Scotland and Ireland have Introduced Zoning, 28 English New Towns were built with it – no placard waving in site – what is the big deal?

With recent legislative changes in Scotland and Ireland England and Wales are now the only countries in the world without modern zoning controls on the statute book.

In Scotland since 2019 we have Masterplan Consent Areas replacing spz etc.

In Ireland we have Planning Schemes, again replacing SPZs etc. The terms planning scheme comes from old English legislation and I adopt it in my suggested planning reform act.

The New Towns Act of 1946 section 3 requires a masterplan and a development order granting consent within its area – 28 new towns were built using this provision, I note with very little opposition (apart initially for Stevenage).

So what is the big deal? Its simply that we have become engrained to slow out of date practices and procedures never designed for town scale planning.

I should add the opposition of the TCPA to zoning is doubly hypocritical and utterly indefensible. They want New Towns designated under the New Towns Act don’t they?