In a political climate favouring the private sector, the private landowners were more influential—and the planning authorities less powerful—than any time in the mid-1970s. First published in 1985, Development and the Landowner builds on a substantial amount of research to analyse the British experience of the landowner’s influence on the timing, scale, and pattern of development. The changes are reviewed, and the authors examine their meaning for the development process.

In the first part of the book, the context of land development—policy, land market, and process—is reviewed and its implications examined for the behaviour of those landowners seeking to maximise their financial return from land investment. Then, findings from detailed case studies conducted in different policy contexts are presented, from which conclusions about policy are drawn and subsequently discussed in the final chapter.

Students, researchers, and planners in land development will welcome this authoritative treatment of a neglected part of planning and environmental studies.