New Politics, New Towns and New Books

New Politics, New Towns and New Books

Author: Samuel Stafford August 2, 2025 Duration: 1:03:04

Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friends of the podcast Ian Wray, Claire Petricca-Riding and David Diggle, and new friends of the podcast Charlotte Leach and Louise Fountain.

Over the course of an hour or so they enjoyed a good ol’ fashioned 50 Shades ramblechat. They talked about the increasingly rancorous nature of planning and whether a sense of fractiousness and febrility is driving the rise of Reform as a political force. They also talked about New Towns and Ian’s 'Northern Arc' proposition, and, towards the end, they swapped holiday reading recommendations.

Some accompanying reading.

The Rise of Reform

How Britain's high street decline is fuelling Reform UK's rise: 'There's a sense that politics has failed'

We won’t let residents block big new towns, says planning minister (£)

On New Towns

‘We have to move’: historic village of Tempsford reels from plan to swell its 600 residents to 350,000

A ‘once in a generation’ opportunity for the UK’s next wave of new towns

The reality of the Northern Arc

The Planning Alliance

Life on the Front Line III

The 50 Shades Book Club

When The Circus Leaves Town - Dave Proudlove

Nairn’s Towns - Ian Nairn

Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall

A waiter in Paris – Edward Chisholm

The Danish Way of Parenting - Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl 

Why We Get The Wrong Politicians - Isabel Hardmen

Great British Plans – Ian Wray

Some accompanying viewing.

Nairn across Britain

Nairn's Journeys - Football Towns (Huddersfield and Halifax)

Some accompanying listening.

Episode 36. Can the British plan?

A Fresh Dawn For North Cheshire - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

Any other business.

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.

Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.


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: 100

50 Shades of Planning
Podcast Episodes
Hitting the High Notes - Steve Quartermain [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:55
Hitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects…
Licensed to IL [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:24
Think back for a moment to August 2020, to the ‘Planning for the future’ white paper, and to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s desire for “radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War. Not mor…
Life Lessons [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:18
A short while ago friend of the podcast Shelly Rouse got in touch with Sam Stafford asking for suggestions for a lecture that Shelly was giving for another friend of the podcast Charlotte Morphet and her soon-to-be plann…
All Politics is Local [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:43
A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. The planning system, it could be contended, is a triangle. At one vertex there are the officers, the professionals, the technocrats, battling gainfully to get…
No Hope? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:31
In June 2022 the Government consulted on proposals to abolish hope and development value when assessing compensation for land compulsorily purchased for certain kinds of schemes. Nine months after it closed, a response h…
A Conversation with Bethany Cullen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:24
When Karolina Grebowiec-Hall contacted Sam Stafford about sharing her podcast with his LinkedIn network Sam went a step further and invited Karolina to share it by way of the 50 Shades platform. Karolina has created a we…
Planning for a Feminist City [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:32
Spatial planning can only deliver a safe, healthy and sustainable environment for all if it is sensitive to the needs of all, which means taking into account the different roles women and men have in society and the diff…
Life on the Front Line II [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:58
‘Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?’ It was that message from a 50 Shades listener that prompted Episode 60 of the podcast, which Sam Stafford called ‘Life on the Front Line’. At around…
What Does a Good Local Plan Look Like? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:47
Local plan-making is in something of a crisis. Lichfields reported in April 2022 on the 11 local plans that had at that time been overtly delayed, paused or withdrawn. Indeed the number of plans published in draft, submi…
More Homes. Better Places. So Far As Possible. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:41
It will not have escaped the attention of regular 50 Shades listeners that a consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was launched shortly before Christmas and, knowing that it was coming,…