THE POLITICS OF LAND INTO THE 1990s: landowners, developers and farmers.

Since the early 1980s there has been a mounting debate over the future direction of the land use planning system. The government is also determined to tackle the extensive subsidies to the farming industry. This paper argues that the interaction of agricultural policy and land use policy is central to the way in which the planning system is likely to evolve over the next decade. The configuration of land politics will be shaped by these trends. The paper considers two possible scenarios for the 1990s. In the first, extensive deregulation of land use planning and a removal of agricultural subsidies is assumed and the changing balance of power between different groups with an interest in land is examined. In the second scenario, a more realistic picture is put forward, arguing that whatever government is in power in the 1990s it will be tempted to respond with a `pragmatic' approach to planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]