ABSTRACT
In 1913 a leader in the Town Planning Review said of the 1909 Act that ‘few Acts of Parliament have created such universal appreciative interest and been launched with such promises of success’. The 1929 Local Government Act included a putative broadening of the scope of the planning process by requiring county councils to be involved in negotiation and consultation about planning schemes and by empowering the Minister of Health to force the creation of joint, inter-authority, planning committees. In many ways, planning was more effective in the period 1909-19 than it was in the period 1919-39. Between 1923 and 1934 the number of insured workers in south-eastern England rose by 44 per cent. The Scott Committee concerned itself with rural decline in two senses. Firstly, in the decline of agriculture as an industry. Secondly, in the decline of the countryside both in total area and in aesthetic beauty. The idea of rural planning owed a great deal to Abercrombie.
