Budgets, bureaucrats and the containment of Urban England

Abstract

Following the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, a persistent policy of urban containment has been pursued throughout rural England. In spite of growing evidence of the significant external costs resulting from this policy, there is little sign that government agencies are considering the possibility of a serious policy re‐think. This article provides a public choice analysis of bureaucratic incentives within the British land use planning system and their relationship to urban containment. The empirical evidence presented suggests that incentives within planning agencies are heavily skewed towards budget maximisation and that the continued emphasis on urban containment owes more to bureaucratic expansionism than it does to selfless public concern.