What's Going On?

What's Going On?

Author: Samuel Stafford August 30, 2025 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 Radio Studios they enjoyed a good ol’ fashioned 50 Shades-style ramblechat about a few of the hot topics exercising the planning profession at the moment.

They talked water neutrality and about statutory consultees, specifically the need to engage utility providers with the Spatial Development Strategy process. They talked about the merits of locally-set application fees. They talked about grant funding for affordable housing; the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill, which led on to Assets of Community Value; the use of hotels for the accommodation of asylum seekers; Level 7 Apprenticeships; and they talked about data centres.

Some accompanying reading.

Crest Nicholson Operations Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government & Anor [2025] EWHC 2194 (Admin) (22 August 2025)

Chief Planner’s Newsletter

Devolution or revolution? – a brief guide to the changes proposed by the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

English devolution: Area factsheets

Planning Law Is Being Used For Politicking About Asylum Seekers

RTPI warns Housing Minister of major threat to planning profession from apprenticeship restrictions

Data centres to be expanded across UK as concerns mount

Data centres as vital as NHS and power grid, government says

Grid delays now rival planning as chief threat to project delivery

Decoding Data Centers: Opportunities, risks and investment strategies

Life on the Front III

Some accompanying viewing.

Fawlty Towers S1/E2 - 'The Builders'

Some accompanying listening.

What’s Going On? – Marvin Gaye

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
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…
100 Days of Labour [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:33
Saturday 12 October 2024 marks 100 days of the new Labour Government. In anticipation of this milestone Landmark Chambers and Town Legal hosted a seminar in London this week to provide an in-depth review of Labour's firs…