'I began to see what a sacred cow the Green Belt has become' said Minister for Housing & Local Government Richard Crossman in 1964.
The Green Belt is a political behemoth that has long loomed over the planning system. In this episode Sam Stafford asks Paul Miner, Strategic Planning & Devolution at CPRE, and Kathryn Ventham, Planning Partner at Barton Willmore, whether housing need is becoming a sufficiently irresistible force to shift hitherto immovable Green Belt boundaries?
Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford. @PaulMiner3 and @kateventham.
Some accompanying reading and viewing:
John Grindrod’s ‘Outskirts’
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/14/outskirts-by-john-grindrod-review
Ipsos Mori polling for the CPRE on public attitudes towards the Green Belt
https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/attitudes-towards-green-belt-land
Ipsos Mori polling for Housing The Powerhouse on attitudes towards housing development in Greater Manchester
'The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform' by the Adam Smith Institute
‘Planned up and be counted ‘ local plan making under NPPF 2012’ by Lichfields
https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/planned-up-and-be-counted
‘This Blessed Plot – This Other Eden’ - A film for the Council for the Preservation of Rural England
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/rural-england-aka-this-blessed-plot-this-other
‘The myth of the countryside idyll’ by Steve Middlehurst
Keith Joseph’s 1964 South East Study
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/19/newsid_2570000/2570681.stm
A Policy Briefing Paper by the Landscape Institute
https://www.landscapeinstitute.org/policy/green-belt-policy/
The London Society’s Position Paper
https://www.londonsociety.org.uk/post/londons-green-belt
‘The Proud City’ – A film outlining plans for the post war reconstruction of London, featuring Patrick Abercrombie and JH Forshaw.
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is 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 and buy a t-shirt).
The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use the podcast or the YouTube channel for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam via [email protected].
Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
