The book's argument

Well, the book has gone off to the publisher and is scheduled to be out in September. So what is its key argument? Planning has, I contend, become explicitly dependent on the promotion of growth and market-led urban development. This can work in some situations: it requires an underlying pressure of economic growth, effective regulation through the planning system (and a willingness on the part of planning authorities to negotiate for broader community benefits) and support by local communities. However, there are two major problems with such an overwhelming dependence on market-led development to deliver on public policy goals. First, as we are all too acutely aware at present, economic growth cannot be taken as a given. Even where national economic growth has returned to positive figures of several percentage points, there will always be areas that are suffering from a lack of demand and growth. What kind of planning should operate in these areas and during periods of general downturn? Second, there are significant concerns about the environmental and social consequences of growth-dependent planning. It is not clear that this approach will lead to resource efficiency and social equity. So a new agenda is proposed - drawing on the concept of just sustainability- and the book explores elements of an alternative planning approach. This encompasses different types of development model (including community-based development), ways of protecting and enhancing areas with low economic value as measured by rents and property prices (areas that often play an important function for lower-income communities) and community ownership and management of common assets. The final chapter discusses how these two approaches to planning can be combined and sets out in detail the reforms to the planning system that will be necessary to make space for planning beyond growth-dependence.