ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature of planning intervention in the market. Confidence in markets is founded on the ability of the price mechanism to distribute supply in relation to demand, with it achieving the function more efficiently, effectively and equally than alternative methods of social coordination and distribution. Faith in the market to deliver a social policy objective like near full employment was one central feature of neo classical economics. Complexity theory rejects the notion of a market equilibrium and an inherent price stability. The most obvious examples of public goods are those goods that are nonexcludable and non-rivalrous, because by their nature they are accessible to others, for example parks and roads. Market costing of social care facilities starts with an understanding of the monetary concepts involved. Within the public sector the move from bureaucratic structures to market structures has much to do with a new prioritisation of what social and economic values are important.
