Conclusion: Why Plan?

Abstract

Chapter 16 may have left the reader a bit depressed! Certainly British planning has had its successes but the chapter catalogues profound criticisms of the planning system: its weaknesses; its lack of desired effects; its tendency to generate unintended and inappropriate outcomes. This discussion may leave the reader wondering ‘why bother to have a planning system at all?’. This chapter concludes the assessment of the British planning system by addressing the question of ‘why plan?’.