{"podcast":{"title":"50 Shades of Planning","slug":"50-shades-of-planning-1168819","podcast_index_feed_id":1168819,"rss_url":"https://feed.pod.co/50-shades-of-planning","website_url":"https://pod.co/50-shades-of-planning","image_url":"https://images.pod.co/5mS4nT6SQ3R4_geO4VUXYGg3bhYRQVG3qwYGGgh0ock/resize:fill:1500:1500/plain/artwork/04acffea-73a6-4d39-813c-a571d416c0f1/50-shades-of-planning-1744212704.jpg","author":"Samuel Stafford","episode_count":168,"summary":"50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives. 50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time...","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819"},"episode":{"title":"New Towns: Practicalities & Placemaking","slug":"new-towns-practicalities-placemaking","published_at":"2026-03-28T10:00:26+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819/new-towns-practicalities-placemaking","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819","url":"https://pod.co/50-shades-of-planning/163","audio_url":"https://downloads.pod.co/b6f9f0f9-d7fe-4a5a-836c-563849ec1a3e/f9e86c30-f70d-4e19-916d-ae7987432a86.mp3","summary":"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 Surve…","meta_description":"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 pub…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2898,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/50-shades-of-planning-1168819/episodes/new-towns-practicalities-placemaking/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819/new-towns-practicalities-placemaking.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}