Episode 154 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now via this link or from Apple and Spotify . I was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friend of the podcast Charlotte Leach and new friends of the podcast Andrew Johnston and Lisa Tye . Over the course of an hour so we chatted about a few of the hot topics exercising the planning profession at minute. We talked about ‘the next phase of planning reform’ as set out in a written ministerial statement issued by the Secretary of State last month. That takes in the “unleashing” of development around rail stations; a requirement upon local authorities to notify the Secretary of State where they intend to refuse an application for 150 or more homes; and streamlining statutory consultees. We talked about AI and it’s growing influence on the planning system, and we talked about Section 106 Agreements. We also talked about national development management policies (NDMPs), which is a topic that has featured re...
Hello Readers. My name is Sam, I am a town planner and I sometimes write about town planning-related things (in my own time and as an expression of my own opinions). I have a town planning-related podcast (there is a link to that on this page somewhere) and I circulate a town planning-related newsletter from time to time (here is a link to that somewhere as well). Should you be so inclined, I am on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford).