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This paper reports on a study of Neighbourhood Planning in more deprived urban areas of the North West region of England, revealing that the stance of elected representatives is important in shaping the processes and outcomes of this new more citizen-led form of planning. The paper considers how far barriers to Neighbourhood Planning, and the variable support offered by local planning authorities to deprived urban communities, might be accounted for by practices of clientelism. It concludes that clientelism provides a useful lens through which to interpret attitudes towards Neighbourhood Planning as a disruptor of established patterns of influence and powerholding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest to deliver sustainable development has led to a search for ways to engage all stakeholders in this collective endeavour. Currently, local planners across England and elsewhere use independent design review panels to help raise the design quality of new developments. This paper examines the extent to which such panels can instill the need to adhere to sustainable development principles. We focus on the Cambridgeshire Quality Panel, which has framed its review process around sustainable development principles, named the "4 Cs": community, connectivity, climate, and character. Situating the panel's work within a design governance framework, we scrutinise the value and limitations of this particular governance tool. We conclude that local planners' ability to take forward the panel's recommendations on delivering new developments to high sustainability standards remains problematic, compromised by national priorities and market decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges involved in planning the adaptation of the urban built environment. It approaches this subject by appraising a recently introduced national planning policy (the permission to convert office buildings into residential use without planning permission) in England. Drawing on interviews conducted with planning practitioners, it is possible to unravel the impact of this policy instrument at the coal face of the discipline. The office-to-residential conversion policy has removed the long-established process of local planning discretion in England in favour of a developer led planning policy. Consequently, there has been a tactical manipulation of additional planning tools, originally designed for other use, to re-exert influence at the local level by local planning authorities. Rather than greasing the wheels of office-to-residential conversion, the new policy has thrown a spanner in the works of a unique local planning process that was originally developed to manage urban change. The paper concludes by calling for local planners to reformulate their role in planning urban adaptation by reasserting their role as “market actors” through the development of city information models, the exploitation of professional communication networks and the transference of their own tacit knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the contentious transition to viability-driven planning in England, whereby development viability and the potential for land value capture dominate the work of planning. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in London and the north east of England, the paper reflects on the variable outcomes and challenges in places with different development markets, political cultures, development histories and capacities for action. It finds that viability-driven planning is further entrenching already existing spatial disparities and inequalities and draws conclusions about the state of English urban policy in the context of a broader shift towards the marketisation of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the strategic-local tensions, sometimes manifest as development conflicts, which remain a feature of the planning system in England. More particularly, it is concerned with the way local government and planning reforms brought forward over the last decade have affected these tensions and conflicts. It looks at three issues: why conflicts arise, focusing on the example of housing development, and how the reformed processes of local governance and planning respond to them; how a divergence in local government and planning reform may accentuate conflicts by creating two distinct, and sometimes contradictory, planning systems; and what actions might be taken to bridge these systems and ease local-strategic tensions, returning to the example of housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Lipsky's classic formulation of “street-level bureaucracy” to explore the exercise of discretion by local policy practitioners in relation to a contaminated site in England. The policy literature generally assumes that practitioners seek to expand their discretion because this allows them to shape policy responses through the application of initiative and judgement. However, discretion is linked both to the degree of organisational and task complexity and to the level of uncertainty involved with making and implementing policy decisions. Such uncertainty affects practitioners’ behaviour. They may develop rules to manage uncertainty, thereby tempering discretion. And where policy options offer little prospect for claiming credit and ample opportunity for being subject to blame, policy implementers often adopt a cautious approach to decisions or avoid taking them. The paper illustrates how practitioners use non-decision-making tactics—such as diversion of responsibility and bureaucratic inertia—to minimise the potential for blame. This offers an extended interpretation of the uses of discretion by street-level bureaucrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combination of development constraint, low wages in seasonal employment and market intrusion by more affluent households generates housing access and affordability difficulties in many rural amenity areas. In response, residents' groups and public planners have sometimes sought to prioritise 'local needs', restricting the occupancy of new housing to key workers or others deemed 'local'. Drawing on examples from England, this paper illustrates how these down-stream interventions are often rendered ineffective by the upstream and structural drivers of housing access inequality, revealing a need for up-stream reforms focused on community control of land and the tax treatment of housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to unpack the term "regeneration", using a discourse analysis approach to examine the ways in which local actors involved in a New Deal for Communities partnership in Newcastle upon Tyne formulate their understandings of regeneration. The paper finds that "regeneration" is a term that has been taken up and used by local actors who have not considered its meaning in any substantive depth, and argues that this is the result of both the powerful policy discourse surrounding regeneration, and the lack of dialogue locally about the nature of the problems to be addressed. The paper concludes by arguing for regeneration partnerships to be given the time and support to discuss local issues in order to facilitate partnership working and develop an appropriate agenda for regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban intensification is a key planning strategy in the UK, but one that is frequently resisted by local residents objecting to transformations of urban character. This paper is concerned with the factors that underlie such resistance, and with the opportunities for addressing them through the planning process. The paper relates a case-study of the East London district of Dalston where a mixed-use redevelopment project, strongly supported by local authorities, was fiercely resisted by residents who claimed that the existing character of the locality was being violated. Reflecting on the case through theories of place, gentrification, and planning process, we argue that resident resistance was not simply a case of self-interested NIMBYism, but a product of important differences in the ways that character was variously constructed and valued by local authorities and community members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper introduces a research agenda designed to invigorate interest in information economics as a conceptual framework within which to analyse the purported transition from regulatory land-use planning, such as that operating in England prior to 2004, to “spatial planning”. In considering one specific area of reform—the management of infrastructure provision—a research agenda is introduced to investigate a specific policy instrument, the Community Infrastructure Levy. It is approached as a transaction cost, the determination of which is a function of how information is traded between counterparties. In conceptualizing important information asymmetries between local planning authorities and the development industry a case is made for further empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many other cities around the world, at the end of the twentieth century, Manchester was reimagined as post-industrial space. This research draws on Lefebvre's spatial triad focusing primarily on the struggles that this generated both within official public sector representations of space and between public sector representations and the representations of key amenity societies. The paper presents the findings of a case study analysis that reveals how the 1970s saw differing interests lay claim to the right to determine the spatial meaning and future of city-centre industrial space. The research deconstructs the (re)production of the Grade I listed Liverpool Road Station, the first train station in the world, and its conversion into the successful Museum of Science and Industry. The conclusions show that the 1970s (re)presentation of the station site facilitated its (re)production as a site of revalorised industrial heritage. The consequences were the “rediscovery” of the Castlefield area of the city, and the later reimagining of post-industrial Manchester in the 1990s, which continues in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmentally sustainable construction is now recognised as a significant element of the broader sustainable development agenda and planners are being called upon to play a role in delivering more sustainable patterns of construction and development. This puts particular demands on the knowledge resources of planners since knowledge is implicated in the power relations between planners and developers. This paper examines the interrelationship between knowledge of environmentally sustainable construction and practice in planning departments. Drawing on a survey of and interviews with planners in London, it discusses the construction of knowledge within the dynamics of planning organisations and the potential for learning to promote a more sustainable built environment. Wenger's concept of communities of practice frames the analysis, alongside consideration of the translation of knowledge into bureaucratic and usable forms and the role of knowledge brokers in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some claim that planning has a "dark" side which is expressed in policies and practices that disadvantage minorities and less powerful groups. This article explores how revisions to an aspect of English planning legislation, plus the linked adoption by local planning authorities of "restrictive" development policies, may disproportionately affect the housing choices of young, lower-income adults. Combining documentary research, secondary data analysis and Yiftachel's conceptual framework of "planning as social control," it examines how the legislation and policy might limit the supply of an accommodation type popular with this group, and the resulting social, political and economic effects. The implications for planning theory and practice are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses aspects of the English planning system in England. He is critical of the measures undertaken by the government of Great Britain on the significant differences in approach between the devolved administrations with the English system. Also investigated is the establishment of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 as the requirement for English planning for development values enthroned in the state.

