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This chapter focuses on the role of spatial planning in enhancing or eroding quality of life in rural regions and localities. Planning is central to the spatial governance of rural territories in terms of managing spatial change processes, balancing competing and emerging demands for rural space, and guiding the use of land as a fundamental rural resource that underpins the rural economy and essential rural social infrastructure, such as housing supply. This role within the rural land-use system is also critical in addressing global environmental imperatives, such as climate disruption, biodiversity and habitat loss and food and energy security. However, spatial planning theory and practice are often dominated by an overwhelming focus on urban places, with planners perceiving rural places as agricultural domains or as scenic backdrops, and thus as places to protect from encroaching development pressure, which often …