🏆 The #Planoraks Awards 2022 🏆

🏆 The #Planoraks Awards 2022 🏆

Author: Samuel Stafford December 31, 2022 Duration: 57:04

Even by the standards of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning 2022 has been quite a year. Who better to review it, Sam Stafford thought, than Zack Simons, one of the most erudite, informed and entertaining thought leaders in the planning profession. Sam and Zack consider some of the year's important planning stories and, excitingly, Zack hands out his 2022 #Planarak Awards.

A point of clarification. In discussing the controversial foreword to the Pre-Submission Spelthorne Local Plan, Sam suggested that it had not been removed from the Submission version. It actually has been.

Some accompanying reading.

The Levelling Up White Paper

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-the-united-kingdom

Michael Gove scraps radical planning law following fierce Tory backlash

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/25/michael-gove-scraps-radical-planning-law-following-fierce-tory/#:~:text=Mr%20Gove%20disclosed%20his%20decision,is%20no%20standalone%20Planning%20Bill.%E2%80%9D

New minister suggests tweaks to local housing need and five-year land supply requirements

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1748434/new-minister-suggests-tweaks-local-housing-need-five-year-land-supply-requirements#:~:text=The%20new%20housing%20minister%20Stuart,the%20levelling%2Dup%20agenda%E2%80%9D

Turley’s neutrality update

https://www.turley.co.uk/comment/nutrient-neutrality-march-2022-update-it-just-got-whole-lot-bigger

Counting the cost of delay: The economic impact of Local Plan delay to housing delivery

https://lichfields.uk/blog/2022/april/26/counting-the-cost-of-delay-the-economic-impact-of-local-plan-delay-to-housing-delivery/

The LURB

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3155

Michael Gove: Britain needs beautiful homes and communities. That’s why I’ll clamp down on developers of soulless dormitories

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10816969/MICHAEL-GOVE-Britain-needs-beautiful-homes-communities.html

‘New NPPF to come out next month, says Gove

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1789261/new-nppf-next-month-says-gove

Council rips up local plan following Truss’s pledge to cut ‘Stalinist’ housing targets

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/council-rips-up-local-plan-following-trusss-pledge-to-cut-stalinist-housing-targets/5119693.article

The Growth Plan

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/the-growth-plan

Michael Gove’s Written Ministerial Statement

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-12-06/hcws415

The #Planoraks 2022 🏆 - worst planning reform of the year

https://www.planoraks.com/posts-1/-the-planoraks-2022-worst-planning-reform-of-the-year

Council says its draft local plan will make area a ‘less attractive place to live’ due to brutal housing targets

https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1792929/council-says-its-draft-plan-will-area-less-attractive-place-live-due-brutal-housing-targets

Sunak’s vow to stop housebuilding on green belt labelled as ‘desperate’

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/28/rishi-sunak-warned-pledge-to-stop-green-belt-development-will-worsen-uk-housing-crisis

Boris Johnson pledges no homes will be built on green fields

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/10/06/boris-johnson-pledges-no-homes-green-fields/

Some accompanying listening

Round and Round by New Order

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1tjQqWqqAA

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast 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


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
What is really wrong with the Habitats Regulations? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:08
DEFRA recently launched a consultation on significant changes to it’s guidance on how Habitat Regulations Assessments should be carried out, which comes at an interesting time. It is, firstly, not long since DEFRA announ…
Some Things Just Take Time [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:24
Sam Stafford was in London recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friends of the podcast Mike Kiely, Annie Gingell, Andrew Taylor and Iain Thomson, and new friend of the podcast Claire Tester. In a conver…
New Towns: Practicalities & Placemaking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:18
New Towns are back in the news because the Government has announced the first formal step in creating the next generation of them with the launch of a public consultation on the draft New Towns Programme and its environm…
All Around the World - The Netherlands [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:40
This is the third of a series of episodes being led by the oldest friend of the podcast, Paul Smith. Paul put it to Sam Stafford that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely…
Appeal Ready [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:44
Sam Stafford was in Manchester last week and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Lisa Tye, Andrew Johnston and Louise Fountain to discuss some of the issues of the day. In a conversation recorded…
Hitting the High Notes - Catriona Riddell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:25
Strategic planning, as Sam Stafford said in the introduction to episode number 157, is back. That episode looked at what shape it is in right now. What have authorities been able to do whilst awaiting the consolidation o…
We❤️Planning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:31
Sam Stafford was in Birmingham recently and took the opportunity to record the first ‘catch up’-style episode with some of his friends working in the West Midlands. In a conversation recorded at PodHaus studios, Kathryn…
How Does Bad Policy Get Made? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:34
In October 2025 Sam Stafford came across a blog by Jack Airey, who is now a Director at Public First but was the Head of Planning at Policy Exchange and subsequently spent a few years inside Number 10 as a Special Adviso…
The Return of Strategic Planning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:29
Strategic planning is back. What do we know? We know that Policy PM1 of the revised draft NPPF anticipates the move towards national coverage of Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs), as promised by the end of the parlia…
🏆The #Planoraks Awards 2025🏆 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:58
This is the second of Sam Stafford's seasonal offerings which serve as a review of another exciting year in the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning. Once again Zack Simons kindly b…