ABSTRACT
The pressure to evaluate the performance and outcomes of the UK land use planning system has grown. Developers have increasingly argued that the planning system imposes considerable burden upon them. This chapter focuses on the difficulties in developing a methodology to assess whether the land use planning system has achieved its objectives. It also focuses on research undertaken by the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge for the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions. The aim of the research was to develop a methodology that would produce an indicators package to evaluate the extent to which the land use planning system is effective in realising its objectives. Statements of policy that contain policy objectives are often not in a form that makes it easy to isolate the key information needed to develop indicators. The most important product delivered by the planning system is the decision on an application for planning permission i.e. the development control decision.
