ABSTRACT
In terms of urban settlement, Britain is a much older country than the USA, and thus has a longer history of settlement form being influenced by considerations such as the ability to defend (in the military sense) key buildings or locations, in the manner described in Chapter 3. Because British settlements are often influenced by historic layout patterns even where no or few artefacts remain, this can have a direct effect on contemporary urban form; an example would be the centre of a town or city where the medieval street plan and associated building layout still dominate, even though few if any original medieval buildings remain. Large areas of British cities face major decisions about the re-use of land rather than decisions about further outward expansion; and as we have seen from Chapter 7 this is now reflected in British Government policy, with its requirement for at least 60 per cent of development to meet the needs of anticipated new household formation over the next few years to be on previously used urban land. Even some British suburbs are by now becoming quite venerable, although this should not be taken as implying that no new development is taking place on greenfield sites; a target of 60 per cent of development on previously used urban land still implies that 40 per cent of development will take place on land that does not fall into this category.
