Town and Country Planning. University of the West of England

Planning has seldom been higher in the public and Government agendas, and the profession is developing from its current primary role of regulating land-use, to a more strategic role of co-ordinating spatial planning to meet the Government's objective of creating and maintaining 'sustainable communities'. In response to this change, and in concert with the ODPM, the RTPI has developed a 'New Vision for Planning' with four strands:

Spatial
Manage the competing uses for space to create places that are valued and have identity.

Sustainability
Integrate and mediate between the often conflicting objectives of economic development, social justice and inclusion, environmental integrity and integrated transport.