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Podcast episode 140: A conversation with Michael Gove

Podcast episode 140 is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify. This episode is also available to watch on YouTube.

This episode is a conversation that I recorded with former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Rt Hon. the Lord Gove.

Famous in political circles. Infamous, some might say, in planning circles...

The Parliament of 2019-2024 was tumultuous for everybody, but for planning specifically it was an especially tumultuous time.

There was the 2020 'Planning for the Future' White Paper, which Mr Gove inherited in 2021, the same year as the Chesham & Amersham byelection. 2022 brought Mr Gove’s Devolution White Paper, his resignation and reappointment, the LURB, then the LURA, the rebellion against which over "top down" housing targets that precipitated the NPPF changes that were subsequently adopted in 2023.

Mr Gove talks me through all of that tumult. We also talked about strategic planning; about B.I.D.E.N; about the stance on housing that the now opposition Conservative Party should take into the next election: and we talked about the merits of 'big bang' planning reform versus pragmatic incrementalism.








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