I blogged yesterday about the row over the government’s planning reforms and how the furore increased in intensity between July and October 2011. A key feature of the campaign against the National Planning Policy Framework was that celebrities lined up to criticise the reforms, helping to keep the issue in the headlines. Big names to come out against the government’s planning reforms include US travel writer Bill Bryson, television presenters Lloyd Grossman and Kirstie Allsopp and composer Lord Lloyd-Webber. Read more »

Planning permission has been granted this week for a property described by its architect as the UK’s first ‘amphibious’ house. According to Baca Architects, the firm behind the plans, an amphibious house is a building that “rests on the ground on fixed foundations but, whenever a flood occurs, the entire building rises up in its dock and floats there, buoyed by the floodwater”. Read more »