ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews the foundations of urban planning and the central position of land use controls within it. It explore some of the specific challenges associated with urban land use regulation in developing countries, highlighting the colonial origins of planning and regulatory tools 'imported' from high-income countries. The Shenzhen government tried to introduce some basic regulations for construction in urban villages, fearing chaos in the context of rapid in-migration. Turner spoke of 'housing as a verb' and argued strongly that if the urban poor were given security of tenure and a plot of decent land they would incrementally achieve for themselves respectable housing. Since 2005, the government of Ethiopia has been implementing its Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP), an ambitious government-led programme targeted at low- and middle-income city-dwellers. This programme was conceived against a backdrop of exceptionally poor housing quality in Ethiopia's urban areas, over 80 per cent of whom were living in areas classed as slums by UN-HABITAT.
