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Planning in a Failing State

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This topical, edited collection analyses the state of the planning system in England and offers a robust, evidence-based review of over a decade of change since the Conservative-led coalition gover...
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  • 09 January 2024
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This topical, edited collection analyses the state of the planning system in England and offers a robust, evidence-based review of over a decade of change since the Conservative-led coalition government came to power. With a critique of ongoing planning reforms by the UK government, the book argues that the planning system is often blamed for a range of issues caused by ineffective policy making by government.

Including chapters on housing, localism, design, zoning and the consequences of Brexit for environmental planning, the contributors unpick a complicated set of recent reforms and counter the claims of the think-tank-led assault on democratic planning.

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Price: $135.95
Pages: 202
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Policy Press
Publication Date: 09 January 2024
ISBN: 9781447365044
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development, Regional and area planning, ARCHITECTURE / Urban & Land Use Planning, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / General, Public administration / Public policy, Transport planning and policy, Central / national / federal government policies, Urban and municipal planning and policy, Rural planning and policy
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"A well-developed, refreshing, and hopefully seminal critique of recent political rhetoric, ‘reform’, deregulation and tinkering by successive governments." Town Planning Review

'An excellent and topical edited work that should prove invaluable to all those interested in understanding the turmoil of ill-conceived central government reforms, often subsequently abandoned, that have afflicted the English statutory planning system since election of the coalition government in 2010 and the succession of conservative administrations that followed. Covering a spectrum of topics from housing supply to infrastructure and associated procedural changes embracing ‘localism’ and local design codes yet intending to bypass both local planning authorities and communities through permitted development and new forms of zoning, the book admirably charts the failures not so much of planning but of the wider governance state in which it operates.' Mark Baker, University of Manchester



'This book is a must-read for academics, students and planning professionals with an interest in understanding why things are so hard, and what can be done about it.' Town Planning Review

Olivier Sykes is Senior Lecturer in European Spatial Planning at the University of Liverpool. His research and teaching interests include international planning studies, urban regeneration and planning for heritage conservation.

John Sturzaker is Ebenezer Howard Professor of Planning at the University of Hertfordshire. His research and teaching interests include community planning, rural planning and planning for housing.

1. Introduction - Olivier Sykes and John Sturzaker

2. The (housing) numbers game - Richard J. Dunning and Tom Moore

3. Localism: the peccadillos of a panacea - John Sturzaker and Olivier Sykes

4. Planning at the ‘larger than local’ scale: where next? - Alexander Nurse

5. PD games: death comes to planning - Richard J. Dunning, Alex Lord and Mark Smith

6. Building beauty? Place and housing quality in the planning agenda - Manuela Madeddu

7. Zoning in or zoning out? Lessons from Europe - Sebastian Dembski and Phil O’Brien

8. Planning and the Environment in England, 2010–22: cutting ‘green crap’, Brexit and environmental crises - Richard Cowell, Thomas B. Fischer and Urmila Jha Thakur

9. Stuck on infrastructure? Planning for transformative effects of transport infrastructure - Chia-Lin Chen

10. Conclusion - John Sturzaker and Olivier Sykes