ABSTRACT
Land-use planning in Britain is at one of its periodic crossroads. A growing number of separate internal and external forces for change have been gathering around planning during the 1980s. They have already led to significant change such as the abolition of the metropolitan counties and the introduction of urban development corporations, enterprise zones and unitary development plans. There are already suggestions for further change during the 1990s such as the reform of local government, the abolition of structure plans and the externalization of many existing planning functions from the hands of local planning authorities. There can be no doubt that further major changes will take place in planning during the next decade. There is, however, considerable doubt and argument about the purposes and nature of these changes.
