50 Shades of Planning – Details, episodes & analysis

In Hitting the High Notes episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that Listeners can get to know people a little better personally, for every project or stage of their career Sam also asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period. Think of it as town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs.

Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music without the copyright holders permission or a very expensive PRS licensing agreement could land Sam in hot water, so, when you have finished listening, you will have to make do with YouTube videos and a Spotify playlist, links to which you will find below.

Sam's guest for this episode is Mike Best who many planners, especially in the West Midlands, will know from his twenty years at Turley.

Their conversation was recorded at Birmingham Podcast Studios in July 2024 and takes in Mike's early career in Local Government at Rotherham and Coventry and his move into consultancy with Jones Lang Wootton as was. Taking in retail parks, racecourses and regeneration, the projects that Mike talks Sam through highlight the breadth of the planning profession.

Some accompanying listening.

Mike’s Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3U6RUbhmrcUOzqBe7NvF6F?si=L-6LiPRWQ2m1zwgoIgiyCw&pi=e-3vODKymtRKed&nd=1&dlsi=df762b96aa044203

Ignoreland – REM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03gauuHIgME

A Design for Life – Manic Street Preachers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEoVxy7VDQ

Limelight – Rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgj2br-teu4

The Whole of the Moon – Waterboys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBW8Vnp8BzU

Twice If You’re Lucky – Crowded House

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcKh-VeFxX0 

Inner City Life – Goldie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-P98B2skts

Some accompanying reading

Mike’s Blog

https://mikesbestlaidplans.wordpress.com/

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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

Any other business.

Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford). His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

To rebuild or to retrofit? That is the question posed by former Secretary of State Michael Gove’s intervention in planning applications for the redevelopment of M&S’ Oxford Street store and the former Museum of London building.

According to the Climate Change Committee, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from buildings account for 23% of the UK total.

How can we create energy-efficient, carbon neutral and climate resilient new buildings and what is needed to accelerate the decarbonisation of existing buildings?

The greenest building, so it is said, is the building that already exists and a ‘retrofit fit first, not retrofit only’ position appears to be emerging as the default, but this involves understanding which development options would have the lowest embodied carbon intensity and operational carbon emissions. Who is measuring what and how?

Friend of the podcast Katie Wray kindly convened a group of experts in this field to tackle these questions in a conversation recorded online in April 2024. Katie, Director in Real Assets Advisory team at Deloitte, spoke to Iain Shaw, Mike Keaveney and Alex Edwards. Iain is a Director at Max Fordham, Mike is a Land & Development Director at Grainger; and Alex is ESG Director at Bruntwood SciTech.

They talk about where the drivers for change in this area are coming from, how decisions around rebuild and retrofit are arrived at, and the concept of ‘value for carbon’.

Some accompanying reading.

Retrofit First: The City of London, Camden, now Westminster- who will be next?

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2024/april/02/retrofit-first-the-city-camden-now-westminster-who-will-be-next/

UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard

Home | UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (nzcbuildings.co.uk)

Climate Change and Historic Building Adaptation Historic England Advice Note DRAFT

Climate Change and Historic Building Adaptation - draft for consultation (historicengland.org.uk)

City of London Corporation’s heritage building retrofit toolkit

https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/Services-Environment/Heritage-Buildings-Retrofit-Toolkit.pdf

Retrofit and Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings

https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/retrofit-and-energy-efficiency-in-historic-buildings/#:~:text=We%20use%20the%20term%20retrofit,and%20use%20of%20the%20building

Manchester Climate Change Framework (see section on retrofit)

MANCHESTER CLIMATE CHANGE FRAMEWORK(2020-25) | 2022 UPDATE (squarespace.com)

Some accompanying listening.

Build It Up, Tear It Down by Fatboy Slim

https://youtu.be/bxHjytBY7Z8?si=k0dTMcz8CO8Im-bg

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of 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. You can also sign up for the 50 Shades Newsletter via the 50 Shades Blog.

Any other business.

Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford). His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Greg Dickson and Claire Petricca-Riding.

During a conversation recorded at Reform Radio they talked about another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning. They talked about RPs not bidding for Section 106 sites, they talked about the 'Accelerated Planning System' consultation, so the proposals for the new Section 73B, the ten week determination period for major commercial applications, and restrictions on the use of extension of time agreements. They talked about the Flood Risk Sequential Test and touched on the Government response to a consultation on operational reforms to the NSIP process.

Some accompanying reading.

