ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how planning control may be used to regulate the occupancy of new housing and how planning control may, in the future, be used to restrict the number of existing dwellings becoming second homes. The inability of the planning system to respond to broader social problems in rural areas has resulted in high levels of political and community frustration, and the emergence of opposition to the way in which the statutory planning process should be operated. In particular, the increasing recognition by the British courts of affordable housing needs as a material planning consideration has moved the debate on at a positive pace. The British planning system is positive, not negative. In contrast, Labour claimed to have a policy package which would create sufficient funding for the voluntary sector and reform housing finance in such a way as to bring home ownership within the grasp of a great many more households.
