3. Ethnic and National Minorities in Britain.

Britain has traditionally been, and remains, a predominantly white nation, with 92% of its population in 2001 declaring themselves white British, white Irish, or 'white other', a category that includes white people from old Commonwealth countries (such as Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and white South Africans) and white Europeans.

The minority ethnic population has grown rapidly since the early 1950s, when it numbered less than 100,000 people and was largely confined to dockland areas in cities such as London, Liverpool, Cardiff and Bristol. Since then, there has been rapid expansion, initially fuelled by the need for labour in manufacturing and service industries. Black people of Caribbean origin were the earliest arrivals in the post war period of expanded immigration, settling in London and other major cities. The high point of Caribbean immigration was the mid 1950s to mid 1960s, and there has been little change in the overall size of the black Caribbean population since 1971. Other groups arrived later and continued to grow. Pakistanis and Indians began to arrive in large numbers in the mid 1960s and Bangladeshi arrivals peaked in the early 1980s (Peach 1996).These South Asian groups also settled in large cities and, in the case of Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants, in smaller textile towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire where there was demand for 24-hour labour. All of these groups have grown consistently and rapidly (Figure 1). The black African population was relatively small until the 1990s, so much so that it was not considered a 'major group' for Peach's analysis of the 1991 Census on which Figure 1 is based, but doubled between 1991 and 2001, with settlement predominantly in London. As at 2001, the major minority ethnic groups were Indians (1,052,000), Pakistanis (747,000), black Caribbeans (566,000), and black Africans (485,000) with smaller Bangladeshi (283,000) and Chinese populations (243,000), in addition to those identifying as mixed race (674,000) (Table 1). 'Other Asian', 'Other Black' and 'Other' groups make up the remainder of the minority ethnic total.

4. Local Development in Britain Today. Town and Country Planning is the land use planning system governments use to balance economic development and environmental quality. Each country of the United Kingdom has its own planning system that is responsible for town and country planning devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. The roots of the UK town and country planning systems, created in the immediate post-war years, lie in concerns developed over the previous half century in response to industrialisation andurbanisation. The particular concerns were pollution, urban sprawl, and ribbon development. These concerns were expressed through the work of thinkers such as Ebenezer Howard and thephilanthropic actions of industrialists such as the Lever Brothers and the Cadbury family. The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (c 5) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was promoted by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It substantially reforms the town planning and compulsory purchase framework in the United Kingdom.

It both amended and repealed significant parts of the existing planning and compulsory purchase legislation in force at the time, including the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and introduced reforms such as the abolition of Local Plans and Structure Plans, and their replacement with Local Development Frameworks.

The Act took over 18 months to negotiate its passage through Parliament and required special dispensation both to be carried over from one Parliamentary session to another and to prevent it being lost on one occasion due to an error in the wording of a Commons motion.^[3]

The Bill was introduced in the House of Commons in December 2002. It was re-committed to Commons Committee to allow the inclusion of significant new material relating to the removal of Crown Immunity and Compulsory Purchase and carried over to the current session.

The Act received Royal Assent on 13 May 2004 and came into force in mid July 2004; Regulations implementing the parts of the Act reforming development plans came into force shortly afterwards.

The remaining sections of the Act are being implemented by further regulations and development orders.

Structure of The Act

• Part 1 - Regional Functions

• Part 2 - Local Development

• Part 3 - Development

• Part 4 - Development Control

• Part 5 - Correction of Errors

• Part 6 - Wales

• Part 7 - Crown Application of Planning Acts

  • Chapter 1 - England and Wales

  • Chapter 2 - Scotland

• Part 8 - Compulsory Purchase

• Part 9 - Miscellaneous and General