", but expressed worry about “delay and procrastination". "A superficial glance at the statistics suggests that most statutory consultees respond within the expected 21-day limit, but look a little closer, and you can observe the regular use of holding responses - effectively an 'I'll g...

Picture the scene. In the back of a taxi on the way to giving a speech about housing, a Minister solicits ideas from their team for putting “ rocket boosters ” under housebuilding. “Come on people! We need to tear up planning rules and allow more homes to be built in urban areas where they are most needed!” “Brownfield passports, Minister?” “Go on”. “Well, developments on brownfield land could be fast-tracked for approval as long as they meet high design and quality standards. Less wasted space in cities. Fewer bungalows and more dense housing in high demand areas.” “Splendid....” There we have it. A brownfield passport policy paper and a call for evidence on options to further increase certainty in relation to brownfield development that includes bold proposals that provide far greater clarity as to the principle, scale, and form of brownfield development with a view to lowering the risk, cost and uncertainty associated with securing planning permissions.’ Flippancy aside for one mom...

As I was chatting to the BBC’s Nick Robinson about the idiosyncrasies of the planning system whilst on a building site in Ipswich the other day (now there’s a start to a blog…) I shared with him my supposition that objecting to planning applications is fast becoming the country’s favourite pastime. Whether it is a high-speed railway line, or a first reservoir to be built since 1992, or just 80 homes on the edge Ipswich, there are those, seemingly a growing number, who go beyond simply refusing to entertain any discussion about the whys and wherefores, and for whom the very notion of the proposition is taken as a personal affront. After meeting me, Nick (as I can now call him…) went to visit the site on the edge of Ipswich upon which an application for 80 homes was refused against the officer’s recommendation recently. Access was a “big point of contention” apparently, but the local paper also reported that “reasons for refusal included concerns over drainage and flooding, the number o...