A lengthy, but excellent article on planning, real estate development and booms:
“Under the coalition’s localism agenda, the wheels for private-sector encroachment into public planning have been further oiled, with the introduction of neighbourhood plans. Presented as a means of empowering communities, they have in fact left the door wide open for canny developers to move in, host a few community coffee mornings with felt-tips and post-it notes, and engineer a plan to their own advantage. There is no requirement for those who draw up the plan to even reside in the neighbourhood and, although they need a 50% “yes” vote at referendum, there is no requisite minimum turnout.”
read the full article on The Guardian: The truth about property developers: how they are exploiting planning authorities and ruining our cities | Cities | theguardian.com.
Places. 
Thanks for “picking” this important article for your blog’s readers’ info!
Would have been great if someone discussed with similar thoroughness what is happening in non-European urban centers, like the development projects by the Qataris next to the junction of the Niles in Khartoum, Sudan.