ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the governance of house building from a de-centred perspective with its implications for urban housing. It begins by reviewing the connections between a decentred theory of governance and socio-legal studies. Socio-legal studies focuses on the interaction between law and social behaviour. The total number of homes being built today in England is significantly less than the total number built in earlier generations. Shifting the scalar geometry has been a key governance tool in house building regulation. In planning for house building, it is the interplay between actors, particularly national and local government, neighbourhoods, and developers that is of interest. Scale in the house building context may have idealist underpinnings yet in governance terms they are materially produced. The local authorities are required to determine planning applications yet they are governed at a distance to reach their decisions.
