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

By Ben Clifford

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1447366034
• ISBN13: 9781447366034
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Policy Press
• Length: 276 Pages