This research examines how young single women in Taiwan face disadvantages in securing stable housing and how they are excluded from gender‑inclusive urban housing strategies. It investigates the mechanisms through which these disadvantages operate and why gender‑conscious housing practices and policies are urgently needed.

Rising housing prices have intensified barriers to independent household formation, and these affordability pressures intersect with gendered dimensions of housing inequality. Existing policy interventions, particularly the expansion of social housing, remain insufficient. They do not challenge cultural narratives that equate homeownership with adulthood and personal success, nor do they disrupt the broader commodification of housing within Taiwan’s market‑driven system. As a result, structural inequities persist, reinforcing gender‑based disparities in access to secure and affordable housing.

Although research shows that escalating housing costs disproportionately disadvantage young single women, explanations for these disparities remain limited, revealing a clear research gap that this study addresses.

A two‑stage hybrid methodology is employed. The first stage involves policy analysis of government documents and reports published between 2006 and 2026 to identify how high housing prices, entrenched family norms, and cultural expectations surrounding homeownership interact to shape unequal outcomes. The second stage applies econometric analysis to examine the relationship between female homeownership and housing inequality. Regression models will draw on data from the Department of Housing Registration, the Survey Research Data Archive, and the Directorate‑General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics in Taiwan, with SPSS used to test the robustness of the proposed hypothesis.

The draft December 2025 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) consultation was notably silent on gender, particularly regarding safety (Edgar, 2026). However, in January 2026, some reference to women and girls appears in the draft Planning Practice Guidance consultation document on design. This sparked a debate in the House of Commons on planning's role (Lewis & Keating, 2026) as well as discussions across the built environment industry (Williams, 2026). This paper explores this, and what the exclusion and lack of systematic approaches reveal about the institutionalisation of gender in planning systems in England. Using a comparative analysis of equivalent national planning policy and guidance to examine the wider UK and the Republic of Ireland, it explores why gender remains marginalised and what this lack of consideration means for the future of gender informed planning practice across these nations. Finally, through this analysis, it delves into the potential impact of gender-informed planning in improving the built environment for everyone.

The Garden City Movement and New Towns programme were both influenced by the British utopian tradition and aimed to create self-sufficient new communities that enabled all residents to thrive (Lock and Ellis, 2020). While New Towns have received significant academic attention, there has been more limited engagement with the queer communities’ experiences of these planned communities. Research on Scottish New Towns found mentions of ‘alternative sexualities’ were rare (Fair et al, 2025). Yet, recent publications from Storm & Goss (2025) and Grindrod (2026) have shed light on queer experiences of New Towns, with a particular focus on Milton Keynes.

This PhD study seeks to further contribute to this gap in knowledge by focusing on three research objectives:

• RO1: Reveal how societal norms, such as heteronormativity and patriarchy, have influenced the development of new communities.
• RO2: Explore the queer communities’ experience of everyday life in the post-war new towns, utilising a case study approach.
• RO3: Imagine how future generations of new communities can be planned, built and stewarded to act as sites of inclusive and prefigurative planning.

To achieve this, a multi-method approach will be adopted. This includes walking interviews (RO2) and participatory mapping with queer residents (RO3), supplemented by interviews with planning professionals (RO1/3) and archival research (RO1/2). This methodological approach seeks to examine how social norms shape the development of new communities, while also exploring how the experiences and desires of queer residents can be incorporated into the planning of future iterations of new towns.