ABSTRACT
Major water resource developments may be the most striking and newsworthy manifestation of demand forecasting, but consideration of the linkages between the water industry and the planning and development process necessitates a smaller scale and more localised analysis of likely demand figures. The conclusions contained in this paper are derived from an examination of the relationship between the water industry and the planning and development process and the controls that operate upon it (Bell, forthcoming). The first stage of this research project looked in detail at the area served by the Southern Water Authority (particularly the more rural parts), and the liaison that surrounded the production of formal local and water authority plans and strategies, and individual applications for development; later stages have considered the role of development interests, and the control of water authority finance exercised by central government. This last factor is a crucial determinant of the room left for manoeuvre at the local planning level, and has been examined for all ten Regional Water Authorities (RWAs) in England and Wales. This also provided the opportunity to compare the Southern Water Authority situation with respect to local planning issues to that existing elsewhere.
