Planning new housing areas involves balancing many interests and local authorities must make decisions in a way that is accountable. Formal accountability is organised differently in plan-led and development-led planning systems. In plan-led systems, accountability relates to the question of whether development takes place in accordance with the plan, whereas in development-led systems, it relates to whether development is guided by a set of principles. In practice, however, planning systems mix plan-led and development-led ways of working. This paper compares accountability arrangements in a housing development project in a development-led system (Clay Farm and Glebe Farm in the Cambridge Southern Fringe in the UK) with one in a plan-led system (Keijzershof located between Rotterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands). These arrangements are analysed for both the link between strategic planning and development project planning and the link between development project planning and the development on the ground.