First published in 1979, this book examines key planning policy areas such as land use planning, land values, housing and slum clearance, urban transport, industrial and regional economic location policies, and policies inner city policies to explain why particular policies have been adopted at particular times – assessing the role of political parties, bureaucrats and interests in setting the national policy agenda. Policy is also placed in the broader economic and social context and the question of whether, given contemporaneous constraints, a coherent national urban policy is possible is examined. Its focus on political parties’ role in urban change at the start of Thatcher-era upheavals makes this book especially valuable to students of urban sociology and the history of planning.