50 Shades of Planning

Saturday 12 October 2024 marks 100 days of the new Labour Government. In anticipation of this milestone Landmark Chambers and Town Legal hosted a seminar in London this week to provide an in-depth review of Labour's first 100 days in power and the impact on planning law and policy. The session was recorded so that Sam Stafford could share it by way of the 50 Shades podcast and planners will be glad that it was recorded because it contains analysis and insight of the highest order. This episode includes: Rupert Warren talking about the NPPF, local plans and housing;Meeta Kaur talking about new towns;Russell Harris talking about London;Simon Ricketts talking about infrastructure and commercial development; andIsabella Buono talking about Grey Belt and affordable housing. Some accompanying reading. https://www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/resources/100-days-of-labour-a-planning-law-and-policy-perspective-full-presentation Some accompanying listening. All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObvLGOE-_Qk 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.

Last week, on NPPF deadline day, Sam Stafford was in Manchester and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Katie Wray, David Diggle, Greg Dickson, Mark Parkinson and Claire Petricca-Riding at the studios of Reform Radio. Conscious that the podcast has covered the revised NPPF in episodes 128 and 131, they talked about some of the other current hot planning topics. They talked about brownfield passports and why existing tools in the box are not being used already; they talked about the Labour Party Conference, which led on to conversation about a Plan for England; and they talked about what the New Towns Taskforce would need to do to meaningfully advance that agenda. And then they talked a bit more towards to the end about brownfield passports again. They did try not to mention the NPPF, but, as you will hear, were unsuccessful in so doing... Some accompanying reading. Planning Reform Working Paper: Brownfield Passport https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-reform-working-paper-brownfield-passport The New Towns Taskforce https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-new-towns-taskforce Brownfield urban regeneration: how to deliver more growth, homes and jobs with the support of communities https://www.britishland.com/news/brownfield-urban-regeneration-how-to-deliver-more-growth-homes-and-jobs-with-the-support-of-communities/ Brownfield Passports: building on old foundations? https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/expert-comment/post/102jjwb/brownfield-passports-building-on-old-foundations Brownfield Passports…To What? When? How? https://simonicity.com/2024/09/28/brownfield-passportsto-what-when-how/ Design codes will help fill our cities with the missing middle https://www.pricedout.org.uk/design-codes-will-help-fill-our-cities-with-the-missing-middle/ Some accompanying listening. A Shared Sense Of Purpose - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMhN3pWyBR0 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.

 "‘The moment has come’: pro-building Labour YIMBYs are set to raise the roof" was the title of a piece in the Observer ahead of the Labour Party Conference (link below). For many of the most ambitious of the new cohort of Labour MPs, this is the fashionable campaign of the moment, not for economic growth but as a social justice movement – and one that many of the new millennials entering parliament hope to stake their careers on. Inside Labour it is not a left-right divide, but some of its champions are prepared for it to mean internal party conflict between those who are radicalised on the housing crisis, and more nervous colleagues in rural or suburban seats won for the first time by Labour who might be tempted to retreat into nimbyism on local issues as a way of trying to keep their seats. The point about first time Labour MPs retreating into NIMBYism is interesting in the context of the proposed changes to the standard method that is currently being consulted upon, but it was the point about YIMBYism not being a left-right divide inside Labour that Sam Stafford found most interesting because of a piece in the New Statesman back in April called ‘Not all YIMBYs are your friends - the pro-housing coalition is less united than it seems’ (link also below). As it so happens, Sam approached the people quoted in the New Statesmen piece about recording a chat about the politics of housing and met four of them recently to do just that. The four are John Myers, co-founder of the YIMBY Alliance; Robert Colville, columnist and Director of the Centre for Policy Studies; Jonn Elledge, journalist, author and fan of local government reorganisation; and Aydin Dikerdem, Cabinet Member for housing on the London Borough of Wandsworth. They were going to talk about whether Kier Starmer’s self-declaration as a YIMBY marks the movements arrival into the political mainstream; whether the ends, more housing, is more important than the means; and who should get a say over what goes where and why. Some of that they did, but the remainder of the conversation, as Listeners will hear, goes off in all kinds of directions. Some accompanying reading. ‘The moment has come’: pro-building Labour YIMBYs are set to raise the roof https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/15/the-moment-has-come-pro-building-labour-yimbys-are-set-to-raise-the-roof Not all YIMBYs are your friends https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024/04/no-not-every-yimby-your-mate-housing All hail the ‘MIMBYs’: the open-minded voters who might just save Labour’s housing plans https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/05/labour-housing-plans-keir-starmer-houses By Sam: YIMBYs and NIMBYs. Is planning becoming a new front in the culture war? https://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/06/yimbys-versus-nimbys-is-planning-new.html By Aydin: The sky pool is a symbol of a greater housing scandal https://www.huckmag.com/article/the-sky-pool-is-a-symbol-of-a-greater-housing-scandal By Robert: The (not so) green belt — and why we should build on it (£) https://www.thetimes.com/article/c7049594-3836-4563-ae4e-caa27eb5409e?shareToken=631cd93bdff30c14ac98a86bd21b483b Some accompanying listening. The In Crowd – Dobie Gray https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOWO--z1S8A 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.

If you have listened to episodes 125 and 128 you will know Sam Stafford sought to cover, pre-publication, what could and should be in the new version of NPPF. With the consultation deadline now starting to loom large, this episode seeks to cover what is actually in it. Sam was in London earlier this week and caught up with friends of the podcast Andrew Taylor, Hashi Mohamed, Vicky Payne and Simon Ricketts at Soho Radio Studios. They will need no introduction to regular listeners, but for new listeners, Andrew is Group Planning Director at Vistry, Hashi is a Barrister at Landmark Chambers; Vicky is an Associate at Jas Bhalla Works and an Independent Consultant; and Simon is a Partner at Town Legal. As you will hear over the next 45 minutes or so they crammed in as much as possible. They talked about the proposed new stock-based standard method and transitional arrangements for local plans, they talked about Grey Belt, 50% affordable housing and benchmark land values; and they touched on beauty, design codes, vision-led transport planning, the flood risk sequential test, neighbourhood plans, safeguarded land, and application fees. Some accompanying reading. Lichfields’ NPPF resource https://lichfields.uk/proposed-reforms-to-the-nppf-and-other-changes-to-the-planning-system?email Simon’s blog https://simonicity.com/2024/08/02/50-shades-of-grey-belt/ Zack Simons' blog https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/planningreformday-2024-what-just-happened Vicky on Design https://www.theplanner.co.uk/2024/08/01/more-substance-style-new-nppfs-design-outlook Philip Barnes on BLV https://philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2024/08/28/green-belt-vs-grey-belt-vs-benchmark-land-values-vs-50-affordable-housing/ Create Streets - Stepping off the Road to Nowhere https://www.createstreets.com/projects/stepping-off-the-road-to-nowhere/ Some accompanying listening. The Masterplan - Oasis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPPi2D6GK7A Some accompanying viewing. Alam Partridge’s big plate https://youtu.be/swJFOE49LRQ?si=bmR85Y7USmizHBef 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.