A Case Study in Planning and Housing: Examining objections to housing development in Bradford

A Case Study in Planning and Housing: Examining objections to housing development in Bradford

Philosophy

Mareike Beck & Blake Jeffcott

2025

Housing affordability is a key issue in British politics and around the world. One policy approach to address this problem is to expand the supply of housing through new development. However, new development can often generate controversy among existing residents. This research aims to better understand resident objections against new development. A methodology was developed to collect objections from publicly available planning applications. In total, 1975 objections across 82 major housing planning applications were collected, all in the Bradford region. The objections were categorised into 31 issues and subsequently analysed for patterns and themes using statistical techniques. There were three key findings: first, that environmental issues are most important for residents; second, a small number of applications cause the majority of objections; third, the affluence of a wards impacts engagement in the planning process.

Planning, housing, case study