ABSTRACT
This chapter defines the purpose of planning and the characteristics of the British Statutory System and then to look at the various roles which local authorities are adopting towards city planning and management. It assesses the joint contributions of economic and physical development planning; planning for work and planning for land. The terms planning and planner are used in many contexts. Often they are used as 'aerosol' descriptions, sprayed on anything that has gone wrong. When planning works it goes unnoticed as the natural order of things or as the market being allowed to operate. There are many sorts of planning, from family through to fiscal. The chapter looks more closely at the characteristics of Economic Development Initiatives and then at the purpose of physical Development Planning. The Planning Exchange has, since 1981, run a Local Economic Development Information Service (LEDIS).
