Rural planning in England: A critique of current policy

The article briefly explores the enduring primacy of agricultural planning over land use planning in rural areas in England since the Second World War. From this contextual overview, the paper critically evaluates in some detail a number of embedded land use planning principles that continue to sustain the residualisation of human welfare in rural areas and are antithetic to the broader principles of sustainable development that rhetorically at least are said to drive UK rural planning policy. The article concludes by calling for the realignment of rural planning principles and recommends a number of behaviour changes that would contribute to continuous improvement towards sustainable development in rural England.