ABSTRACT
The development of most urban areas is influenced, to some degree, by the processes of urban policy and urban planning. In this chapter we examine the nature and operation of urban policy and planning in the UK, Europe and the USA from its origins in the nineteenth century until the present day. Urban planning and urban policy are concerned with the management of urban change. They are state activities that seek to influence the distribution and operation of investment and consumption processes in cities for the 'common good'. However, it is important to recognise that urban policy is not confined to activity at the urban scale. National and international economic and social policies are as much urban policy, if defined by their urban impacts, as is land-use planning or urban redevelopment. In effect, urban policy is often made under another name. Urban policy and planning are dynamic activities whose formulation and interpretation are a continuing process. Measures introduced cause changes that may resolve some problems but create others, for which further policy and planning are required. Furthermore, only rarely is there a simple, optimum solution to an urban problem. More usually a range of policy and planning options exists from which an informed choice must be made1 (Box 8.1).
