Image Rights

Image Rights

Author: Samuel Stafford May 24, 2019 Duration: 46:36

Sam Stafford and his guests David Diggle, Tom Whitehead and Andrew Jalali discuss whether modern design is s***, whether the planning profession has an image problem, and the role of planning in tackling climate change.


Samuel Stafford hosts 50 Shades of Planning, a podcast that digs into the often perplexing world of the English planning system. Rather than offering dry policy lectures, these conversations embrace the sector's inherent complexities and occasional absurdities. The aim is to provide a wide-ranging view, bringing in diverse voices from across the fields of planning, property, design, and development. You'll hear from practitioners, thinkers, and critics, each sharing their unique experiences and perspectives on how places are shaped. A recurring series within the podcast, titled 'Hitting The High Notes', features in-depth discussions with leading figures, examining pivotal career moments and influential projects. These talks are structured around six key planning milestones, offering a concrete framework for understanding professional journeys and systemic challenges. By weaving together themes from government, business, arts, and social sciences, this podcast reveals how planning sits at a crowded intersection of politics, economics, and community life. Tune in for thoughtful, sometimes surprising, explorations of the forces that decide what gets built, where, and why.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 164

50 Shades of Planning
Podcast Episodes
How and Where Can and Should More Homes be Built? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:40
Sam Stafford chats with John Myers (YIMBY Alliance), Barbara Weiss (Barbara Weiss Architects) and Matt Thomson (CPRE) about how to build more and better homes and more and better places. Adding storeys, mansion blocks an…
A Conversation with David Rudlin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:49
Sam Stafford chats with David Rudlin, Principal and Director of URBED, about his book Climax City, co-authored with Shruti Humani, which is a critical exploration of the growth of cities and masterplanning. The conversat…
Reasons to be Cheerful [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:06
Is planning in England, as asserted by the Raynsford Review, really less effective than at any time in the post-war era? Chris Shepley, a former Chief Planning Inspector and member of the Raynsford Review panel, said tha…
🎅🏻The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz🎄 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:18
Full of festive cheer (and sherry), Sam Stafford quizzes Greg Dickson, Paul Smith, David Diggle, Andrew Jalali, Vicky Payne and Tom Whitehead on some of the stories that have caught the eye in 2019. Expect an attempt at…
How To Plan Strategically Without Strategic Planning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:19
10 January 2020, as planners working in the West Midlands will know, is the date by which the 37,900 home shortfall identified in the Birmingham Development Plan needs to have been accommodated by the other local plannin…
A Conversation with Bob Kerslake [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:36
Sam Stafford chats with The Right Honourable The Lord Kerslake, who, as former Chief Executive of Sheffield and Hounslow councils; Chief Executive of the HCA; and Permanent Secretary of DCLG, has had a unique insight int…
Planning Committees - Cauldrons of Human Emotion [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:20
If you’re involved they’re terrible, but if you’re just observing they’re terrific. In this episode Sam Stafford and his guests Katie Dean and Mike O’Brien discuss the cauldrons of human emotion that are planning committ…
The Data Day [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:59
Sam Stafford chats with Euan Mills of the Connected Places Catapult (https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/) about how digital innovation, urban data, and user-centred design can improve the UK planning system.
Trust Me, I'm A Planner. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:14
Sam Stafford and his guests Vicky Payne and Paul Smith explore a possible link between the cinematic portrayal of property developers as wrong 'uns and this survey from Grosvenor that looks at levels of public distrust i…