No abstract

The author argues that power is being exercised by rural elites to prevent much-needed new housing being built in the English countryside. Evidence is presented from five case-study local authorities in rural England, via analysis of interview data and policy documents produced at the regional and local plan-making level. Technocratic explanations for the ongoing failure of the planning system to deliver more housing in line with the well-established need/demand for such are rejected. Drawing on the three dimensions of power presented by Lukes, the author explores how the exercise of power effectively subverts planning processes and leads overwhelmingly to decisions being made which favour the exclusionary preferences of certain groups.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence Newcastle University ePrints -eprint.ncl.ac.uk Davoudi S, Sturzaker J. Urban form, policy packaging and sustainable urban metabolism.

The UK Government claimed that its 2011 Localism Act would shift power (back) to local communities and neighbourhoods so that they can manage their affairs in their own interests. One of the principal ways this was intended to happen was through the production of Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs). In this paper we use a longitudinal case study of the first NDP to be adopted to analyse the extent to which it meets the expectations placed upon this new element of the English planning system, and consequently the implications for the success or otherwise of 'localism' more broadly. We explore issues including the legitimacy of localist planning processes, the capacity of communities to take the opportunities open to them, and the extent to which higher tiers of governance can frame and constrain the activities of lower tiers.