The 50 Shades of Planning Blog

After another exciting week in the madcap, rock and roll, ever-changing world of town and country planning, it was striking to read this from Everton manager Sean Dyche in a Sunday Times interview with Matthew Syed. “And I think love is shown by telling the truth. The whole truth. Sometimes, the brutal truth. Sure, you need to say it respectfully. Sometimes, you need to say it gently. But unless you are prepared to say it how it is, you are misleading someone. Maybe even lying to them. But this is the problem in the world today: people prefer perception over reality.” The reality of the housing crisis is the image below that was included in a Sunday Times article  the week before in which Housing Secretary Michael Gove sought to make the case for new homes on the basis that, if young people cannot live in their own, they might give up on democracy and capitalism (and the Conservative Party). The public’s perception of the housing crisis, the Housing Secretary hopes, is that the Go...

Today, 12 February 2024, is BNG Day, the implications of which were featured in last night's episode of Countryfile. It is now available to view on the iPlayer . The BNG feature starts at 10:05 and if you watch really closely you might see somebody you know...

Episode 115 of the podcast is available now via this link or from Apple and Spotify . Hitting the High Notes is inspired by (a rip off of) Desert Island Discs and the basic proposition is that I chat to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. So as to get to know people a little better personally, for every project or stage of their career I also ask my guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period. My guest for this episode of Hitting The High Notes is self-proclaimed ubiquitous planning lawyer and 50 Shades stalwart Simon Ricketts, who was the number one-ranked planning solicitor in last years’ Planning Magazine law survey. Our conversation was recorded at Soho Radio Studios in London in May 2023 and takes in Simon's full and fascinating career. We talk about what makes a good client, a good consultant and a good project team; about how scratching a creati...

It was a great privilege and a pleasure to be invited to contribute to this event in London last week. It was over-subscribed so we arranged for it to be recorded event in order to share it as a Shades episode. It is available here , as well as Apple and Spotify .  Rupert kicked us off by reviewing the implications of the NPPF for housing delivery, taking in the standard method, the cities uplift and the changes around five and four year land supply. Anjoli talked about the impact of the NPPF on plan-making, taking in Green Belt, transitional arrangements and the impact of this new version on plans that have paused, as well as soundness. Meeta talked about the NPPF changes that relate to design and beauty, small sites and community-led housing, retirement housing and agricultural land. Simon made the linkages between the NPPF and the Levelling Up & Regeneration Act, with his observations on what provisions of the latter we should pay the closest attention to. I tried to put it...

Incoherence is to planners what kryptonite is to Superman. In Superman III (the old ones were better, Kids), his thinking blurred by the powerful green stuff, our protagonist gets drunk in a bar and takes to petty acts of vandalism such as straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa . It should not be suggested in any way that the cycle of the last few years, characterised as it has been by periods of interminable delay punctuated every now and then and when space on the Westminster media grid allows by a cavalcade of announcements, is driving planners to both drink and petty acts of vandalism (possibly at least one…), but this period is as far removed from a measured, rational, ‘plan, monitor and manage’-type approach as it is hopefully possible to be. It is with world-weary cynicism and fatigue brought about by this incessant cycle of reform that older members of the profession joke about “Planning Reform Days coming around far more frequently than they did in my day”. This most recent ...