Strategic planning is back.
What do we know?
We know that Policy PM1 of the revised draft NPPF anticipates the move towards national coverage of Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs), as promised by the end of the parliamentary term, and clarifies their role, content, and relationship to other tiers of the development plan. SDSs are intended to be high-level documents focused on genuinely strategic, cross-boundary issues, leaving detailed policy to other plans.
We know that the Planning & Infrastructure Act, the second SDS building block, gained Royal Assent in December 2025 and sets out the process by which authorities, be they mayoral authorities, combined authorities or combined county authorities, should prepare SDSs.
We know that the third SDS building block, the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill (which has reached the committee stage in the House of Lords), will confirm the structures and mechanisms of governance.
For much of the country, SDS geography is already settled. More than half of the population is led by mayors, and across at least seven of the major cities, the preparation of SDSs is already underway. For much of the rest of the country though, including areas simultaneously undergoing local government re-organisation, the new strategic geographies are still to be resolved.
We also do not know, beyond a commitment for it be standardised, what evidence bases SDSs will be examined against and how, for example, they will be expected to align with Local Growth Plans.
With all of that going on and given what we know and what we do not know, what have authorities been able to do whilst awaiting the consolidation of all three building blocks? Strategic planning is back, but what shape is it in right now?
These are the themes of this conversation between old friends of the podcast Catriona Riddell and Mike Best, and new friends of the podcast Shaun Andrews, Graham Thomas and Louise Sloan.
Recorded online back in October 2024, their conversation takes in SDS preparatory work, what the first SDSs might look like and their interface with local plans; infrastructure planning; capacity and skills within the planning profession; and and how SDS identify strategic site priorities.
Some accompanying reading.
Planning Positively for the Future – the report of the Strategic Planning Group
Some accompanying viewing.
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Canvassing
Some accompanying listening.
Any other business.
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Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to Rachael Cooper at ViralTribe for recording and editing this episode.
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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....