It is now widely accepted that integration is one of the central features of spatial planning, but do we really know why it has attracted this prominence, comprehend what dimensions of integration need to be considered, or appreciate the implications these may have for those engaged in delivering spatial planning in practice? This article aims to address these issues, and to develop a deeper understanding of both the theory and practice of integration by examining the relationship between spatial planning and health. Here, improved integration offers the potential to enhance the physical, social and mental well-being of individuals and communities. Drawing upon integration literature, Part 1 of the article establishes a framework for considering integration in spatial planning. Part 2 then explores how this framework can be used to examine current spatial planning practice with reference to work undertaken as part of the development of the new Regional Spatial Strategy for North West England. This concerned the linkage between regional spatial planning and health. The article concludes by reflecting on the value of the integration framework proposed, how it might be developed, and on some of the key practice challenges presented by the current focus on spatial planning in England and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to expansion of the congestion charging zone westwards by politician Ken Livingstone in Central London. He has succeeded not only in implementing an idea which academics and advisers have spent the best part of half a century discussing, but has done so quickly, fielding great controversy, and successfully. Although there were precursors, the Smeed Report was the turning point at which some sort of official support was given to the notion that charging for road use in congested conditions could give benefits that were greater than the cost.

In this article, we examine the probable impact of moving towards 'up front' planning permission for housing schemes in England on development pace and future housing supply. That examination draws on interviews and focus groups with planning professionals, house builders, land promoters and others involved in land development. We begin by exploring the apparent effect of planning and 'regulatory risk' on development before examining strategies, including upfront 'permission in principle' (PiP), that claim the potential to reduce that risk and deliver greater certainty for the development sector. The broader focus for this article is how those compliance-based strategies might operate in England's otherwise discretionary planning system, in which the power to scrutinise and make decisions rests with local government and elected politicians, and what benefits they might bring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on housing development in Brighton and Hove, England. It mentions the British Social Attitudes Survey which indicated the support of people towards the government's planning strategy for building new homes in their area from 2010-2013. An overview of the Localism Act 2011 and the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012 as well as the view of Member of the Parliament (MP) Brandon Lewis on the issue is also presented.

The article presents the author views on the democratic legitimacy of neighborhood forums. The author states about the Localism Act 2011 that has given a new right to draw up neighborhood plans (NPs) to local "communities" in England. The author further discusses the formal and informal representations of neighborhood forums.

The New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme was one of the most intensive area-based initiatives (ABIs) ever launched in England. Between 1998 and 2010, 39 NDC partnerships were charged with implementing 10-year, locally informed strategies designed to improve conditions within deprived neighbourhoods each accommodating around 9,800 people. More than any other previous English ABI, the NDC programme placed a strong emphasis on informing and engaging the 39 local communities in all aspects of the regeneration process. The programme can be seen as a laboratory within which to assess relationships between community involvement in regeneration and any associated outcomes. Change data indicates that at the area-level there is nothing to suggest NDC areas saw more change than other deprived localities, or that NDCs doing more in relation to the community dimension saw greater change than those doing less. Data showing change for individuals, however, reveals that those involved in NDC activities saw more gains than those who were not involved. This positive individual-level change is not reflected in area-level data because absolute levels of involvement remained essentially low. This was for a number of reasons, some of which relate to the evolving NDC narrative: greater control from central government, diminishing community interest in the initiative, and over-optimistic assumptions on the part of local residents as to what the programme could ever achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, the government has pursued an agenda for a more sustainable built environment for over a decade. Yet it is difficult to know how much progress has been made. This article presents the findings of research that attempts to quantify and describe the extent of sustainable building in England. It reviews government-produced statistics and reports, data on sustainability accreditations, suppliers' information and existing research. It finds that no precise data exist on the extent of sustainable building, but there is a wealth of qualitative information on buildings and projects. The article describes the main sustainability features found in buildings and development projects in England, and presents a categorisation of eight sustainable building types. The article concludes by noting that the information base available to undertake this review is inadequate, and makes some suggestions about how it could be improved. It then reports that, as a proportion of the total building stock, the number of sustainable buildings is very small and that this is unlikely to change until building regulations and planning policies become more stringent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local authority planning departments within the United Kingdom are required to undertake gender mainstreaming as a result of European Union and domestic government requirements. However, research undertaken for the Royal Town Planning Institute demonstrates that few local authorities are doing so. A mêlée of competing equality and diversity considerations at local government level limits the attention given to gender considerations. A review of national policy guidance and planning law indicates that central government is taking an equivocal stance towards gender. It is concluded that before effective gender mainstreaming can take place institutional difficulties and underlying conceptual ambiguities need to be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implications of administrative planning on the sustainable economic development of England. It also mentions about the Pre-Budget Report of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which have a legislative and political impact on the country's economic activities. The article also discusses the relationship between climatic change and spatial planning.

