The decorations have been taken down, the uneaten party food has been frozen for next time and all of the summary emails from planning consultants have been diligently saved in the ‘Government Policy’ folder. Another Planning Reform Day has been and gone, but this was a bigger one than usual. The sector had been whipped into a frenzy ever since Policy Exchange, from whence Downing Street’s housing and planning advisor came, published it’s ‘Rethinking the Planning System for the 21st Century’ report in January. ‘It’s this week!’. ‘No I’ve heard it’s next week’. It’s a White Paper’. ‘No, it’s a Policy Paper…’ And so it went on until, all of a sudden, everybody agreed that it was midnight and then, like a general election result, planners had to decide whether to stay up really late or get up really early (or both).

And now, a few days later and as the excitement subsides, we are left to ask ourselves what the ‘Planning For The Future’ White Paper really means. Is it ‘radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War’, as Her Majesty’s Government would have us believe or is it ‘a developer's charter that will see communities side lined in decisions’ as Her Majesty’s Opposition would have us believe?

The Government put together a task force to draft the White Paper and for this episode Sam Stafford puts a 50 Shades task force together to interpret it. Matthew Spry (@mspry_) is a Senior Director at Lichfields; Ruth Stockley (@RuthStockley3) is a barrister at Kings Chambers; and Anna Rose (@EPlanna) is Head of the Planning Advisory Service at the Local Government Association.

Some associated reading.

Planning for the future

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future

Changes to the current planning system

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changes-to-the-current-planning-system

Lichfields' analysis' 

https://lichfields.uk/grow-renew-protect-planning-for-the-future/the-white-paper/

Rachel Coxcoon's Twitter thread about zero carbon homes

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1293202597990596609.html

Simon Ricketts' blog about the White Paper

https://simonicity.com/2020/08/07/for-the-future/

Some associated watching.

HIGPNFY with Chris Katkowski QC

https://youtu.be/fE6KD4K8ugk