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Spatial planning asserts the ideal of improving quality of life by promoting, managing and regulating place making, but spatial planning practices have often been out of place in governance environments and policy cultures, with public policy framed as if place and space are irrelevant. Emerging forms of the British planning system are explored in the context of conflict management of land use and development and promoting qualities of places. New ways of working are required and changes in the formal arrangements of the planning system are needed.

UK planners are increasingly operating in a theoretical vacuum in which they themselves are interpreting planning case law and guidance. Planners have an influential role in development control, since few planning proposals are actually subject to central guidance or guided by a local plan. Politicians have a less significant role, since much of the debate takes place before members are involved, and in most authorities few planning proposals come before members. Article further discusses planning decisions and responds to a paper by Mark Tewdwr-Jones.

The Single European Market and the Maastricht Treaty are expected to affect town and country planning in the UK. The elimination of non-tariff boundaries and the EC's quest for regional equality will provide new geography of development; while legislative changes, especially in the area of environment, will also affect planning in Europe, and consequently the UK aswell.

An analysis of the development projects for the area around St Paul's Cathedral, for Paternoster Square and for the Isle of Dogs, all in London, UK, is used to examine the basic concepts of order, unity, scale and proportion that are used to define quality in urban design. The street, the square, the street block and the architecture of the buildings on them are discussed as elements of urban design.

British public planning policy is examined in detail, with environmental implications assessed, in addition to implications for democracy, with a stress on the need for rational debate.

The role of local government in urban renewal in London, England, is examined in detail.

The British planning system has problems in tackling issues related to the provision of motorway service areas since deregulation.

Changes in British urban policy and methods of tackling urban deprivation are examined in detail.

British planning faces a loss of confidence and an erosion of ideals, and certainty and consistency are not always achieved.

British planning appeal methods are examined in detail in terms of informality and fairness.

Key issues affecting British environmental and city planning are examined in detail

Retail decline in North Warwickshire, England, is examined in the context of policy on retail centers in Britain.

Issues related to British planning and housing policy at local and national level are examined in detail with a focus on the ruling Labor government.

The study of development pressure in Britain is examined in detail, including the usage of planning applications as sources of data, and geographical information systems, with a case study in Sussex, England.