'Where are we now?' asks Sam Stafford in this episode not in the manner of an exasperated child in the back of a hot car staring out at a traffic jam on the M5, but in the manner of an exasperated planning professional contemplating why, as we hurtle towards the end of the second year of this parliamentary term, the Government’s vision for the planning system, nay the country, remains, let’s say charitably, in embryonic form.
A good indication as to where we are now comes from the raft of reports and speeches published and delivered by politicians and think tanks recently, seemingly with the aim of getting things off their desk before the end of term.
July 2021 brought:
- A Robert Jenrick speech to the Local Government Association’s annual conference;
- A Boris Johnson speech on his vision to level up the United Kingdom;
- A Written Ministerial Statement from Robert Jenrick on building beautiful places alongside the revised NPPF and National Model Design Code;
- Place Alliance’s Design Deficit report;
- The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s report on Post-Pandemic Economic Growth and Levelling Up;
- The Department for Transport’s Plan for Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain; and
- Transparency International UK’s report: ‘House of Cards – Exploring access and influence in UK housing policy’.
Joining Sam to chew over that little lot and to get a feel, as everybody heads either up or down the motorway network for their summer hols, are four friends of, and regular contributors to, the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast.
- Simon Ricketts (@sricketts1) is a Partner at Town Legal;
- Shelly Rouse (@rouse_shelly) is a Principal Consultant at the Planning Advisory Service;
- Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne) is a Senior Consultant at URBED; and
- Paul Smith (@Paul_SLG) is Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group.
The 50 Shades of Planning Summer Holiday Reading List.
Robert Jenrick’s speech to the Local Government Association’s annual conference
Boris Johnson’s speech on his vision to level up the United Kingdom
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-prime-ministers-levelling-up-speech-15-july-2021
A Written Ministerial Statement from Robert Jenrick on building beautiful places (published alongside the revised NPPF and National Model Design Code)
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-20/hcws21
Place Alliance’s 'Design Deficit' report
http://placealliance.org.uk/research/design-deficit/
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s report on Post-Pandemic Economic Growth and Levelling Up
‘Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain’ by the Department for Transport
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-decarbonisation-plan
‘House of Cards – Exploring access and influence in UK housing policy’ by Transparency International UK
The Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021 seeking a national strategy to improve the health of coastal communities
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chief-medical-officer-annual-report-2021
Some accompanying listening.
Holiday by Happy Mondays
50 Shades T-Shirts!
http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
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....
