At the end of The purpose of planning I suggested that there were three main take-home messages. The first highlighted that change in the built environment is driven by the dynamics of private sector development markets and that the role and outcomes of planning processes need to be seen in the context of such economic dynamics. The second was that public engagement is difficult for structural as well as political reasons and not always likely to meet the promises and expectations of practitioners and theorists. And the third was that planning needs to be about achieving a better environment for people to live in and, because of the inevitable tensions between public and private interests, the focus in planning debates needs to move away from an emphasis on process to consideration of such substantive matters. Sustainability was evoked as a good measure of such an improved living environment, with its emphasis on livelihood, quality of life and environmental protection of well-being.

The conclusion considered – quite briefly – how livelihood, quality of life and well-being might differ under a more sustainable future, and specifically considered the possibility that this future would have to be a lower growth one. It used the insights of Tim Jackson's book Prosperity without growth to suggest what that future might look like –a heavier emphasis on services rather than production and consumption of material goods, better protection of environments and ecosystems and a focus on happiness and well-being rather than the pursuit of GDP (gross domestic product, the common measure of economic growth).

The book was completed before the financial crises of 2008 onwards precipitated us into a recession. This new book takes up some of the themes of The purpose of planning and reconsiders them in the light of current and future low economic growth, looking in more detail at how urban change can occur without the engine of growth and the driving involvement of private development markets. It spells out the reforms that will be needed if the planning system is to play a positive role in supporting people's well-being under these conditions, suggesting specific shifts in national planning policy guidance, different emphases in local planning and a renewed attention to how planning regulation works.