Assessment 2: Individual Essay

Choose ONE question from the following list and (unless otherwise specified) answer in the form of a 2000-word essay.

You are expected to write a critical essay which is informed by wider reading. The essay will constitute 75% 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 Outline (for general reading), the online Reading List and weekly lecture slides.

Assessment and feedback will take into account:

• Understanding of the role of the state and how government is organised
• Ability to reflect critically on planning issues and evaluate them with reference to wider concepts and understandings of political and planning contexts
• Ability to work individually to develop coherent critical understandings, analyses and evaluations
• Ability to construct a clear argument, supported by appropriate use of literature
• Ability to reference sources clearly and appropriately

You should strive to ensure that your written English is as clear and precise as possible and should provide references to justify any facts or explanations that are not your own

A variance of 10% above or below the 2000-word limit is acceptable, but greater or lower than this may incur a marking penalty.

1. ‘Thanks to our planning system, we have nowhere near enough homes in the right places’ (Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in Foreword to White Paper: Planning for the Future, 2020)

   To what extent do you agree that the planning system is responsible for a lack of housing in the right places?

2. “The UK is the most centralised country of its size in the developed world and this has led to many flawed policy choices” (IPPR North, 2019, Divided and Connected: Regional Inequalities in the North, the UK and the Developed World)
   Evaluate the extent to which local government in England is enabled or hindered by central government and its actions, referring in particular to the activity of spatial planning
3. 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?
   * Why might decision making structures be different in the two countries?

    

4. “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, Barker Review of Land Use Planning Interim Report)

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

5. ‘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.

6. How far would you agree with the proposition that central government’s planning policy is pursuing its first priority of increasing housing land supply at the cost of all other planning considerations?
7. The independent review of CIL and its relationship with Section 106 planning obligations, published alongside this White Paper, found that the current system is not as fast, simple, certain or transparent as originally intended'. White Paper: Fixing Our Broken Housing Market, February 2017

   How strong is the case for reform of Section 106 planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy in order to ensure a fast, transparent, but effective approach to securing developer contributions to  infrastructure provision?

8. “[extending Permitted Development Rights], including the ability to demolish and rebuild on existing sites – if implemented without significant safeguards – will lock in more unacceptable standard development, the consequences of which we will live with for generations or must rectify later at greater expense” (Letter to Robert Jenrick MP from RTPI, RIBA, RICS and CIOB, 2020)

   To what extent have changes to permitted development rights in England over the past 10 years stimulated the building of greater numbers of good quality homes?