(n) a useful term generally deployed in a fairly indiscriminate way when attempting to attract or justify public funds. In fact, as classical economists will tell us, markets neither fail or succeed, they simply operate, with varying levels of efficiency, in the interests of those with the greatest market power – i.e. those with the resources, or ‘the rich’. Paradoxically therefore, poor areas are not the consequence of market failure, because other areas are doing very well out of the same market process. The regeneration solution to this is not environmental improvements, but social revolution, but this has yet to be introduced into the Treasury Green book process.
PDF 
Olympic Legacy (n)
January 13, 2011A vibrant (qv) and growing branch of urban theology whose core belief is that spending a very, very, very large amount of money on sporting venues in a very, very, very, small part of the country, will bring potentially limitless benefits to a potentially limitless number and range of people, or possibly Tottenham Hotspur
Read moreTo 'win' planning consent
February 12, 2012Exactly when planning consents ceased to be granted, and begun to be 'won', is difficult to establish, but it there does seem to be a telling alignment with the arrival and ascendance of 'X Factor' and similar TV shows . Reports that DCLG are considering adopting a phone -in celebrity-led system of planning decision making as part of a new neighbourhood approach 'to make planning more exciting', have not been denied by Ministers, although stories that Simon Cowell might be enobled in the next Honours List to take charge of this are as yet unconfirmed
Read moreThames Gateway (n)
January 13, 2011A slightly silly name (how can a gateway be 40 miles long ?) for a blameless and still largely unknown part of the south east where the standard of living is shockingly below the rest of the region for a surprisingly large proportion of the 1.5m population, and which, with thoughtful long term planning and investment could become a much better and more attractive place to live and relieve the development pressure on other more congested locations elsewhere; but which had the misfortune to become a focus of Government action, and a battleground between ill informed brownfield romantics, development fetishists, regeneration fantasists and disaster junkies.
Read moreGreen chains
January 20, 2011(n) A ubiquitous concept based on the odd assumption that people, on visiting one park, will want to move directly on to several more in sequence, provided they are linked by tree lined streets. Believed to be derived from observation of mating voles, but not of any obvious known human behaviour. Nevertheless they provide enjoyment, and employment, for green minded planners, and create attractive images on maps. No green chain has been known to have been identified in the real world
Read moreKick start (vb)
January 13, 2011a generally vain attempt to get something immovable to move, with a large amount of hubris and publicity, and few obvious or measurable results. The kick, applied without due care, can have the opposite effect to that intended and bring it to a final and permanent halt.
Read more'Outline' planning consent
February 12, 2012A term, now used ironically, to apply to the process whereby a quick decision on the simple principle of development has been turned into a mammoth existentialist drama which is only resolved, if ever, long after the conditions which spawned the original development proposal have long since departed. Often closely associated with s106
Read more
