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This paper focuses on the contentious transition to viability-driven planning in England, whereby development viability and the potential for land value capture dominate the work of planning. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in London and the north east of England, the paper reflects on the variable outcomes and challenges in places with different development markets, political cultures, development histories and capacities for action. It finds that viability-driven planning is further entrenching already existing spatial disparities and inequalities and draws conclusions about the state of English urban policy in the context of a broader shift towards the marketisation of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combination of development constraint, low wages in seasonal employment and market intrusion by more affluent households generates housing access and affordability difficulties in many rural amenity areas. In response, residents' groups and public planners have sometimes sought to prioritise 'local needs', restricting the occupancy of new housing to key workers or others deemed 'local'. Drawing on examples from England, this paper illustrates how these down-stream interventions are often rendered ineffective by the upstream and structural drivers of housing access inequality, revealing a need for up-stream reforms focused on community control of land and the tax treatment of housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]