Race, Public Policy and Planning in Post-war Britain

This chapter examines the way that politics and public policy became overtly racialised since the late 1940s. It considers immigration policy, where racialisation was, and remains, clear. The chapter explores the development of planning. It examines the way that politics and public policy became overtly racialised since the late 1940s. The financial crisis of 2008, and the austerity policies pursued by the Conservative-dominated coalition government of 2010, and consolidated by Conservative governments thereafter, introduced a new source of tension into racial politics. Spatial issues, which might have brought planning more into the centre of discussions about equality and discrimination, were not a major concern. Thus, there was no discussion of the significance of the historic residential segregation that had characterised British cities. The (New) Labour government elected in 1997 set up the Macpherson inquiry and followed it up with changes to the Race Relations Act.