ABSTRACT
The main points to emphasize in the British urban land market are the discretionary planning system and private land assembly. These tend to give rise to the following features or characteristics: land banking; flexibility; development outside the plan; speculation; and negotiation. Concern about the provision of housing land was the motivation for the first United Kingdom planning legislation and has been one of the long-running issues in British planning. Land is allocated in all local plans and there is a strong public policy commitment to ensuring that sufficient land is available for the private housing market. The chapter offers some concluding remarks on the evaluation of the British property system in respect of the aims or desirable characteristics of urban land and property markets identified when work on the five-country project for the German government began.
