Sam Stafford's Blog

Episode number 127 of the podcast is available now via this  link  or from  Apple   and  Spotify . Long-serving Listeners might recall that for Episode 6 of the podcast I 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 me 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 pla...

If FPL is your thing then do please get involved with the 50 Shades Premier League. The winner will receive an exclusive 50 Shades mug and, depending upon what I have left by then, a 50 Shades t-shirt as well. https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/1txn2j League Code: 1txn2j

Episode number 126 of the podcast is available now via this link or from Apple and Spotify . 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 me to publish a conversation between old friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor , Catriona Riddell and Paul Miner , and n...