Home Search Sitemap Contact Bookmark

Free Dissertations - Architecture Dissertations

The Absence Of Building Regulations And Restrictions On The Use Of Land ...


The absence of building regulations and restrictions on the use of land meant that there was a great deal of unhealthy and substandard slum housing, which caused widespread illness. Illness occurred besides reflecting the poverty of those people that were unfortunate enough to have to live in such areas (Daniels, Bradshaw, Shaw, & Sidaway, 2005 p.115). Planning regulations would have undoubtedly improved conditions, for instance introducing proper sanitation into the slums or having substandard housing replaced by higher quality houses for people to move into (Southall, 2000 p. 335).

In rural areas fears that heavy industry and unsightly slums would eventually over take all the land within their close proximity prompted the foundation of organisations dedicated to the physical preservation of the countryside, the rural way of life, and its wildlife (Clapp, 1994 p. 138). The countryside preservation organisations would eventually have a strong influence on the establishment of the green belt zones and the restricted availability of development land in the more predominantly rural areas of Britain (Allmendinger and Thomas, 1998 p. 55).

It was after the end of the First World War that the central government and local authorities took a greater interest in the construction of housing and how land was actually being used in domestic housing and industrial or commercial construction programmes. The role of the market in deciding how many houses were built and the location of where those houses were constructed was reduced with the development of council houses (Taylor, 1998 p. 3).

The provision of affordable housing built by local authorities and subsidised by central government funding meant that there was increased public involvement in the determination of land usage. The use, abuse, or the non-use of land was no longer solely determined by market forces. The involvement of central government and local authorities was intended to reduce poverty, ill health, and social exclusion. At no point in the inter-war period were measures taken to introduce town and country planning with the intention of protecting the environment or promoting sustainability as nobody considered such steps were necessary. The First World War had only witnessed very minimal levels of property damage caused by German naval attacks and bombing raids on Britain, so there was no widespread need for urgent reconstruction programmes as there would be at the end of the Second World War (Clapp, 1994 p. 138).

The central government first took legislative measures to restrict the use of development land within the remit of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1925, although planning decisions were usually left to individual local authorities to be enforced.


Thanks