ABSTRACT
The Town and Country Planning Act 1943 made the planning provisions of the 1932 Act mandatory over the whole country (previously the obligation to prepare Town Planning Schemes applied only to local authorities of over 20,000 population). Thus the ground was laid for the comprehensive post-war planning system introduced by the Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947. Historic buildings and conservation were, of course, only a small component of the post-war planning legislation but those two Acts began the process of establishing the system of conservation that exists today. It was, however, a faltering start and it took another twenty years to complete the structure.
