Planorama

Planorama

Author: Samuel Stafford October 25, 2025 Duration: 1:04:21

In between movin' and shakin' in The Big Smoke recently Sam Stafford took the opportunity to meet a few friends of the podcast at Soho Radio Studios to pick out the highlights from another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning.

Sam caught up with, and the episode features, old friends of the podcast Simon Ricketts, Annie Gingell, Shelly Rouse and Hana Loftus, and new friend of the podcast Hayley White.

Over the course of an hour or so they talked about affordable housing delivery, specifically the constraints on the use of grant funding by RPs and the (then) rumoured changes to affordable housing thresholds in London. They talked about C.G. Fry and the implications of that Supreme Court decision. They talked in the context of a second letter from the Housing & Planning Minister to the Planning Inspectorate about local plan coverage and whether stepped trajectories should be seen a pragmatic response to changing circumstances or an exercise in cynical can-kicking. And towards the end they touched on National Development Management Policies.

Some accompanying reading.

London Stalling

Will Labour’s London housing boost plan work?

Residential development in London

Local Plan examinations: letter to the Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate (October 2025)

Why stepped housing requirements aren’t justified and should be avoided

What does planning permission *really* get you: CG Fry in the Supreme Court — #planoraks

Autumn Budget 2025 - LPDF submission to HMT

Some accompanying viewing.

Panorama – The race to build 1.5 million homes

The Planners are Coming

Some accompanying listening.

The Rolling Stones -Jigsaw Puzzle

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: 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…
A Conversation with Sean Anstee [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:34
Sam Stafford chats with Sean Anstee CBE about the interaction of politics and planning from the point of view of a ward councillor, Council Leader and member of a Combined Authority. Talk also turned to Sean's campaign t…