By common consensus there will a considerable increase in the submission of planning applications this year, certainly applications for residential development and certainly driven by applications on the Grey Belt.
Data published by the LPDF in February suggested a 160% increase in the number of planning applications to be submitted by it’s members between January and June 2025 compared to the number submitted between July and December 2024.
The key point narrowly is that if an increase in planning applications this year are to make a meaningful contribution to the Government's new home target within the parliamentary term, then they will need to be transacted an awful lot faster than applications have been transacted hitherto.
According to recent research by Lichfields for the LPDF and Richborough, the average time taken to determine a major outline application has risen from 8 months in 2014 to two years in 2024.
The key point more broadly is that this increase in planning applications affords an opportunity, beyond the big building blocks of the reform agenda that have gathered most attention over the past year or so, to get under the bonnet of the planning system’s rickety old engine.
The basis of this episode then are the efficiencies that can be found within development management and to inform it, you might have seen, Sam Stafford posted the following call-for-evidence on LinkedIn and on the 50 Shades blog.
“We are not talking here about NDMPs and Stat Cons and modernising planning committees and the big ideas that are already on the agenda. We are talking about the nitty gritty. The detail. The things that, as planning managers or consultants submitting applications, or planning officers managing applications, drive you most crazy. We are not necessarily talking set piece policy or legal change, although we might be talking about policy or legislative tweaks here and there. We are talking about the low-effort practical levers you would you pull, or procedural buttons you would press, that would shave days, weeks or even months off of the typical planning application.”
Lots of people either commented on that LinkedIn post or shared thoughts with Sam directly, all of which he compiled for the discussion that you are about to hear between old friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor, Emma Williamson, Alister Parvin and Martin Hutchings, and new friends of the podcast Jacob Bonehill and Ros Eastman.
In a conversation recorded online they covered as much of this massive topic as they could. They talked about, amongst very many other things, how many submissions are found to be invalid and why; what planners should and should not be spending their time doing; and who to consult on an application and how.
Some accompanying reading.
The Lichfields research on planning application timescales
The PAS research on pre-apps and PPAs
PAS Best practice in officer report writing
The Housing Forum’s report on validation checklists
Some accompanying listening
Let's Work Together - Wilbert Harrison
Any other business.
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.
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.
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....
