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‘The object is to change the heart and soul’: Financial incentives, planning and opposition to new housebuilding in England

Inch, Andy; Dunning, Richard; While, Aidan; Hickman, Hannah; Payne, Sarah

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Authors

Andy Inch

Richard Dunning

Aidan While

Hannah Hickman Hannah.Hickman@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Planning Practice

Sarah Payne



Abstract

© The Author(s) 2020. In 2014 the UK government announced plans to reduce opposition to housing development by making a direct payment to households in England. 1 This was part of a wider experiment with behavioural economics and financial inducements in planning policy. In this paper, we explore this proposal, named ‘Development Benefits’, arguing it offers important insights into how the governing rationality of neoliberalism attempts to govern both planning and opposition to development by replacing political debate with a depoliticised economic rationality. Drawing on householder and key player responses to the Development Benefits proposal we highlight significant levels of principled objection to the replacement of traditional forms of planning reason with financial logics. The paper therefore contributes to understandings of planning as a site of ongoing resistance to neoliberal rationalities. We conclude by questioning whether Development Benefits represent a particular strand of ‘late neoliberal’ governmentality, exploring the potential for an alternative planning rationality to contest the narrow marketisation of planning ideas and practices.

Citation

Inch, A., Dunning, R., While, A., Hickman, H., & Payne, S. (2020). ‘The object is to change the heart and soul’: Financial incentives, planning and opposition to new housebuilding in England. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 38(4), 713-732. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420902149

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 20, 2019
Online Publication Date Jan 24, 2020
Publication Date Jun 1, 2020
Deposit Date Jan 8, 2020
Publicly Available Date Jan 8, 2020
Journal Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
Print ISSN 2399-6544
Electronic ISSN 2399-6552
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 38
Issue 4
Pages 713-732
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420902149
Keywords opposition to development; planning for housing; neoliberalism; financial incentives; conflict
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5028665

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