The Future for Planners: Commercialisation, Professionalism and the Public Interest in the UK

Winner of the Royal Town Planning Institute Patsy Healey Award for Academic Excellence 2025.

Spatial planning is at a crossroads, with government reform undermining the traditional vision of state-employed planners making decisions about urban development in a unified public interest. Nearly half of UK planners are now employed in the private sector, with complex inter-relations between the sectors including supplying outsourced services to local authorities struggling with centrally-imposed budget cuts.

Drawing on new empirical data from a major research project, ‘Working in the Public Interest’, this book reveals what it’s like to be a UK planner in the early 21st century, and how the profession can fulfil its potential for the benefit of society and the environment.

Ben Clifford is Professor of Spatial Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London.

Zan Gunn is Senior Lecturer of Planning at Newcastle University.

Andy Inch is Senior Lecturer of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield.

Abigail Schoneboom is Lecturer in Urban Planning at Newcastle University.

Jason Slade is Lecturer in Planning at the University of Sheffield.

Malcolm Tait is Professor of Planning at the University of Sheffield.

Geoff Vigar is Professor of Urban Planning at Newcastle University.