Using examples, explain the extent to which local planning authorities Essay

Using examples, explain the extent to which local planning authorities can and do meet the requirements for producing locally distinct plans, that satisfy both - Essay Example Market forces determined the use of land and what if anything was built upon it rather than the wishes of local communities and the central government. If landowners found that their land was most profitably used for agricultural purposes then it would remain as agricultural land, if it made the more money being used for residential or retail properties it would serve such purposes.1 The forerunners of local planning authorities began to emerge with the Town and Country Planning Act of 1925, despite the majority of planning decisions usually being left to individual local authorities to be enforced. The usefulness of the early local planning authorities was restricted by the harsher economic conditions that dominated much of the inter-war period. The active use of town and country planning by the equivalent of local planning authorities was thus limited in use except by local authority building council houses.2 Local planning authorities began to come into their own with the expansion of council house construction, local communities wanted more housing and central government decided it also wanted greater levels of social housing nationally. Council housing schemes were not a post-war innovation, as they had originally began in the 1920s. However council house construction due to a shortage of public funds had been restricted. After 1945 the Atlee government sanctioned and funded the building of millions of council houses as a vital component of post-war reconstruction, that also increased the availability of socially provided affordable housing.3 The era of post-war reconstruction was the raison d’Ã ªtre for the largest programmes of publicly funded construction in Britain, and the extensive use of local planning authorities to complete those projects. Unprecedented levels of public expenditure were needed due to the sheer scale of reconstruction required as a consequence of wartime bomb damage. Town planning and local planning authorities were