ABSTRACT
Inevitably this chapter is highly selective in the material it covers, and this opens it up to the charge of bias. It may well be the case that in some respects the greater influence of ‘market forces’ which has stemmed from the implementation of neo-liberal politics and policies has had demonstrably positive effects. But the main thrust of the chapter is that in most human terms, and even by a number of strictly economic criteria, the overall impact of New Rightist policies on the built environment has been adverse. It is reasonable to hypothesise that as a result the promotion of new built environment for profit-seeking purposes has become more important in relation to promotion driven primarily by ‘social’ considerations. There have been a number of immediate effects on public budgets. The LDDC’s brief from government was apparently something like ‘build as much as possible and the bigger the better’.
