The 50 Shades of Planning Blog

Episode 137 of the podcast is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . I was down in The Big Smoke recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Matthew Spry, Simon Ricketts, Hana Loftus, Vicky Payne and Mike Kiely. In a good ol’ fashioned Adam Buxton-style ramblechat we talked about anything and everything. We talked about stat cons; we talked about skills, resources and leadership within LPAs; we talked about the need for efficiency gains in development management to deal with the expected uptick in planning applications; we talked application fees; we talked about power lines; we talked about a national scheme of delegation; we talked about NPSs, SDSs, local plans and NDMPs; and then we talked about a national scheme of delegation again. There is something in here for everybody.

Assistance please, Planning Fans. If, as expected , there is a significant spike in planning applications this year and if, as is hoped, those applications are to make a meaningful contribution to the Government's new home target within the parliamentary term, then they will need to be transacted a lot faster than applications have been transacted hitherto. So... I would be very grateful for help with putting an episode of 50 Shades of Planning together on the efficiencies that can readily be found within the existing development management system. We are not talking here about NDMPs and Stat Cons and modernising planning committees and the big ideas that are already on the agenda. We are talking about the nitty gritty. The detail. The things that, as planning managers or consultants submitting applications, or planning officers managing applications, drive you most crazy. We are not necessarily talking set piece policy or legal change, although we might be talking about policy or ...

It was striking to read Angela Rayner asserting this week that the Government remains confident in the 1.5m new home target because the OBR’s recent 1.3m forecast did not take into account measures included in the Planning & Infrastructure Bill. The Deputy Prime Minister added: “Our other plans, including the homes acceleration plan and the money that we’re investing since then, and the Planning Infrastructure Bill changes will mean that that number will increase and we will meet our 1.5 million homes target. There is much to commend about the Bill and it is very likely to contribute towards a more coherent planning system in the future, but, as I have written here , there is little in it that will make a material difference to planning applications being prepared and submitted right now (and certainly little in and of itself to justify the ‘ biggest building boom in a generation ’ sobriquet). In your correspondent's humble opinion the difference between the 1.3m OBR forecast...

Episode 136 of the podcast is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . As you may know, Readers, a material change in circumstances meant that I stopped podcasting in October, but, pleasingly, a further material change in circumstances has meant that I am starting again. So what have we missed in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and world of town and country planning? Well, plenty... This, I think, is everything that has emerged over the past few months. 9 December. Publication of a working paper on modernising planning committees. 12 December. Publication of the NPPF (and Government response to the NPPF consultation). 15 December. Publication of a working paper on development and nature recovery. 16 December. Publication of a white paper on English devolution. 19 December. Compulsory purchase process and compensation reforms. 23 January. The Prime Minister’s ‘Plan for Change’ speech. 26 January. Publication of working papers on streamlining infrastructure planning...