Learning from the UK: Towards Market-oriented Land-use Planning in Finland

Abstract

This article describes the paradigm shift towards market-orientation currently taking place in Finnish local land-use planning. In general, market-oriented planning means such public-sector planning that is primarily motivated by creating favourable conditions for economic growth and private investment. Local market-oriented planning is justified in terms of better adaptivity to urban complexity, in terms of neoliberalist political ideology, and in terms of economic scarcity. During the Thatcher government in the UK important legislative and administrative changes were made that led to the dismantling of the welfare state and to the redefinition of the public sector as a resource and protector of private sector economic activity. The tasks and methods of local land-use planning were changed accordingly. In Finland these measures have recently been looked upon as exemplary, as our municipalities are searching for a way out of their paralysing economic difficulties. Although the Finnish and UK municipal organisations are not readily comparable, we may use the reported experiences of the neoliberalist turn in UK local policy-making in our attempts to anticipate the future development of the Finnish municipality and especially Finnish local land-use planning. The comparison between the Finnish and UK local planning practices is made on the basis of Brindley, Rydin and Stoker's categorisation of three market-led planning styles: trend planning; leverage planning; and private management planning. Trend planning, and especially leverage planning, are relevant and increasingly popular in the Finnish context.