Housing and Planning Reforms Could Lead To Greater Social Inequality

The first report to consider the Government’s housing and planning reforms together has been published by leading planning think-tank, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The report, a ‘Policy analysis of housing and planning reform’, seeks to help the Government align its policy priorities for increasing housing provision, re-balancing the economy and increasing growth within the overall goal of achieving sustainable development. In doing so it raises two major potential social consequences from the reforms as currently set out. Firstly, the report concludes that the long-terms patterns of spatial inequalities in England are likely to be reinforced by a combination of the end of regional planning and policy and an incentive scheme for housing which rewards high-market-demand areas. This may have long-term implications for the distribution of England’s population. Secondly, there will be shorter-term impacts on a significant number of low-income households which may intensify social segregation. Download the report from the TCPA website.