The Best Laid Plans: How planning prevents economic growth.You can download the report here [PDF].
In three previous publications the report's authors, Alan W. Evans and Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, have shown that most of the problems with the housing market - low supply, high prices, overcrowding - can be attributed to the planning system. They conclude in this report that the main objective of planning has been to limit the spatial extent of cities and that this artificial reduction of land supply has severe consequences for society, the environment and the economy.
LINKS: The Best Laid Plans: How planning prevents economic growth - Policy Exchange [52-page PDF]
Message to planners: "Don't fence me in!" - Not PC
'Sustainable' cities are unaffordable cities - Not PC
RELATED POSTS ON: Sprawl, Housing, Urban Design, Politics-UK, Sustainability
1 comment:
I spent 2 years working amongst planners in a major regional authority in the mid-60's.
Whenever one of the many private residential subdivision requests came in for comment from the local authority, these planners would chortle with glee that the application could be declined because of the many "restraints" dreamed up by these little Hitlers: These were for instance 1. encroaching on farm land, 2. too close to the airport, 3.low lying areas with bad drainage, 4. building on the surrounding hills would spoil the skyline for those living on the flat; etc etc.
The whole process was just a game to see how much housing development could be stymied. I left my engineering job at this authority sickened by the attitude of the planners, playing their little game with people's development ambitions.
It was the rigid artificial "urban fence" concept that seemed to justify their professional lives, even back then well before the RMA.
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