The Amazing Technicolour Green Belt

The Amazing Technicolour Green Belt

Author: Samuel Stafford October 11, 2025 Duration: 1:28:54

Charles Goode hosted an event in Birmingham in September 2025 to mark the launch of his book, “The Green Belt, Housing Crises and Planning Systems” (link below). Charles invited Catriona Riddell, Mike Best and James Corbet Burcher to join him at that event and Sam Stafford invited the four of them to record a conversation about the Green Belt beforehand.

In a conversation recorded at Birmingham Podcast Studios during the afternoon before Charles’ book launch, the four of them dived as deep into the Green Belt as it might be possible to do.

They talked about the role of Green Belt in the national psyche; how it’s role and perceptions of it’s role have changed even when policy has not; and they asked why some places have a Green Belt and why some places do not. They also talked about the future of the Green Belt and the case for a Royal Commission to determine what that might be.

Some accompanying reading.

The Green Belt, Housing Crises and Planning Systems

A Practical Guide to Securing Planning Permission on Grey Belt Land in the Green Belt

Outskirts by John Grindrod review – life in the green belt

Nimby Watch: Meet the Nimbys turning villages into towns

The Green Belt. What it is and why; what it isn't; and what it should be

Some accompanying viewing.

Andrew Black - The Green Belt Perambulator

Some accompanying listening.

Coalescence - The Lucid Dream

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 - Tim Waring [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:43
This episode sees the welcome return of the Hitting the High Notes series, the basic proposition of which is that Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permi…
The Snagging List [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:14:03
By common consensus there will a considerable increase in the submission of planning applications this year, certainly applications for residential development and certainly driven by applications on the Grey Belt. Data…
All Builders Big and Small [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:36
It has been another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing rock and roll world of town and country planning... “Thousands of new homes promised to communities will be delivered faster, thanks to major change…
Grey Belt: Policy Guidance and Appeals [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:34:43
For how long Grey Belt remains part of the policy landscape time will tell, but in the here and now it represents very welcome political recognition that the homes the country needs cannot be built without developing lan…
A Conversation with Michael Gove [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:19
This episode is a conversation between Sam Stafford and former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Rt Hon. the Lord Gove. Famous in political circles. Infamous, some might say, in planning c…
Pre-Apps, Puddles and NDMPs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:28
When in Manchester recently Sam Stafford took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast David Diggle, Paul Smith, Rebecca Coley and Claire Petricca-Riding and over the course of an hour or so they talked ab…
The BNG [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:01
Over a year on from it becoming mandatory, what is to be made of BNG? On the one hand, according to an open letter signed by a 40-strong coalition of housebuilders and environmental groups to mark the first anniversary,…
If I Ruled the World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:50
Sam Stafford was down in The Big Smoke recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Matthew Spry, Simon Ricketts, Hana Loftus, Vicky Payne and Mike Kiely. In a good ol’ fashioned Adam Buxton-…
Back in Black [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:40:58
The fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning has been especially fast-paced, ever-changing and rock and roll of late. How then to try to catch up? Sam Stafford thought that the best way…
A Brief History of Planning 2010-2024 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:32
Back in March 2024 friend of the podcast Catriona Riddell gave a lecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning that she called ‘Strategic Planning in England - Where did we go so wrong?’. Sam Stafford couldn’t be there th…