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Podcast episode 136: Back in Black

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 and a ten year infrastructure strategy.

29 January. The Chancellor’s ‘Kickstarting Growth’ speech.

31 January. Consultation launched on a Land Use Framework.

13 February. Ministerial statement on large-scale housing site delivery, including the publication of an interim report by the New Towns Taskforce and an update from the New Homes Accelerator Team.

27 February. Ministerial statement on local plan-making and guidance, including updates to PPG on Green Belt (Grey Belt) and the Government’s response to the 2023 consultation on the implementation of plan-making reforms.

10 March. Ministerial statement on reform of the statutory consultee system.

11 March. Publication of a Planning & Infrastructure Bill.

How then to try to catch up? Well, I thought that the best way of doing so was to reprise the ‘Labour of Love’ episode that I published back in August of last year. That, you might recall, featured conversations between friends of the podcast about different themes of the Government’s then nascent reform agenda. The pod featured only elements of those conversations, with the full versions available on the 50 Shades YouTube channel.

I have done again for this episode, in which you will hear elements of nine recent conversations recorded online between friends of the podcast old and new about nine themes of the Government’s now crystalising reform agenda.

A bumper jamboree of reform announcements warrants a bumper jamboree of a podcast episode.

You will hear…

Catriona Riddell, Andrew Taylor, Jane Meek and Alex Coley talk about strategic planning, devolution and local government reorganisation;

Greg Dickson, John Sayer, Rebecca Clutton and Anthony Lee talk about CPO, land value capture and benchmark land value;

Claire Petricca-Riding, Gilian MacInnes, Sarah McLoughlin and Robbie Owens talk about infrastructure planning;

Andrew, Shelly Rouse, Mike Kiely and Adele Morris talk about planning committees;

Claire, Hana Loftus, Nina Pindham and Neil Beamsley talk about development and nature recovery;

Andrew, Annie Gingell, Hana and Sarah Young talk about Grey Belt;

Andrew and Paul Smith talk about statutory consultees;

Ben Castell, Katie Wray, Vicky Payne and Hana talk about design and placemaking; and

Hashi Mohamed, Kathryn Ventham and Simon Mirams talk about the flood risk sequential test.

The full conversations, all of them about half an hour so, will appear on YouTube over the next couple of weeks. I will share the respective links on the 50 Shades Bluesky, LinkedIn and TikTok channels when they are published.

Obviously even those longer conversations barely do these topics justice, but as well as hopefully serving as a recap, they are also a platform to revisit them in more detail in due course.



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