ABSTRACT
The British town and country planning system is one of the most sophisticated and complex planning systems in the world. It explores the development of public participation in the planning system from a housing studies perspective. Public participation is a multidisciplinary field of research that emerged in the 1980s and which has drawn from all social sciences to study the three dimensions of housing as dwellings, locality, and households. A committee on public participation in planning was appointed in March 1968 'to consider and report on the best methods, including publicity, of securing the participation of the public at the formative stage in the making of development plans for their area'. The growing importance of public participation in planning the local environment was reflected in the 1968 urban programme and the subsequent 12 community development programmes that placed renewed emphasis on the need to engage with local communities.
