ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have dealt with general concerns: we began this book by establishing that the key issues in planning for housing relate to general housing supply and affordability, and to sustainability, which embraces the issues of design and density. In Chapter 4 we presented a broader picture of key housing debates and introduced the issue of ‘housing numbers’, how these are calculated and why they are viewed as important. In the last chapter, the focus was placed on the power of LPAs to influence housing design and density, and to procure affordable housing through the development control process. We have alluded to different scales of concern – to the calculation of housing demand at the national and regional levels; and to the exercising of development control powers at the local level. There has also been some reference to issues that are more critical at different levels or that affect urban or rural areas differently. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a more detailed ‘spatial’ account of these various issues, centring on strategic and local housing issues. Concerns centring on housing numbers, density and design, and affordability are revisited in the context of three case studies, and concerned with debates and events pre-dating the Barker Review and the 2004 Planning Act.
