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3 - The public interest and planning’s contested purposes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2025

Ben Clifford
Affiliation:
University College London
Susannah Gunn
Affiliation:
Newcastle University
Andy Inch
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Abigail Schoneboom
Affiliation:
Newcastle College
Jason Slade
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Malcolm Tait
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Geoff Vigar
Affiliation:
Newcastle College
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Summary

Introduction

My point is that the public interest will vary, depending on the type of development you’re dealing with for the context that it's being dealt with in, but I think it is a term I have understood, I think and it has guided what I do, but if you ask me to define it, I’d probably struggle.

Interviewee 5

This quote, from a consultant who had worked previously for many years in the public sector, seems to sum up many planners’ understanding of the public interest. It is a concept that planners hold on to as a guide for their practice, and something that they cleave to when legitimising their status. Yet, it is also very difficult to define and seemingly variable when they try to ‘apply’ it to actual development decisions. This quote also represents something deeper about the centrality of the public interest in planning, an ever- present idea that justifies the activity, yet is also deeply contested as to what it might mean or how we might secure it. Certainly, the idea of the public interest, or (less frequently) the common good (see Puustinen, Mäntysalo and Jarenko, 2017), is a shibboleth for planning and planners, being central to its self- understanding and the claims it has made for its existence. Professional codes of conduct cite it as a fundamental purpose of professional work. The American Institute of Chartered Planners states baldly in its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct: ‘People who participate in the planning process shall continuously pursue and faithfully serve the public interest’ (American Institute of Chartered Planners, 2021: 1), while the RTPI in its guidance on probity in the profession views ‘acting in the public interest’ as a fundamental duty of the profession (Royal Town Planning Institute, 2020). Yet, as the quote from the planner illustrates, how we define it or meet the public interest in practice is far from simple.

The concept's centrality to justifying the activity of planning, yet the difficulty of actually pinning down what it means, has generated significant and ongoing debate.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Future for Planners
Commercialisation, Professionalism and the Public Interest in the UK
, pp. 45 - 61
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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