The end of the Second World War brought consensus over the need for comprehensive planning to rebuild bombed out towns and cities and to help reorganise industry.
The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 introduced the basis of the system that we have today. It introduced two significant changes:
Local authorities now had to complete a local plan, setting out detailed policies and specific proposals for the development and use of land in a district. Land use would be controlled and planning permission would be required for development.
However some sectors, such as agriculture, were granted significant exemptions from planning controls, called permitted development rights, which still exist today.
After the 1947 Act, the system continued to evolve.
Important events include
1955: The national Green Belt system is put in place to prevent urban sprawl (the first Green Belts were designated around London before the Second World War)
1968: County structure plans are introduced to co-ordinate and guide local plans
1988: Regional planning guidance is introduced to act as a strategic guide for county structure plans
1990: The Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The act divides planning into forward planning and development control. Forward planning is about setting out the authority's strategy for the future - through a development plan - and development control is about controlling the development that happens
1991: The Planning and Compensation Act 1991 amends the Town and Country Planning Act and introduces the plan-led system, affirming that planning applications should be decided in line with the development plan