Design
In a Bid to Speed Development, Britain Gives Zoning a Try
The U.K. is poised to pass a radical overhaul of its planning system. Critics say it would only exacerbate housing inequality.
Terminus House, a disused office building that was turned into housing without planning permission, has been criticized as "human warehousing." Critics fear a proposal to overhaul U.K. planning would enable more such housing.
Photographer: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images EuropeThe U.K. government unveiled plans this month for the most radical overhaul of the country’s planning system since the 1940s.
To the government, the proposals are a bid to speed up home building and to power the post-pandemic economy. To the plan’s critics, it is a no-strings gift to developers that dilutes planning standards and risks creating the “slums of the future”.