50 Shades of Planning

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 environmental implications.  

The consultation builds on the findings of the New Towns Taskforce report in September 2025 and invites views on how the New Towns Programme will operate, how new towns will be delivered and planned, and the proposed approach to design, placemaking and planning policy. It seeks views on the Government’s offer to locations and a Strategic Environment Assessment report which focuses on local environmental constraints, the cumulative effects of new towns development, and practical methods of mitigation and monitoring. 

Now then seemed like a good time for Sam Stafford to share a recording made online in November 2025 by new friends of the Rebecca Warren, Fionnuala Lennon, Jonathan Schifferes and Lucy Bush, and old friend of the podcast Hana Loftus.

The recording was actually made in two now combined parts, both steered by Rebecca. In the first third of this episode you will hear Rebecca, Fionnuala and Jonathan talk about some of the practicalities associated with new town development, and in the following two thirds you will hear Rebecca, Fionnuala, Lucy and Hana talk about placemaking.

Some accompanying reading.

Seven new towns proposed to kickstart housebuilding push

New Towns Draft Programme

New Towns Draft Programme Consultation

New Towns Taskforce: Report to government 

On New Towns

New Lessons for New Towns

A fourth generation of New Towns – focusing on delivery

Radical Citizenship: a model for new towns and beyond

New towns in England: what next for the winners and runners up?

Public Sector RTPI Survey

Private Sector RTPI Survey

Some accompanying listening.

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - A New Town With An Old Sense Of Community

Any other business.

If you enjoy the episode do please consider bolstering Sam's fragile self-esteem by leaving the podcast a nice rating and a nice review wherever you listened to it. Obviously though if you have not enjoyed it then please do not leave a review, but do please feel free to let Sam know why (via [email protected]). Feedback on 50 Shades episodes is always welcome.

If you have enjoyed to the extent that you feel compelled to share the podcast on one your social platforms then, if you tag Sam, you will be entitled to an exclusive and much-sought after 50 Shades of Planning mug.

If you are a new listener do please check out the back catalogue where you will find episodes on myriad planning topics, as well as the Hitting The High Notes and All Around the World series, and remember that by subscribing new episodes will magically appear in your phone as soon as Sam has published them.

50 Shades of Planning is the podcast by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use it as a platform for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then you are also very welcome to get in touch with Sam.

Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to Rachael Cooper and Adrian Meehan for recording and editing this episode.

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 on the planning system in England. We very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas.

Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he is chatting with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can we learn.

In this episode Paul chats to Jannes Willems and Lilian van Karnenbeek about planning in the Netherlands.

In a conversation recorded online in October 2025 they talked about a new Dutch Environment & Planning Act; subsidiarity between the three levels of Dutch planning; active and passive land use policy; public engagement in the Dutch system; cycling obviously; and the role of land reclamation in making planning so central to Dutch culture.

Some accompanying reading.

Insights on the Dutch Environment & Planning Act

Icons of Dutch Spatial Planning

Brilliant Orange

50 Shades T-Shirts

Save The Date: Live Event 1 June 2026

Public Sector RTPI Survey

Private Sector RTPI Survey

Identifying the delays and barriers experienced in the planning applications process

Planning in the Pub

Some accompanying listening

The Fall – Kurious Oranj

Any other business.

If you enjoy the episode do please consider bolstering Sam's fragile self-esteem by leaving the podcast a nice rating and a nice review wherever you listened to it. Obviously though if you have not enjoyed it then please do not leave a review, but do please feel free to let Sam know why (via [email protected]). Feedback on 50 Shades episodes is always welcome.

If you have enjoyed to the extent that you feel compelled to share the podcast on one your social platforms then, if you tag Sam, you will be entitled to an exclusive and much-sought after 50 Shades of Planning mug.

If you are a new listener do please check out the back catalogue where you will find episodes on myriad planning topics, as well as the Hitting The High Notes and All Around the World series, and remember that by subscribing new episodes will magically appear in your phone as soon as Sam has published them.

50 Shades of Planning is the podcast by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use it as a platform for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then you are also very welcome to get in touch with Sam.

Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to Rachael Cooper and Adrian Meehan for recording and editing this episode.

Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

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 at Reform Radio they talked about the imminent changes to appeal guidance; they talked about the design and placemaking PPG consultation; they talked about affordable housing delivery and the misalignment between Home England’s grant funding and Section 106 requirements; they went back to design and placemaking to talk about Design Review; and towards the end they talked about LPAs charging for invalid applications. The general theme of the discussion though, and hence the title of this episode, was set by a phrase that Lisa used at the start of the discussion and which seems to capture the mood of the moment, certainly as far as the development industry is concerned.

Some accompanying reading.

All Change: Strategic Plans and Planning Appeals Revamped

Don’t Be An April Fool: Written Reps Planning Appeals Are About To Get Faster But Also Riskier

Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance

Design, delivery and the space in between: early reflections on the new Design & Placemaking PPG

It’s great that London has new design advocates. But what about elsewhere?

How long is a piece of string?

Council planning appeal budget spent in four months

Council can now charge for invalid planning applications

Some accompanying listening.

Mass Appeal – Gangstarr

Any other business.

If you enjoy the episode do please consider bolstering Sam's fragile self-esteem by leaving the podcast a nice rating and a nice review wherever you listened to it. Obviously though if you have not enjoyed it then please do not leave a review, but do please feel free to let Sam know why (via [email protected]). Feedback on 50 Shades episodes is always welcome.