An accelerated planning system

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/an-accelerated-planning-system-consultation/an-accelerated-planning-system

Simon Ricketts’ S73B Blog

https://simonicity.com/2024/04/01/section-73-or-section-73b/

Zack Simons' Flood Risk Sequential Test Blog

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/buildin-in-the-rain-flood-risk-in-the-courts

Pre-application advice and Planning Performance Agreements

https://www.local.gov.uk/pas/development-mgmt/pre-application-advice-and-planning-performance-agreements-ppas

Power & Partnership: Labour’s plan to power up Britain

https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labours-plan-to-power-up-britain/

A Westminster Hall Debate on 13 March 2024

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2024-03-13/debates/65995D50-E335-444C-8065-405F91548338/PlanningReform

Labour’s planning proposals

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2023/10/labours-planning-proposals.html

Some accompanying viewing.

The fine kind of rain that soaks you through - Peter Kay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8xHtbkhR8

Can you imagine a world without lawyers? - The Simpsons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG3uea-Hvy4

Some accompanying listening

Hillside Song - My Morning Jacket

https://youtu.be/XmLiKGpSC4g?si=4TkfP6YMFgfUYfJ1

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: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html

‘Vital and Viable’, the good practice guidance that accompanied the old PPG6 included a large survey of planning authorities. A fifth of town centres in 1995, it was reported, were then thought to be ‘declining’, while only a few metropolitan cities and historic towns thought of themselves as ‘vibrant’.

What would the results of such a survey be now?

Oasis, Warehouse, Debenhams and Cath Kidston have filed for administration and between M&S, John Lewis, Boots and WH Smith 14,000 jobs could be at risk.

According to the ONS, online sales in March were up 13% year-on-year, including a substantial 52% growth in sales of household goods. ONS data up to 26 July showed that footfall in UK High Streets, retail parks and shopping centres was 60% of what it was a year previously.

On the one hand, with just one in six workers back in the office and two-thirds of chief executives predicting a move to low density office usage, the prospects for city centre sandwich shops and bars that rely on lunchtime and after work trade look bleak. On the other hand the prospects for independent businesses in the towns and villages where former commuters might be spending their money look rosier.

Can the High Street be saved? Should the High Street be saved? What, indeed, do we even mean by the High Street? What role does the planning system have in answering these questions?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Iain Jenkinson, Rebecca Trevalyan and Bill Grimsey.

Iain (@iain_jenkinson) is a Senior Director at CBRE and has spent twenty years advising private and public sector clients on city and town centre regeneration projects.

Rebecca (@RTrevalyan) is a co-founder of social enterprise Library of Things and an advocate for community-powered neighbourhoods. Rebecca co-authored the Grimsey Review Covid-19 Supplement Report: ‘Build Back Better’.

Bill (@BillGrimsey) is known for his leadership at Wickes, Iceland and Focus, and is arguably the most high-profile advocate for our High Streets, publishing reports in 2013 and 2018, as well as the recent Covid-19 update mentioned above.

Some accompanying reading.

The Grimsey Review Covid-19 Supplement Report: ‘Build Back Better’.

http://www.vanishinghighstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Grimsey-Covid-19-Supplement-June-2020.pdf

'Life after Coronavirus: A new high street is waiting — if we’re brave enough to reimagine access to property' by Rebecca.

https://medium.com/@rebecca.trevalyan/life-after-coronavirus-a-new-high-street-is-waiting-if-were-brave-enough-to-reimagine-access-9b123875d6f

'The future of high streets and how we can all play a part' by Chris Sands.

https://totallylocally.org/stuff/blog/the-future-of-high-streets-how-we-can-all-play-a-part/

'A different way to save the high street' by Josh Lowe.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/high-street-shops-community-marks-and-spencer

Rebecca's Twitter Mega-Thread on alternative uses.

https://twitter.com/rtrevalyan/status/1270662358600425472?s=21

Participatory City.

http://www.participatorycity.org/about

Some accompanying listening.

'Shopping' by the Pet Shop Boys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoIe_JatFfI

“At the moment, some local authorities can duck potentially difficult decisions, because they are free to come up with their own methodology for calculating ‘objectively assessed need’. So, we are going to consult on a new standard methodology for calculating ‘objectively assessed need’, and encourage councils to plan on this basis.”

So said the ‘Fixing our broken housing market’ White Paper in February 2017.

It might have been hoped that the introduction of the standard method in 2018 would breathe new life into the non-housing chapters of local plans that were struggling to breathe on account of the numbers debate sucking all of the oxygen out of the examination process. Whilst the concept was simpler than the 2012 NPPF’s requirement to assess OAN, it could be argued that as merely and ‘starting point’, and with “exceptional circumstances” still to be taken into account, as well as the household projections being fed into the formula seemingly changing as often as the seasons, the standard method has made little, if any, difference to local plan timescales.

