(Re-)designing markets for land use decisions: Private initiatives in a publicly determined context: lessons drawn from other policy fields

The way in which land and buildings are used is largely the result of many people and organisations taking private decisions. We regard this as being a market in land use decisions. Those decisions are taken within a context of rules, many of which are determined by government bodies. Those rules can, therefore, be changed. This is the designing and redesigning of markets for land use decisions. There is not much experience with this way of considering land use planning. This paper gains new insights by analysing the results of designing and redesigning markets in other sectors. In particular, we analyse the experience in The Netherlands with the recent privatisation and liberalisation of the energy market, the rail market, the market for water, and the market for social housing. In the conclusion, a link is made between the reasons why a particular market is to be changed and the way in which this is to be done – privatised, liberalised, deregulated or restructured.