Skip to main content

Podcast episode 128: Labour of Love

Episode 128 of the podcast is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify.

I have mentioned in recent episodes that the podcast would consider the new Government’s reform agenda and this is an attempt at doing so. The specifics of the NPPF consultation will be covered in more depth in due course, but what you will hear in this jam-packed extravaganza of an episode is an exploration of that reform agenda in it’s broader sense.

In anticipation of the NPPF, I invited some of the Shades alumni to discuss some of the policy areas of most interest to them and how the new Government could and should approach them.


Vicky, Hana, Ben, Andrew and Pooja talk about design and placemaking.

Claire, David and Nicola talk about planning for infrastructure and the environment.

Shelly, Gilan and Pooja talk about LPA capacity.

Ian, Paul, Mike and Nicola talk about Grey Belt.

Ian, Paul and Vicky talk about New Towns.

Paul, Shelly and Andrew talk about devolution and ‘greater than local’ planning.

Nicola, Andrew, Gilian and Simon talk about land value capture.

Paul, Annie, Shelly and Andrew talk housing targets.

This episode only features parts of those eight conversations. You will be able to listen, and watch, the conversations in full shortly on the brand new 50 Shades YouTube channel.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life on the Front Line

I like it when people get in touch with me to suggest topics for 50 Shades of Planning Podcast episodes because, firstly, it means that people are listening to it and also, and most importantly, it means I do not have to come up with ideas myself. I found this message from a team leader at a local authority striking and sobering though. In a subsequent conversation the person that sent this confided in me that their team is virtually in crisis mode. It is probably fair to say that the planning system is in crisis, but then it is also probably fair to say that the planning system is always in crisis… There is, of course, the issue of resources. Whilst according to a Planning magazine survey slightly more LPAs are predicting growth in planning department budgets (25%) rather than a contraction (22%), this has to be seen in the context of a 38% real-terms fall in net current expenditure on planning functions between 2010–11 and 2017–18. Beyond resources though the current crisis feels m...
66 comments
Read more

Labour's planning proposals

There is a sense among some that Labour is 'keeping it's powder dry' on housing and planning so as 'not to scare the horses', but actually, when you compile everything that has been put into the public domain, the future direction of policy is relatively easy to discern. This is that compilation, which takes in a couple of press releases (and, importantly, the 'notes to editors'), a policy paper, an extract from a Westminster Hall debate, and Sunday Times and FT articles. ‘How’, not ‘if’: Labour will jump start planning to build 1.5 million homes and save the dream of homeownership Oct 10, 2023 https://labour.org.uk/updates/press-releases/how-not-if-labour-will-jump-start-planning-to-build-1-5-million-homes-and-save-the-dream-of-homeownership/ Labour’s Housing Recovery Plan Upon entering office, the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Angela Rayner, will publish a Written Ministerial Statement and write to...
7 comments
Read more

On modernising planning committees

If you are involved they are terrible, but if you are just observing they are terrific. That is how, way back in the day..., I introduced Episode 7 of 50 Shades of Planning. If you are reading a town planning-based blog then the chances are that you will have participated in a planning committee previously, will know immediately what I mean, and will have your own tales to tell. If you are not a planner though or have not been subject to this unique ‘cauldron of human emotion’ (which is what I called Episode 7) then you should watch Wokingham ’s planning committee take over an hour to debate the merits of a proposed communications kiosk in Woodley recently (I only knew about this because I saw somebody last week who had to sit through this discussion whilst waiting for the next application, but you could probably pick any planning committee at any council on any day of the year and see something similar). Yes, of course, not all planning committees are akin to putting the fate of a tr...
Post a Comment
Read more