Private Residential Expansion in Kent 1956-64: a Study of Pattern and Process in Urban Growth

Abstract

This article examines the residential growth of part of the London Metropolitan Region in which the private developer has been the main supplier of housing over the last decade. American studies suggest that changes in the spatial and temporal patterns of private residential development are associated with changes in the size structure of the housebuilding industry. Therefore data from planning applications in Kent was used to discover variations in the size of sites and the type of house being built, and in the types of developer involved.

A clear trend towards larger sites and more medium density house types was found to be closely linked with the growing importance of large non-local developers throughout the county. The implications of these trends for land-use planners are discussed. Geographical dispersal of housebuilding seems an important element in the behaviour of developers. While the land market is of explanatory value in this respect, the variety of response to the same structural situation requires consideration of both the resources and values of the development companies themselves.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

'Report of the Committee on Housing in Greater London', Cmd. 2605, H.M.S.O., March 1965.

Rex J. and Moore R. , Race, Community and Conflict, I.R.R., Oxford University Press, 1967.

Donnison, D.V. , The Government of Housing, Penguin 1967 .

Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Housing Statistics, No. 5, April 1967, H.M.S.O.

South-east Economic Planning Council , A Strategy for the South-east, H.M.S.O., 1967, Annex C, Tables 4 and 11.

White Paper, Town and Country Planning, Cmd. 3333, H.M.S.O. , June 1967.

' For a full discussion see Craven, E.A. and Pahl, R.E. , 'Residential Expansion: a preliminary assessment of the role of the private developer in the South-east', Journal of the Town Planning Institute, Vol. 53, No. 4, April 1967.

Delafons, J. , 'Land Use Controls in the United States', Report to the Joint Centre for Urban Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962; and Cowan, P. , 'Developing Patterns of Urbanisation', Paper to the S.S.R.C./C.E.S. Joint Weekend Conference, July 1968.

Maisel, S.J. , Housebuilding in Transition: Based on Studies in the San Francisco Bay Area , University of California Press, 1953 .

10.

Wolfe, M.R. , 'Locational Factors involved in Suburban Land Development', unpublished Report to the Weyerhauser Company from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington, 1961.

11.

Kaiser, E.J. , Toward a model of Residential Developer Locational Behaviour, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1966.

12.

Hertzog, J.P. , 'The Dynamics of Large-scale Housebuilding', Research Report 22, Real Estate Research Program, Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California, Berkeley, 1963.

13.

Stone, P.A. , 'The Prices of Building Sites in Britain', in Hall, P. (ed.), Land Values, Sweet and Maxwell , 1965.

14.

For detailed statistical information see 'Report on the Survey and Analysis; Part 4 Vols. 1-4', Kent Development Plan Quinquennial Review 1963.

15.

For a full discussion see Penrose , E.T. , The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1966.