ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces readers to the system of regulation that has developed to control urban development. From a purely architectural point of view, the control can often seem like bureaucratic nonsense that gets in the way of free expression and realizing the client’s vision. This view is blinkered, however: architecture has a powerful impact that cannot be considered in isolation from policy imperatives. The chapter focuses on the pressures that changed this over time and how Parliament 'stepped in' and eroded the common law rights in order to influence the way the physical environment is used, developed and more recently, preserved. It also focuses on the growth of town planning policy. Traditionally called ‘Town Planning’, the first government interventions were driven by the need to improve the standard and layout of social housing in response to failures of existing housing provision in the fast-growing cities of the late nineteenth century.
