ABSTRACT

This chapter locates the practice of negotiating planning agreements in the context of the changing nature of the planning system in Britain today. In the early postwar period, planning agreements, like development control itself, were treated as a minor aspect of planning implementation. The primary emphasis in the discussion of planning was on determining the strategy and content of the plan. The plan was expected to provide the overall framework within which development activity, both public and private, would take place. Physical, environmental and social infrastructures, such as highways, water resources, urban green spaces and community facilities, were funded by the public sector, as a claim on national and local taxation.