Regulation of Land Use

Changes in the economy led to urbanization. Planning rules were first designed to prevent hazards such as fire and disease in crowded towns, as well as to prevent crime. These were the priorities for regulations, rather than the protection of occupiers of land and their enjoyment of property.

Dealing with modern problems of relations between neighbours in urban areas was not a priority for town officials. These would be included tangentially into the primary regulatory purposes of health, policing and fire prevention.

In practice, there were lots of different ways of regulation that varied according to the nature of the state. Sometimes the state would make and enforce regulations itself. In other cases, it would encourage the industries to regulate themselves. For example, in England, compulsory inspection of industrial boilers was rejected in favour of self-regulation through bodies such as the steam users association. In France, similar associations made up for deficiencies in compulsory inspection. Regulation of doctors was conducted far more by the state in Germany and France than in Britain.

Changes in the economy also led to new ways of thinking about problems. The idea of drawing up a ‘cost-benefit’ analysis was popular, an idea drawn from economic thinking of the time. Similarly ideas of progressive or proportionate taxation would be used to analyse the burdens imposed on different new industries or activities.