The West Midlands Problem (plus Grey Belt and some other stuff)
- E166
- 56:32
- May 2nd 2026
Sam Stafford was in Birmingham recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Mike Best, Kathryn Ventham and Michelle Simpson-Gallego at PodHaus studios in Digbeth.
They talked about why the recent consultation on areas for producing Spatial Development Strategies seemed to generate more interest in the West Midlands than other parts of the country (an issue for which this episode has named); they talked about the politics of Grey Belt; they talked about some live development management issues, including LPAs basing decisions on unpublished evidence; and they touched on PINS’ recent performance.
Some accompanying reading.
Areas for producing spatial development strategies
Will the real West Midlands please stand up?
How Long Are Local Plan Examinations Taking?
Planning After Dark LIVE at UKREiiF with Cratus Group
Toxic Communications and Relational Planning
Some accompanying viewing.
What the local election results mean for housebuilding
Some accompanying listening.
City Minutes: The Croydon planning experiment
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 Carl Thomas-Edwards and Adrian Meehan for recording and editing this episode.
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....
