What must planners do differently?
The public interest: Working in the public interest?
Sharing planning achievements at a walkability event. © WITPI
Justifications of planning usually rest on the idea that planners’ work serves the public interest. All of those we spoke to recognised this idea and believed it was reflected in what they do. Not many wanted to define what the term meant, however. Some rightly pointed out that this sounded too much like an undergraduate exam question, distant from the day-to-day realities of the job. Theoretical debates about the public interest in planning have often involved excursions into political philosophy but, perhaps unsurprisingly, we found little appetite to debate the relative merits of deontological against consequentialist approaches to determining planning applications.
Against such reasonable objections, however, it is important to retain sight of the dangers that the ‘humpty dumpty-ish’ quality of the public interest generates. There is a worrying circularity in a professional activity that justifies itself through claims to the public interest and then argues that it means just whatever they say and do.
Having said that, we can identify a range of different ways in which planners talked, often indirectly, about the ways they believe they work in the public interest.
Articulations of the public interest and supporting quotes
A practical attempt to better conditions in cities
"I would hope it [the public interest] matters to all planners because planning is based on bettering housing conditions for people’s health and wellbeing, that’s what it came out of, in the Victorian era." - Interview 4, public and private sectors
The delivery of housing, as an essential and pressing societal need
"This is the reason we’re doing this because we, as chartered planners, believe that the planning profession can help build more homes because that’s what we need for health and wellbeing and families, to reduce inequalities, to reduce homelessness, to increase life opportunities." - Interview 17, private sector
A balancing of interests
"It is a balance between delivering a viable scheme that meets clients’ needs with serving the public interest and, I’ll put my hands up, there have been projects where the public interest has been squeezed out." - Interview 16, private sector
The provision of technical advice to political decision-makers
"You have to be supportive of the planning system as a whole and respect the fact that it’s there in the public interest but you’re working either in your own company’s or your client’s interests, and that’s why somebody else makes the decision." - Edinburgh focus group, private sector participant
These examples highlight some of the ways the public interest is being defined and realised through planning practices today. The diverse nature of the claims illustrates that it may well be more practical to explore what the public interest means in practice rather than seeking formal definitions based on pre-defined categories. At the same time their contestability points to the value-laden nature of planning work and the need for ongoing professional and societal debate about the purposes of planning, and reflexivity on the part of planners about the effects of their work.
By exploring the workplace experience of planners, this booklet has also drawn attention to additional, perhaps overlooked aspects of public interest. Organisational change, career structures and work-life balance, for example, all have significant public interest implications in their own right as well as impacting on the ways planners work. If a reinvigoration of the public interest in planning requires more time and space for meaningful debate and reflection on the purposes of planning, it is important that these dimensions of public interest practice are more widely acknowledged.
Key questions
It is clear that the rules of the game set out in legislation and government policies play a significant (perhaps even over-bearing) role in defining the nature of the public interest that planners can and do pursue across the UK, circumscribing the scope and focus of much planning activity. Whilst planners continue to feel they can make a difference, this is always within (and sometimes in spite of) the systems they work in.
How can space be made for more meaningful reflection and ongoing debate about the purposes of planning and the kind of system and working practices that would allow them to be realised?