The argument of the book

There is a wealth of literature on planning that has identified weaknesses, limitations and areas for reform. The critical nature of planning research ensures this. The inability of the system to deal with social inequality and environmental injustice has been repeatedly commented on, and this book is another contribution to this ongoing debate. However, the last three chapters have pointed to a wide range of initiatives that are already happening and that suggest a different way forward, as well as avenues for further reform. Together they may constitute a more resilient form of planning in situations of economic downturn and low growth, and may also offer possibilities to low-income communities for improving their quality of life and developing more environmentally sustainable localities, possibilities that are not delivered on by growth-dependent planning. They could, therefore, underpin a revised planning agenda for just sustainability. But to be effective they require a different structure of policy guidance and a new set of planning tools. The role of community engagement also needs to be rethought and widened. The purpose of this chapter is to flesh out some key elements of this different paradigm.

In offering this revised approach, it is important to emphasise that these reforms are not intended to completely displace the growth-dependent planning that has been critiqued in this book. Hopefully it has been demonstrated that growth dependence has significant flaws, particularly as a way of ensuring that all groups in society have equal access to an environment that meets their needs, provides a good quality of life and contributes to sustainability. This is the case even when the underlying economic conditions for growth-dependent planning are present; some groups always get left behind or are displaced by the outcomes. But in conditions of low economic growth – nationally, regionally or locally – it is even more important to develop a different approach that is not reliant on growth to deliver benefits.

However, this does not mean that growth-dependent planning has no place at all within the planning system. There will be times and places where considerable social benefits and environmental protection or enhancement can be generated from facilitating private sector development and using a share of development profits to meet a variety of goals.