Abstract
The monitoring of town centers has become very important to Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) over the past 15 years. This paper describes how a GIS-based tool has been devised for the defining and monitoring of English town centers and its role in the English planning system. Ultimately, the objective and empirical measurement of something as conceptual as a “town center” is not an easy task, and some of the difficulties of carrying this out are discussed.
A further proposal is put forward to adapt the town centers methodology to produce a new tool for modeling housing capacity.
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Notes
- 1.
See www.statistics.gov.uk/abi/ for more detail
- 2.
See www.statistics.gov.uk/abi/sic92_desc.asp for more detail
- 3.
See www.voa.gov.uk/business_rates/index.htm for more detail.
- 4.
See The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987(www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1987/Uksi_19870764_en_1.htm) for more details on the use classes.
- 5.
- 6.
Data published by Communities and Local Government as part of their housing statistics Live Tables-http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/
- 7.
Data published by Communities and Local Government as part of their monthly House Price Index Statistical Release - http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/housingmarket/publications/house-price-index/
- 8.
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Lloyd, D.A. (2009). GIS-based Applications and the English Planning System: Modeling Town Centers and Housing Potential. In: Hagen, H., Guhathakurta, S., Steinebach, G. (eds) Visualizing Sustainable Planning. X.media.publishing. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88203-9_3
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