Business and Management

Choose ONE question from the following list and answer in the form of a 2,000 word essay (unless otherwise specified). The essay should be submitted by noon on 20th January 2014.

The essay will constitute 40% of the marks available for the module. It should be based on a discussion of academic and other literature, and should be referenced using the Harvard system (please see student handbook and other guidance on referencing). Further reading can be obtained from the module handout (for general reading) and in individual lecture/topic handouts (for more specialist reading). If you still require further guidance on reading materials, please contact one of the module leaders. Further guidance on the criteria for assessment is at the end of this document.

1. “The British people, almost without knowing it, are embarking upon one of the greatest experiments in the social control of their environment ever attempted by a free society” (The Times, 1948; discussing the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act).

Consider the risk implied by this experiment and comment on its degree of success up to the present day.

2. Spatial planning attempts to manage the play of power between organisations, individuals and others in making planning decisions. Critically assess the theoretical tools which might be used to illuminate such relations.

3. “When people ask me about my priorities in government, I have 3 very clear priorities: localism, and we’ll weave that into everything we do from parks to finance to policy. My second priority is localism, and my third is… localism.”(Eric Pickles, 11 June 2010).
Critically assess how far changes introduced by national government since 2010 have empowered local authorities and communities

4. “Professional planners in development control neither plan nor advise those who plan; isolated from both executive and electorate, they neither innovate nor implement, neither adjudicate nor advocate, but as unseen bureaucrats merely deploy a modicum of common sense (to the extent that central government guidance will permit)”

Assess the validity of this view having regard (among other things) to central government advice on council constitutions.

5. If local politics might be characterised as imperfect pluralism, consider how professional planners might creatively manipulate these imperfections.

6. “Proposals outlined today (4 December 2013) will boost housebuilding and support businesses keen to expand by removing delays from the planning system, stopping burdensome conditions and cutting the costly red tape often faced by applicants.” (DCLG Press Release)

To what extent will proposals to speed up the planning process and ‘cut red tape’ help address the need to build more housing in England?

7. You are asked to consider how the spatial planning system and its practices in England differ from a country with which you are familiar. You should use the following questions to focus your response

• What are the key features of the English planning system and that of the country you are comparing it with?
• Drawing on one case examined during the workshop sessions – how did the mode of decision-making you observed in this case differ from decisions on similar types of cases in your comparison country?
• Why might decision making structures be different in the two countries?

8. “There are tensions between a system where decisions on land use and development are made according to plans of up to 15 to 20 years’ duration, updated every five, and the reality of rapid economic and social change.” (Kate Barker, 2006)

To what extent does the contemporary development plan system address these tensions and how might the system be improved?

9. ‘The development control system has always struggled to balance quality of outcome with administrative efficiency’.

Critically discuss how the English planning system has achieved this balance.

10. “It is important that the Government realises that strategic planning did not begin in 1997, but has been a vital part of our system for over half a century….It is vital to have a level of strategic planning between local councils and national government to ensure proper co-ordination across council boundaries.” (Ann Skippers, RTPI President, 25 May 2010)

To what extent has sub-national planning (i.e. planning at a scale greater than local authority area and less than national area) been a significant feature of planning in England over the past 50 years, and to what extent is such a scale of planning necessary in contemporary England?

11. What might planners in England learn from the evolution of planning in the devolved territories of the UK since 1997?

12. You are a principal planning policy officer working for a large unitary authority embracing a freestanding city and extensive rural hinterland. Three parish councils exist in part of the rural area.
Write a briefing note for the Chief Executive setting out proposals for accommodating neighbourhood planning. Ensure that these proposals cover organization at officer and member level and budgetary implications.

13. The benefits of development should not be instantly and totally vacuumed up by the national Treasury from every community that hosts development, but…much more of it should be kept by the communities themselves – whether through CIL [Community Infrastructure Levy], the New Homes Bonus or…the retention of more of the business rates generated by new development. These benefits – already morally the property of the communities – can be used for all of the purposes of sustainable development: to improve the local economy including by investing in infrastructure; to improve the environment and to improve the social wellbeing of an area. (Greg Clarke MP, June 2011)
Critically discuss this statement with particular regard to who might win and lose from such a system.

14. ‘The Community Infrastructure Levy is just another doomed attempt to tax developers’.

Critically assess this statement, taking into account previous attempts of the planning system to raise finance through charges associated with the award of planning permission.

You will be expected to write a critical essay (or briefing note for Question 12), which is informed by wider reading. Assessment and feedback will take into account:
• Introduction and setting the context for the essay
• Critical assessment of the pertinent issues, including an understanding of the political contexts in which planning practice operates
• Development of the argument
• Use of well-chosen examples to illustrate the contexts in which planning decisions are taken and how planning problems are addressed
• Use of references
• Conclusion
• Overall structure and clarity

 

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