Here we are now digesting the implications of the proposed 2020 version of the standard method, as well as the further reform included in the housing-focussed ‘Planning for the future’ White Paper. Has the standard method improved plan making? Do the 2020 standard method and the White Paper’s proposals represent a step forwards, a step backwards or step sideways? Or infact does the numbers game simply involve going around and around in circles?

Sam Stafford puts these questions to Christopher Young, Queens Counsel at No. 5 Chambers; Shelly Rouse, Principal Planner at Canterbury City Council on secondment at the Planning Advisory Service; and Colin Robinson, Director at Lichfields.

Some accompanying reading.

The Local Plan Expert's Group report.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508345/Local-plans-report-to-governement.pdf

'The impacts of the standard methodology for assessing the objectively assessed need for housing in local authorities' by the University of Liverpool.

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/geography-and-planning/research/sarc/research-projects/

'Setting a higher standard – a new method for assessing housing needs' by Bethan Haynes at Lichfields.

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2020/august/7/setting-a-higher-standard-a-new-method-for-assessing-housing-needs/

'The new standard method for assessing housing need' by Christopher Young QC.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christopher-young-qc-3097b822_article-on-the-governments-new-standard-activity-6709337597438672897-FdwJ

A place, in the urban context at least, is its buildings, the spaces around them and the hustle and bustle of people making their way betwixt and between them.

The only place that many people have known for a while though is home. On the one hand we have got to know our local environs more, but, on the other, and as we creep tentatively back into towns and cities, how will we find urban places now? The buildings are less densely populated and might soon need to be used for different things. The spaces have more demands upon them from restaurateurs, cyclists, pedestrians and urban dwellers coming out for air. There is less hustle and less bustle.

How permanent might these changes be and how might the certainty and confidence with which new places have been created be affected as a result. How will the pandemic change the nature of place?

Sam Stafford discusses these themes in this episode with Ruairidh Jackson (Founding Director at Start Advisory), Sue Manley (Director at Placemarque) and Katie Wray (Assistant Director at Deloitte).

Katie and Placemarque are on Twitter at @kluw and @placemarque, and Start Advisory is on Instagram at @start_advisory.

Some accompanying reading.

'Coronavirus: we’re in a real-time laboratory of a more sustainable urban future' by Paul Chatterton.

https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-were-in-a-real-time-laboratory-of-a-more-sustainable-urban-future-135712

'The city and the virus' by Max Nathan.

https://medium.com/@maxnathan/the-city-and-the-virus-db8f4a68e404

‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?' by Peter C Baker.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/how-will-the-world-emerge-from-the-coronavirus-crisis

Some accompanying listening.

Places And Spaces by Donald Byrd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbgblfgsQI

In a piece written during a recent period of furlough leave Sam Stafford posited that a career is like climbing a mountain in that the real reward is at the top when you can sit back, with the greatest possible perspective, and take it all in.

Sam gets the chance to test that theory in this episode by chatting to Chris Findley who, as many North West-based 50 Shades listeners will know, recently retired after a 42 year career that included 26 years at Salford City Council.

The conversation takes in Chris' early experiences in Beverley and Leicester, the seemingly endless rounds of planning reform and the transformation of Salford Quays.

Some associated reading.

Place North West's coverage of Chris' retirement

https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/profile-findley-looks-back-on-26-years-at-salford/

Sam's blog on his career to date

http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2020/04/memories-of-200809-career-advice-for-my.html

The decorations have been taken down, the uneaten party food has been frozen for next time and all of the summary emails from planning consultants have been diligently saved in the ‘Government Policy’ folder. Another Planning Reform Day has been and gone, but this was a bigger one than usual. The sector had been whipped into a frenzy ever since Policy Exchange, from whence Downing Street’s housing and planning advisor came, published it’s ‘Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century’ report in January. ‘It’s this week!’. ‘No I’ve heard it’s next week’. It’s a White Paper’. ‘No, it’s a Policy Paper…’ And so it went on until, all of a sudden, everybody agreed that it was midnight and then, like a general election result, planners had to decide whether to stay up really late or get up really early (or both).

And now, a few days later and as the excitement subsides, we are left to ask ourselves what the ‘Planning For The Future’ White Paper really means. Is it ‘radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War’, as Her Majesty’s Government would have us believe or is it ‘a developer's charter that will see communities side lined in decisions’ as Her Majesty’s Opposition would have us believe?

The Government put together a task force to draft the White Paper and for this episode Sam Stafford puts a 50 Shades task force together to interpret it. Matthew Spry (@mspry_) is a Senior Director at Lichfields; Ruth Stockley (@RuthStockley3) is a barrister at Kings Chambers; and Anna Rose (@EPlanna) is Head of the Planning Advisory Service at the Local Government Association.

