The 50 Shades of Planning Blog

What would I want to do were I not a town planner? Every now and then I imagine myself as the Chief Football Writer at a broadsheet newspaper and to indulge that fantasy a little I have got into the habit of writing a match report on Instagram (@samuel__stafford) after every game that I have been to. This is a collation of reports that tell the story of my 2024/25 season. Cordoba 2 Burgos 2 27 August 2024 When we arrived at the ground and parked up this afternoon it was quiet. There was little sign of a game being on. After visiting the Mesquita we wandered around looking for tapas and, having found somewhere, sat and watched at first a couple, and then a few, and then plenty of fans start making their way towards from whence we had come. Once back and once in, having navigated the queues now snaking away from every entrance, the first half very much did not respond to the anticipation built up over the preceding five hours. It was hot enough, even at 10pm, for the players to take a dr...

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; abo...

Episode 139 of the podcast is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . I was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast David Diggle, Paul Smith, Rebecca Coley and Claire Petricca-Riding. Over the course of an hour or so we talked about a few of the hot topics that are exercising the planning profession at the minute. Those hot topics include the widely anticipated spike in planning applications this year; locally-set fees, pre-apps and PPAs; the Flood Risk Sequential Test (please find here a link to Paul's excellent blog on this topic), NDMPs, and, very briefly towards the end of our conversation, the Planning & Infrastructure Bill and the Corry Review.

Episode 138 of the podcast is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . Over a year on from it becoming mandatory, what is to be made of BNG? On the one hand, according to an open letter signed by a 40-strong coalition of housebuilders and environmental groups to mark the first anniversary, “BNG is a true success story. Over the past year, it has unlocked unprecedented investment in local habitats, while also driving green growth.” On the other hand, only a tenth of respondents to Planning’s consultants survey believed that the system is working well, perhaps because, according to the HBF , nearly 40% of local planning authorities do not have access to in-house ecological expertise. What is really going on..? To find out, I invited five experts in in this, ahem, field to talk about what, in their view, is working well, or at least as expected; what is not working well, or at least not as expected; and what, if anything, needs to change. Those experts are Martin Hutc...

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 ...