Planning in a Failing State
Reforming Spatial Governance in England
Edited by Olivier Sykes and John Sturzaker
Published
May 20, 2025Page count
202 pagesISBN
978-1447365051Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Nov 23, 2023Page count
202 pagesISBN
978-1447365044Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Nov 23, 2023Page count
202 pagesISBN
978-1447365068Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Nov 23, 2023Page count
202 pagesISBN
978-1447365068Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy Press
Planning in a Failing State
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.
"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
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