If you have enjoyed to the extent that you feel compelled to share the podcast on one your social platforms then, if you tag Sam, you will be entitled to an exclusive and much-sought after 50 Shades of Planning mug.

If you are a new listener do please check out the back catalogue where you will find episodes on myriad planning topics, as well as the Hitting The High Notes and All Around the World series, and remember that by subscribing new episodes will magically appear in your phone as soon as Sam has published them.

50 Shades of Planning is the podcast by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use it as a platform for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then you are also very welcome to get in touch with Sam.

Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to Mike Dunbar and Adrian Meehan for recording and editing this episode.

Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.

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 of the Planning & Infrastructure Act, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill?

What the sector did not know just a few weeks ago, but do now, are the new strategic geographies outside of areas governed by a mayor and where some work on Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs) is already underway. Just last week though, at the time Sam prepared to publish this episode, a consultation was launched on all of the areas to be tasked with producing SDSs.

So the podcast has looked at where things are now, but what do those tasked with consolidating the Planning & Infrastructure Act, the NPPF and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, and those producing SDSs, need to know about the last time planning was being undertaken strategically given that some time has now passed since the revocation of the Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs).

Now then seemed like a good time for Sam to publish the latest episode in the Hitting the High Notes series, which he recorded with strategic planning doyenne and old friend of the podcast Catriona Riddell at Soho Radio Studios in London back in September 2025 (just after the reshuffle that saw Steve Reed become Secretary of State, which there is mention of).

Hitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that listeners can get to know people a little better personally, for every project or stage of their career Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period.

Unlike Desert Island Discs listeners will not hear any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music without the copyright holders permission or a very expensive PRS licensing agreement could land Sam in hot water so there accompanying YouTube videos and a Spotify playlist below.

Catriona tells Sam about making the switch from architecture student in Glasgow to strategic planner in Surrey; how she became the ‘most hated woman in Guildford’; and how she shed a little tear upon reading the Devolution White Paper.

They talk about old wine, including SERPLAN, RPG and RSSs (and the real reason RSSs were scrapped), and whether the Duty to Cooperate was bound to fail, and they talk about new bottles, including what, based upon Catriona’s not inconsiderable experience, will be the keys to SDS success.

Some accompanying listening.

Catriona’s Spotify Playlist

Waterfront – Simple Minds

We’ve Only Just Begun – Carpenters

Respect – Aretha Franklin

Starting Over – Chris Stapleton

What Difference Does It Make? – The Smiths

Landslide – The Chicks

The Return of Strategic Planning

Some accompanying reading. 

Sub-Regional Strategic Planning

Areas for producing spatial development strategies

Spatial development strategies and devolution: letter to council leaders

Housing Quick Wins: Call for Evidence

Identifying the delays and barriers experienced in the planning applications process

Planning in the Pub

Some accompanying viewing.

When Podcasts Collide: Sam Stafford, Managing Director at the LPDF (S18, E1)

Any other business.

Please consider bolstering Sam's fragile self-esteem by leaving the podcast a nice rating and a nice review wherever you listened to it.

If you have enjoyed to the extent that you feel compelled to share the podcast on one your social platforms then, if you tag Sam, you will be entitled to an exclusive and much-sought after 50 Shades of Planning mug.

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 Ventham, Myles Wild-Smith, Michelle Simpson-Gallego and Sam enjoyed a rambling conversation that takes in, amongst other things, the extent to which Grey Belt is driving the increase in planning applications for new homes; the ‘grit in the system’, particularly stat cons, specifically water companies, and the RP / S106 stock issue; plan-making in the West Midlands, the case for a national spatial plan; and why it is that most young people have never heard of the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll world of town and country planning.

Some accompanying reading.

Policy statement: a roadmap for Section 106 delivery in England

Making sense of the roadmap: will MHCLG’s latest attempts to kickstart Section 106 affordable housing deliver?

Greater Affordable Housing Flex Announced For Some Stalled Schemes; Other Announcements On Affordable Housing & On S106

A new vision for water: white paper

RTPI West Midlands Young Planners

Public Practice is recruiting multiple new roles for its Board, including a new Chair and two Non-Executive Directors

2026 Housing Design Awards Entries Now Open

Awards for Planning Excellence 2026

Housing Quick Wins: Call for Evidence

Removing grit from the planning system and speeding up the process

Some accompanying viewing.

Brookbanks Podcast Episode #9: 2025 reflections, a year of change for the planning industry?

Some accompanying listening.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children

Any other business.

If you enjoy the episode do please consider bolstering Sam's fragile self-esteem by leaving the podcast a nice rating and a nice review wherever you listened to it. Obviously though if you have not enjoyed it then please do not leave a review, but do please feel free to let Sam know why (via [email protected]). Feedback on 50 Shades episodes is always welcome.

If you have enjoyed to the extent that you feel compelled to share the podcast on one your social platforms then, if you tag Sam, you will be entitled to an exclusive and much-sought after 50 Shades of Planning mug.

If you are a new listener do please check out the back catalogue where you will find episodes on myriad planning topics, as well as the Hitting The High Notes and All Around the World series, and remember that by subscribing new episodes will magically appear in your phone as soon as Sam has published them.

50 Shades of Planning is the podcast by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use it as a platform for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then you are very welcome to get in touch with.

Sam is grateful to Richborough, Town Legal and Tyler Grange for supporting the podcast; to Vistry for sponsoring the 50 Shades mugs; and to Carl Thomas-Edwards and Rachael Cooper for recording and editing this episode.

Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.