Getting houses built: the role of local authority planners in managing market-led housing delivery

RTPI Student member Qingyuan Guo, at the London School of Economics, will explore how local authority planners work to enhance housing delivery in contexts where delivery depends on private developers operating in high-pressure markets.

Many local authority planners have faced the challenge of making sure housing delivery in their jurisdiction meets the housing delivery test. This challenge is huge. It involves finding ways to design and implement policy in a highly politically sensitive domain. It requires attracting the attention of senior council leadership to gain support for delivery in a context where planners hold limited direct control over staff and financial resources. Most importantly, it involves implementing housing delivery where the actual delivery is made by private developers over whom local authorities have limited control.

This study seeks to discover the possibilities that planners create through creative problem-solving under these immense challenges. The project will study two English local authority cases – Southwark, London and St Albans, Hertfordshire - where demand for housing is high and supply is lagging.

Using Design Recovery in Cases as its methodology, the research will focus on understanding how planners participate in policy processes of local government housing supply strategies. Specifically, it examines how this participation contributes to outcomes favouring successful housing delivery, especially regarding the strategic direction of policies being set and the way implementation is managed.

Qing said: "I’m delighted to have won this funding from the RTPI to conduct this research, which will serve two purposes. First, it will reveal how policy processes actually work and demonstrate the extent to which planners shape delivery outcomes in contexts where they hold limited formal authority. Second, despite the immense challenges, it will reveal how possibilities towards problem-solving can emerge regarding housing delivery due to the creative agency of town planners.”