Reflections on the nature and policy implications of planning restrictions on housing supply. Discussion of 'Planning policy, planning practice, and housing supply' by Kate Barker

Paul Cheshire

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Planning is about other things as well, but it is fundamentally an economic activity. It allocates a scarce resource but independently of prices or any market information. In analysing the effects this allocative mechanism has on housing supply (or, indeed, the supply of buildings for any given use), we need to think carefully about what exactly it is that planning allocates and whether, in its operation, it creates a constraint on the supply of what it is allocating. In the British case, our planning system does not operate on the supply of housing directly, but indirectly via the constraint imposed on land supply. Given the income elasticity of demand for space this has policy implications perhaps even more serious than is acknowledged by Barker

Keywords: Land use regulation; demand for space; housing demand; housing affordability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H31 Q24 R14 R21 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2008, 24(1), pp. 50-58. ISSN: 0266-903X

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Journal Article: Reflections on the nature and policy implications of planning restrictions on housing supply. Discussion of 'Planning policy, planning practice, and housing supply' by Kate Barker (2008)
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