A short history of planning
The town and country planning system shapes new buildings all over the country. It can protect the countryside from sprawl, and it gives everyone a chance to have their say.
The planning system we have in England today originated fro mthe industrial and agricultural revolutions that began in the 1700s. Before then, most people lived and worked in the countryside. However, as industry began to grow and agriculture became, mechanised, people began to move from the countryside to the expanding towns and cities, in the hope of finding better wages and an escape from poverty.
The towns and cities grew rapidly. Housing was built cheaply and quickly, with little thought for the comforts or levels of sanitation that we take for granted today.
Planning by public authorities was first used as a tool for improving the health of the working population in the Victorian era, the reasoning being that improved health for the workers would enable them to work harder!
At the turn of the century, legislation continued to improve conditions for the industrial work force. The Garden Cities movement was formed on the principle that: by so laying out a Garden City that, as it grows, the free gifts of Nature - fresh air, sunlight, breathing room and playing room shall steill be retained in all needed abundance.
However, with all the new housing, the rise of the motor car and continued industrial development, the countryside was coming under increasing pressure. Between 1919 and 1939 over 4,000,000 new homes were built, the majority on green fields, and advertising hoardings sprang up unregulated across the landscape.
In response to this threat, there was a recognition for planning controls to be extended to cover the countryside as well as towns. In 1926 the Council for the Preservation of Rural England was formed (later renamed the Campaign to Protect Rural England). As pressure was put on the Government to take action, two important Acts of Parliament were passed.
- The Town and Country Planning Act (1932) was the first legislation to accept the desirability of countryside rural planning
- The Restriction of Ribbon Development Act (1935) aimed to prevent the sprawl of towns and cities across the countryside.
The end of World War II brought consensus over the need for comprehensive planning to rebuild bombed out towns and cities and to help reorganise industry.
The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 introduced the basis of the system we have today. Its main tenet is that local authorities need to complete a local plan, setting out detailed policies and specific proposals for the development and use of land in a district.
Land use would be controlled and planning permission would be required for development.
Reproduced with permission from CPRE Derbyshire's newsletter 2010.
Fiona Cowan
4 May 2010 Back to top