In October 2025 Sam Stafford came across a blog by Jack Airey, who is now a Director at Public First but was the Head of Planning at Policy Exchange and subsequently spent a few years inside Number 10 as a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister. The opening line of Jack’s blog was ‘How does bad policy get made?’ and he writes about “the war of attrition that is Whitehall policymaking”; "backbench pressure"; and the “lack of institutional understanding” within government about the practical impact of policy proposals. There is a link to Jack’s blog below.
Sam asked Jack if he would be interested in talking about these themes on the podcast and, pleasingly, he was, so Sam thought next about who else it would be interesting to hear from about life inside the Westminster policy-making bubble. How about a civil servant’s perspective? Sam asked Simon Gallagher, formerly Director of Planning in the Department for Communities and Local Government (as was) and he was keen. How about a political perspective? Sam asked Rachel Maclean, former Minister of State for Housing & Planning and now Baroness Maclean of Redditch, and she was keen. And how about a planner’s perspective? Sam asked friend of the podcast Steve Quartermain, former Chief Planner, and he was keen, and so Sam arranged for the four of them to meet at Soho Radio Studios in January 2026 to record the conversation that forms this episode.
The four of them talk about how policy is made and Simon shares his three stages of policy formulation. They talk about how things get to Ministers, how Ministers make decisions and who is involved at what stage. And they talk about whether planning is any different to other areas of public policy.
Correction.
Sam says in the introduction to the episode that Jack was the Head of Planning at Policy Exchange at the time of the 2020 'Planning for the Future' White Paper. In fact Jack was working in Number 10 at the time of the White Paper and helped to write it.
Some accompanying reading.
National housing policy is dysfunctional we must rewire to get building
Some accompanying viewing.
Yes, Prime Minister - If the right people don't have power
Some accompanying listening.
My Morning Jacket - Never In The Real World
Any other business.
If you enjoy the episode do please consider bolstering Sam's fragile self-esteem by leaving the podcast a nice rating and a nice review wherever you listened to it. Obviously though if you have not enjoyed it then please do not leave a review.
If you have enjoyed to the extent that you feel compelled to share the podcast on one your social platforms then, if you tag Sam, you will be entitled to an exclusive and much-sought after 50 Shades of Planning mug.
If you are a new listener do please check out the back catalogue where you will find episodes on myriad planning topics, as well as the Hitting The High Notes and All Around the World series, and remember that by subscribing new episodes will magically appear in your phone as soon as Sam has published them.
50 Shades of Planning is the podcast by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use it as a platform for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then you are very welcome to get in touch with Sam via [email protected].
Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to Nick Stephenson and Rachael Cooper at ViralTribe for recording and editing this episode.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.
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.
50 Shades episode also include the 'All Around the World' series, which is being led by friend of the podcast, Paul Smith.
Paul put it to Sam that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Planners here very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he chats with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can be learnt.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram, and his blogs can be found here (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter).
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, town and country planning is very much not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
