Before heading to London for the week, Sam Stafford caught up with 50 Shades stalwarts Paul Smith, Katie Wray and Ian Wray for a wide-ranging ramblechat at the Reform Radio studios in Manchester.
Paul is Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group, a Director at the LPDF and a columnist for Housing Today.
Katie is a Director at Deloitte.
Ian is an Honorary Professor and Fellow at the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice & Place at the University of Liverpool and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences .
The four of them spent an hour or so chatting about all manner of things, including the private management of public space; embodied carbon; infrastructure planning and the notion of compensation payments for affected communities; the Autumn Statement and associated announcements; the Competition & Market Authority's working paper on planning; and the role of Everton’s new stadium in both their recent loss of points and the loss of Liverpool’s World Heritage Site status.
Sam would like to apologies to Listeners for his use of a naughty word.
Some accompanying reading.
Climate Change and Historic Building Adaptation Historic England Advice Note
https://historicengland.org.uk/about/what-we-do/consultations/guidance-open-for-consultation/
M&S given permission to appeal Gove’s Oxford Street refusal
Essex pylon corridor compensation plan 'insulting'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-67523588
Rooms for debate: polling on the housing crisis, Green Belt and planning system
https://www.adamsmith.org/research/rooms-for-debate
Autumn Statement 2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2023
Getting Great Britain building again: Speeding up infrastructure delivery
Pre-application advice and Planning Performance Agreements
Housebuilding market study
https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/housebuilding-market-study
A Perfect Storm
https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/a-perfect-storm
Pathways to Planning: information for councils
https://www.local.gov.uk/pathways-planning-council-info
Some accompanying viewing.
Brian Clough on how to settle a difference of opinion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7FBfdErGgw
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning was Sam Stafford’s attempt between April 2019 and October 2024 to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim was to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners.
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter).
The 50 Shades platforms were expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
The 50 Shades of Planning Podcast and YouTube channels were produced in partnership with Cratus Group.
Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
