Is Zoning the Solution to the UK Housing Crisis?

ABSTRACT

Although housing crises are rooted in both demand-side pressures and supply-side blockages, perceived regulatory impediments to building new homes are the softest target for policy reform.  Critics argue that the English planning system’s case-by-case consideration of development applications hands excessive power to existing homeowners, who regularly veto those applications, thereby generating uncertainty for the development sector, impeding supply, and amplifying wealth inequalities.  Drawing on interviews with planning and development actors, this paper explores the potential of rules-based zoning, in which consultation is restricted to plan-making and compliant applications proceed ‘automatically’, to address the supply sub-component of the housing crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Rules-based zoning
• case-by-case permissioning
• housing supply
• England

Acknowledgements

This article draws on research funded by the Royal Town Planning Institute. Additional support was provided by UCL Grand Challenges.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Royal Town Planning Institute and UCL Grand Challenges.