Planned Out: The Discriminatory Effects of Planning’s Regulation of Small Houses in Multiple Occupation in England

Abstract

Some claim that planning has a “dark” side which is expressed in policies and practices that disadvantage minorities and less powerful groups. This article explores how revisions to an aspect of English planning legislation, plus the linked adoption by local planning authorities of “restrictive” development policies, may disproportionately affect the housing choices of young, lower-income adults. Combining documentary research, secondary data analysis and Yiftachel’s conceptual framework of “planning as social control,” it examines how the legislation and policy might limit the supply of an accommodation type popular with this group, and the resulting social, political and economic effects. The implications for planning theory and practice are considered.