Land supply and housing: A case-study

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of land rise planning controls on the supply, price and type of dwellings provided. It first reviews how the role of planning is viewed in Britain. It then examines the literature on both methodologies and outcomes to clarify which relationships are well documented and the merits of an eclectic approach to measuring these effects. The next two sections set out our hypotheses about the different effects that planning may generate and how these were tested within the context of local markets in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. The final section draws out some conclusions about the mechanisms by which planning controls operate to affect the housing market and some implications for policy.