Some Aspects of Planning Law in England

Abstract

PLANNING is a term of wide meaning, and without qualification it is used in connection with practically every form of modern governmental activity. In the present article we are using it, however, in the sense in which it is most often used by the modern lawyer or man of affairs in England, namely, in relation to the planning of town and country, or the control by government agencies of land use. In one sense, in this tight little island, a discussion of planning law can cover a very wide number of topics, including municipal housing law, the law of slum clearance and the compulsory acquisition of land by government agencies, either local or central. However, in order that there may be some limit to our discussion, we are here confining ourselves to the law of town and country planning in its strict sense, namely, the governmental control of land use, in both its restrictive and positive senses. In 1944 this subject was set in the forefront of the reconstruction programme of the coalition government. In a White Paper issued in June, 1944,1 it was said: