The Value of Planning

Executive Summary Introduction Much recent planning policy and reform has been informed by the view that planning inhibits economic growth. value of planning, focusing primarily on economic and financial value, while recognising the importance of broader social and environmental value. Remarkably, given the debates around planning reform in the UK, it represents the only recent and wide-ranging review of research regarding the economic value of planning. In conducting this review, the researchers have drawn on UK and international evidence and examples. Who should read this? This report should be of interest to policy-makers, decision-makers and practitioners in planning in the UK and internationally, and researchers and commentators interested in planning and growth. The report adopts an inclusive understanding of planning, and so is applicable across the whole of the UK (and indeed internationally) despite the increasing divergence between statutory planning processes in the different nations within the UK. Where the argument specifically refers to one part of the UK, this is made explicit. 1. Any assessment of the economic value of planning needs to be clear about what is meant by 'planning' and 'value'. Planning is a much broader activity than the narrow regulatory role to which it is relegated by many economists and some politicians. Planning helps to create the kinds of places where people want to live, work, relax and invest – often termed 'shaping places'. Planning is about improving places by helping them to function better economically as well as socially and environmentally. Planning is then about outcomes, not just processes. This broad definition means that infrastructure provision and town centre management are as much part of planning as development plans and development management. It follows that planning is not always done by people called 'planners'. In terms of 'place promotion', for example, it could be a local authority but equally a public sector development agency, a public-private development partnership, a private sector consortium or even an individual entrepreneur. More broadly, government at various levels or other agencies may be responsible for aspects of planning. 2. In order to achieve this, planning can be conceptualised as the deployment of various policy instruments intended to shape, regulate and stimulate the behaviour of 'market actors' and to build their capacity to do so (these market actors may be in the public as well as private sector). The four sets of policy instruments that comprise planning are described below. 3. …