50 Shades listeners are a perceptive bunch and will have a spotted that the Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill (LURB) was introduced to Parliament on 11 May. Whilst the word planning does not appear on the front of the bill it does appear 680 times inside and so, for a planning podcast that purports to have it's figure on the pulse, it is about time that Sam Stafford put a panel together to discuss it.

Helpfully for Sam, Andrew Taylor (@AndrewJTaylor3), past 50 Shades contributor and friend of the podcast, did it for him. Andrew invited Sam to contribute to a National Planning Forum (@nat_plan) seminar on the LURB and, in preparation for the event, which took place on 5 July 2022, Sam invited the other panellists to record a preparatory chat. You will here in this episode then from:

• Tony Burton (@Tony4Place), free range consultant on community, planning, design and environment;
• Simon Ricketts (@sricketts1), Partner at Town Legal;
• Catriona Riddell (@CatrionaRiddel1), Director at Catriona Riddell & Associates; and
• Jennie Baker (@1jenniebaker), Associate Director at Lichfields.

PS. Perceptive 50 Shades listeners will also have spotted that the UK Government began to collapse on the evening of 5 July 2022 and that the future of the LURB is now uncertain. This though hopefully remains an interesting and relevant discussion.

Some accompanying reading.

The LURB

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

The policy paper that accompanies the LURB

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill

Neighbourhood Planners London

https://www.neighbourhoodplanners.london/

Lichfields' analysis of the role of neighbourhood plans in housing delivery

https://lichfields.uk/content/insights/local-choices

Simon's recent LURB blog

https://simonicity.com/2022/07/02/summer-of-lurb/

Lichfields' LURB resource

https://lichfields.uk/the-levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill/

Matthew Carmona's blog on the design code pilots

https://matthew-carmona.com/2022/06/22/88-testing-design-codes-in-england-21-lessons/

The National Planning Forum

https://www.natplanforum.org.uk/

Some accompanying listening.

Everything is simple by Widowspeak

https://youtu.be/mPa08P7e_e0

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