DEFRA recently launched a consultation on significant changes to it’s guidance on how Habitat Regulations Assessments should be carried out, which comes at an interesting time.
It is, firstly, not long since DEFRA announced that Natural England and the Environment Agency have been given a new mandate to “prioritise outcomes over process” and “speed up decision-making while maintaining high environmental standards”. Secondly, Part 3 of the Planning & Infrastructure Act is in the process of being rolled out. Thirdly, it comes shortly after MHCLG’s announcement of an intention to transition from Environmental Impact Assessments to Environmental Outcomes Reports within the next year.
As it so happens, five people with expertise in this area kindly accepted an invitation from Sam Stafford to convene online just last month to discuss these very themes. Those five people are old friends of the podcast Nina Pindham and Julian Arthur and new friends of the podcast Charlie Banner, Sally Hayns and Sam Dumitriu.
Listeners will hear them talk about bat tunnels and fish discos; Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) and the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF); capacity, competence and confidence; and the precautionary principle.
Regular listeners will know that Sam would usually wait until the end of the episode to flag the links to background reading that he includes in the description, but he thought that it might be helpful to highlight a couple at the start. EDPs, the NRF and the precautionary principle are terms that most planners are probably familiar with. There is though also mention of ‘People over Wind’, an EU Court of Justice ruling of relevance to the Habitats Directive, and to the Fingleton Review, which was a report on speeding up nuclear delivery by an independent Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce led by John Fingleton. If, like Sam, listeners are less familiar with those terms then links about them might be of interest before pressing play.
Some accompanying reading.
Meanwhile, at DEFRA: Changes to Habitats Regulations Assessments Guidance proposed
‘People Over Wind’ ruling blows a hole in the habitats regulations
Overhaul of nuclear system to speed up building and cut costs
What's really wrong with the Habitats Regulations?
Build the Rail! Save the Snails!
Picking Up The Bill: What Are We Now Thinking About Part 3?
Some accompanying listening.
Any other business.
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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 also very welcome to get in touch with Sam.
Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to 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....
