ABSTRACT: This paper highlights the need to develop tests for liveability for practical application in area and development planning at a neighbourhood, place and building level. It introduces the concept of liveability and how a framework might be structured and developed to test for liveability in cities. It discuses some commonly agreed definitions of liveability and associated concepts showing that despite a general concern for liveable places there is a lack of an accepted general concept or value setting method. It introduces Kevin Lynch’s performance dimensions for good city form as a candidate conceptual framework for devising a general test for liveability and discusses how these may meet inadequacies in current concepts and measures for liveability.