The transformation of planning agreements as regulatory instruments in land-use planning in the twentieth century

This thesis assesses critically the role and function of planning agreements as regulatory instruments in the context of land-use control from a historical perspective. By adopting Hancher and Moran's heuristic of regulatory space, the origins of the practice and its development over time are considered against the backdrop of the evolving planning system in England and Wales. The objectives are to identify the various actors present and mechanisms used to regulate agreements and from this to understand more generally the implications of a use of contractual practices for regulatory purposes. Emphasis will be placed on the techniques used by Government in regulating the practice. Whilst established by statutory provision, agreements will be shown to be defined by many actors within a broad policy space and regulated also by those actors in a number of ways. Regulation will be seen to encompass far more than state-sponsored activity and extend a use of many strategies only one of which is law.