🏆 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
🎅🏻The 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz🎄 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:17
This episode sees the return of the 50 Shades of Planning Festive Christmas Quiz. Sam Stafford got together with friends of podcast Mike Kiely, Catriona Riddell, Annie Gingell, Andrew Taylor, Nicola Gooch, Shelly Rouse,…
Discretion Advised [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:19
Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friend of the podcast Charlotte Leach and new friends of the podcast Andrew Johnston and Lisa Tye. Over the course of an hour so they…
The Snagging List II [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:20
Empirical evidence is starting to emerge, as speculated upon earlier in the year, that there will indeed be a significant increase in the number of planning applications being submitted this year, certainly for residenti…
All Around the World - Australia [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:12
This is the second 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…
Planorama [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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-…
The Amazing Technicolour Green Belt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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 Corb…
Who's In Control? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:01
Wrexham Council will defend its opposition to plans for 600 homes on land south of Holt Road against the advice of planning officers. The application is due to go to appeal on September 29 but at a meeting of Wrexham Cou…
Hitting the High Notes - Alice Lester [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:46
This is the fourteenth episode in Sam Stafford's Hitting the High Notes series. If you have not listened to one of these before the basic proposition is that Sam chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property s…
What's Going On? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:02
Sam Stafford was in London recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Nicola Gooch, Catriona Riddell, Andrew Taylor, Annie Gingell and Iain Thomson. Over the course of an hour or so at Soho…
All Around the World - USA [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:37
This is the first of a new series of episodes being led by Paul Smith, who regular 50 Shades listeners will know is the Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group and a Housing Today columnist. Paul put it to Sam Staf…