The author argues that power is being exercised by rural elites to prevent much-needed new housing being built in the English countryside. Evidence is presented from five case-study local authorities in rural England, via analysis of interview data and policy documents produced at the regional and local plan-making level. Technocratic explanations for the ongoing failure of the planning system to deliver more housing in line with the well-established need/demand for such are rejected. Drawing on the three dimensions of power presented by Lukes, the author explores how the exercise of power effectively subverts planning processes and leads overwhelmingly to decisions being made which favour the exclusionary preferences of certain groups.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ARHC, 2006Final ReportAffordable Rural Housing Commission and Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, London
2.
Audit Commission, National Audit Office, 2005Building More Affordable Homes: Improving the Delivery of Affordable Housing in Areas of High Demand (The Stationery Office, London)
3.
BachrachPBaratzM S, 1962, “Two faces of power”The American Political Science Review56947–952
BestRShucksmithM, 2006Homes for Rural Communities: Report of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Rural Housing Policy Forum (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York)
6.
BramleyGWatkinsD, 2009, “Affordability and supply: the rural dimension”Planning, Practice and Research24185–210
7.
CliffordB PWarrenC R, 2005, “Development and the environment: perception and opinion in St Andrews, Scotland”Scottish Geographical Journal121355–384
8.
ClokeP J, 1979Key Settlements in Rural Areas (Methuen, London)
9.
CoombesM, 2009, “English rural housing market policy: some inconvenient truths?”Planning, Practice and Research24211–231
10.
CPRE, 2008, “Urgent—reply by July 2008” (letter requesting funding), The Campaign to Protect Rural England
11.
CRC, 2006Calculating Housing Needs in Rural EnglandCommission for Rural Communities, Cheltenham, Glos
12.
CRC, 2008The State of the Countryside 2008Commission for Rural Communities, Cheltenham, Glos
13.
CRE, 2006Statutory Code of Practice on Racial Equality in HousingCommission for Racial Equality, London
14.
DahlR, 1961Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT)
15.
DCLG, 2006Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing Department of Communities and Local Government (The Stationery Office, London)
16.
DearM, 1992, “Understanding and overcoming the Nimby syndrome”Journal of the American Planning Association58288–300
17.
FaircloughN, 2001Language and Power (Longman, Harlow, Essex)
18.
FarthingSAshleyK, 2002, “Negotiations and the delivery of affordable housing through the English planning system”Planning, Practice and Research1745–58
19.
GallentNTewdwr-JonesM, 2007Decent Homes for All—Planning's Evolving Role in Housing Provision (Routledge, London)
20.
GiddensA, 1984The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Polity Press, Cambridge)
21.
HallPGraceyHDrewittRThomasR, 1973The Containment of Urban England (Allen and Unwin, London)
HubbardP, 2005, “‘Inappropriate and incongruous’: opposition to asylum centres in the English countryside”Journal of Rural Studies213–17
27.
LukesS, 2005Power: A Radical View2nd edition (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants)
28.
MilbourneP, 1997, “Housing conflict and domestic property classes in rural Wales”Environment and Planning A2943–62
29.
MonkSCrookTListerDRowleySShortCWhiteheadC, 2005Land and Finance for Affordable Housing: The Complementary Roles of SHG and the Provision of Affordable Housing through the Planning System (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York)
30.
MurdochJLoweP, 2003, “The preservationist paradox: modernism, environmentalism and the politics of spatial division”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series28318–332
WhiteheadCMonkSListerDShortCCrookTHenneberryJRowleyS, 2005The Value for Money of Delivering Affordable Housing through Section 106Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
50.
WoodsM, 2005Contesting Rurality: Politics in the British Countryside (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants)
51.
YarwoodR, 2002, “Parish councils, partnership and governance: the development of ‘exceptions’ housing in the Malvern Hills District, England”Journal of Rural Studies18275–291
