ABSTRACT
Most housing today is built speculatively, some for owner occupation and rental, but much for investment and as vessels for wealth-creation. Housing is deeply embedded in the wider national and global economy. This chapter explores the implications for ‘planning for housing’ arising from this context. It charts the development of national policy, and examines attempts to align planning more closely to ‘market realities’ from the mid-2000s onwards, and the different strategic and development planning approaches and tools employed to achieve this goal. It ends by looking at planning’s influence relative to market trajectories and the system’s struggle to achieve its social objectives given the overriding economic function of housing today.