Some associated reading.

Planning for the future

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future

Changes to the current planning system

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changes-to-the-current-planning-system

Lichfields' analysis' 

https://lichfields.uk/grow-renew-protect-planning-for-the-future/the-white-paper/

Rachel Coxcoon's Twitter thread about zero carbon homes

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1293202597990596609.html

Simon Ricketts' blog about the White Paper

https://simonicity.com/2020/08/07/for-the-future/

Some associated watching.

HIGPNFY with Chris Katkowski QC

https://youtu.be/fE6KD4K8ugk

‘This moment gives us a much greater chance to be radical and to do things differently’, said the Prime Minister with typical understatement in his Dudley speech at the end of June. ‘To build back better, build back greener, build back faster.’

Who could possibly disagree with that? Nobody, which is probably why the phrase was drafted like that. It means all things to all people, but the creative ambiguity, nee intellectual incoherence, is illustrated by the catchy ‘Jet Zero’ reference in that Dudley speech and lofty ambitions for the world’s first zero emission long haul passenger plane. The short-term priority is to try to save jobs and livelihoods, but that means restoring high-carbon sectors such as aviation.

The reduction of net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050 became law in the UK in June 2019. As the Committee on Climate Change recently noted though, whilst “initial steps towards a net-zero policy package have been taken this was not the year of policy progress that the Committee called for.”

The pandemic is a chance to reset the economy and to bring together the seemingly dichotomous nature of greener versus faster, but what would ‘building back better’, if it isn’t just vacuous sloganeering, mean for planning.

Sam Stafford puts this question to Hugh Ellis, Director of Policy at the TCPA; Jon Lovell, co-founder of Hillbreak (@Lovell_Jon); and Claire Petricca-Riding, Partner & National Head of Planning and Environmental Law at Irwin Mitchell (@PetriccaRiding).

Some accompanying reading:

'The sustainable, responsible and impact investment landscape', by Caroline McGill at Hillbreak

https://www.hillbreak.com/impact-finance-part-i/

The Future Homes Standard: changes to Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations for new dwellings

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-homes-standard-changes-to-part-l-and-part-f-of-the-building-regulations-for-new-dwellings

The TCPA responds to the Prime Minister’s ‘Build, build, build’ announcements

https://www.tcpa.org.uk/news/press-release-the-tcpa-responds-to-prime-ministers-build-build-build-announcements

Reducing UK emissions: 2020 Progress Report to Parliament

https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/reducing-uk-emissions-2020-progress-report-to-parliament/

Some accompanying listening.

Big Jet Plane by Primal Scream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpY-vjLjTM

Will the Government's much vaunted radical reforms to the planning system allow Development Consent Orders (DCOs) to apply to large-scale, residential-led development proposals? It is an idea that has been around since DCOs, as wells as NPSs and NSIPs, were introduced by the Planning Act 2008, but perhaps now it’s time has come.

As well as considering the efficacy of the DCO regime as it relates to infrastructure projects, an expanded DCO regime is considered in a report by Barton Willmore, Copper, Womble Bond Dickinson and Hannah Hickman.

Sam Stafford discusses the report (link below) in this episode with co-authors Tom Carpen (Barton Willmore), Kevin Gibbs (Womble Bond Dickinson) and Hannah Hickman (Hannah Hickman Consulting).

LinkedIn profiles:

Tom - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-carpen-7102578b/

Kevin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-gibbs-24a39734/

Hannah - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahhickman1/

Some accompanying reading.

‘Can development consent orders help meet the challenges of our time?' by Barton Willmore, Copper, Womble Bond Dickinson and Hannah Hickman:

http://www.bartonwillmore.co.uk/Knowledge/Intelligence/2020/Can-Development-Consent-Orders-help-meet-the-chall

'Housing - Nationally Significant Infrastructure?' commissioned by Bond Dickinson and Quod:

https://www.quod.com/news/housing-crisis-demands-central-government-intervention/

'Unlocking Britain' by the Social Market Foundation:

https://www.smf.co.uk/publications/unlocking-britain/#:~:text=In%20a%20guest%20publication%20for%20the%20Social%20Market,recover%20and%20prosper%20in%20the%20wake%20of%20COVID-19.

'Following Orders: five actions necessary for DCOs and the NSIP regime to be used for large-scale housing' by Lichfields:

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2020/july/7/following-orders-the-five-actions-necessary-for-dcos-and-the-nsip-regime-to-be-used-for-large-scale-housing/

'The New Towns Question (Again)' by Simon Ricketts:

https://simonicity.com/2020/07/11/the-new-towns-question-again/

Some accompanying viewing.

The best of Jerry Springer's Final Thoughts:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3iobgi