The basis of this episode was a series of posts Sam Stafford spotted that Nick Cuff at Urban Sketch had shared on his Prop Views blog about the Parkhurst Road judgement and the implications thereof.
Sam asked Nick if he would like to explore the themes that he writes about with another new friend of the podcast Jamie Ratcliff, and old friends of the podcast Gilian Macinnes and Anthony Lee.
Jamie co-founded PlaceBase and is chair of the Housing Forum; Gilian advises LPAs on improving planning and place-making services and is presently Interim Assistant Director of Planning and Building Control at the Royal Borough of Greenwich; and Anthony is the Managing Partner at Quintic Advisory.
In a conversation recorded online in July 2026 they talked, philosophically, about how to test viability through the planning process and the conflict inherent between a desire on the part of most landowners to maximise land value and a desire on the part of most policy makers to maximise planning gain. They talked more practically about how Parkhurst begat the London Affordable Housing and Viability Supplementary Planning Guidance, which led onto to talk of fast tracks, thresholds and emergency measures. Then towards the end they discuss what approach might work better than which we have now.
Some accompanying reading.
Parkhurst: The judgement nobody read but shut down the London land market for a generation
Parkhurst Part 2: Before and After, Land Strikes and Practical vs Theory
Parkhurst Part 3: The Age of Enforcement
Viability – Elephant in the NPPF room?
Small sites: Unlocking housing delivery
Building new homes not financially viable across half of England
Some accompanying viewing.
NPPF 2026: An Initial Look at the New National Planning Policy Framework
Some accompanying listening.
You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36) – The Beatles
Any other business.
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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 also very welcome to get in touch with Sam via [email protected] or the 50 Shades WhatsApp Community.
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and its 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.
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] or the 50 Shades WhatsApp Community.
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....
