Abstract

Influenced by such normative approaches to design and development as New Urbanism, various planning regimes increasingly celebrate mixed use as sustainable and desirable. However, this rarely translates into the practice being promoted as the ‘norm’. The literature identifies this situation in past versions of English planning policy but a lack of recent detailed studies limits our understanding of the current approach and thus whether the situation persists. Addressing this information gap, the paper explores policy’s present approach through a qualitative content analysis of written policy and interviews with local government planning officers. Findings indicate that mixed use is a celebrated, though ambiguous and changeable concept, with planners identifying such conceptual fluidity as desirable and necessary. Policy is revealed to attach numerous beneficial outcomes to mixed use, including reducing the need to travel and supporting more sustainable modes of transport. However, it continues to be encouraged in only a few locations, primarily town and city centres, whilst it is constrained in many others. This leads the paper to conclude that, within policy, mixed use is a cherished and celebrated concept, but a partially promoted practice.