The need for an effective form of territorial governance and spatial planning to overcome sectoral and spatial insularity has been recognized by initiatives at a variety of spatial scales. However, in an increasingly interconnected world it is difficult to determine ideal ‘functional’ or natural ‘regions’ which enable spatial development trends and dynamics to be fully ‘captured’ by territorially bounded regional governance institutions. Indeed, for Schmitt-Egner (2002) the key spatial characteristic of ‘region’ is that it is a partial spatial entity characterized by vertical and horizontal linkages with other regions and other spatial scales. Reflecting this, the article considers the treatment of cross-boundary issues in the context of emerging sub-national planning in England. Key issues addressed are: what kinds of cross-boundary issues are identified at different scales? How are cross-boundary issues recognized and responded to in the regional planning process? What are the factors which contribute to building the capacity of the regional planning process to act in relation to cross-boundary issues? The review of regional planning processes across the English regions indicates that cross-boundary issues are recognized and responded to at three spatial scales, the transnational (including inter-regional), national (including inter-regional), and sub-regional (inter- and intra-regional). A more detailed consideration of the North West region of England demonstrates that a capacity to act in relation to cross-boundary issues is being built within the process of strategic regional spatial planning through the mobilization of networks of actors at the intra- and inter-regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to schemes to relieve congestion in the roads of Central London. In February 2003, Transport for London (TfL), successfully introduced a congestion charging scheme for Central London. The scheme requires vehicles which do not have an exemption or 100 per cent discount, to pay £5 for each day they enter the charging zone. The scheme was introduced to time and cost, in contrast to many other large public sector projects involving complex software. The technology enforcing the scheme has worked reliably and has achieved majority public support. The 1999 Greater London Authority Act created a new regional government structure for London, with a directly elected executive Mayor. The Act also provided a specific power to introduce congestion charging.

The article looks at the proposed 'Centres of Excellence' for urban regeneration in England and their role in skills- and knowledge-generation and diffusion mechanism to help politicians, professionals and communities gain the capacity to lead and manage urban regeneration interventions. Based on research on the demand for skills, training and knowledge in urban regeneration in the south east of England, the article suggests that there are in-built biases in the dominant interpretations of that initiative towards particular forms of knowledge and knowledge delivery, which can potentially lead to the hijacking of the initiative by narrow agendas, reaffirming fragmentation and limiting the opportunities for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the conflict of values about the importance of historic built environments in England, with particular focus on vernacular historic buildings. Value of historic buildings; Protection through listing; Planning and conservation in practice; Available tools for the decision maker; Resources and values of the owner.

Local Strategic Partnerships are being established in England to provide an inclusive, collaborative and strategic focus to regeneration strategies at the local level. They are also required to rationalize the proliferation of local and micro-partnerships set up by a succession of funding initiatives over the last 25 years. This article explores their remit, resources and membership and discusses how this initiative relates to theoretical work on urban governance, community engagement and leadership. It concludes by debating whether urban policy in England is now entering a new and more advanced phase based on inter-organizational networks with a strategic purpose. But questions remain about whether the institutional capacity is sufficient to deliver strong local leadership, accountability and community engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coalescence of settlements and urban sprawl have been acknowledged as problems in England since the 1950s. Green belt policy has been a critical tool in restricting these tendencies, but does not protect all valued 'gaps' between settlements. In this article, the introduction and evolution of alternative protective policies is explored, based on a comprehensive survey of English strategic planning authorities. Precious green space needs effective and appropriate protection; this study adds to the debate about the future shape of English urban growth management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides a valuable overview of the challenges confronting the future of the countryside in England. Role of planning and planners in shaping 'a countryside for life'; Trend in countryside change; Role of land-use planning; Need for a more critical analysis of the visions underlying planning policy.

Canary Wharf is now the central business district of the London Docklands and the third office node of Greater London. The project was politically controversial and widely regarded as a planning disaster as a result of its 1992 bankruptcy. This article shows that most of its problems were related to real estate development issues, rather than planning. Canary Wharf failed as a result of six factors: a recession in the London property market, competition from the City of London, poor transport links, few British tenants, complicated finances and developer overconfidence. Improved performance on most of these factors allowed the project to recover and become an important element in London's office market. The article concludes with an assessment of the winners and losers from the Canary Wharf experience and a summary of the general lessons to be learned from this story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to auto dependence in politics in London. Auto dependence is currently shaping the development of cities and urbanized regions across the world. In the 1990's the rhetoric of a consensus for change could be heard across Britain. The opportunity for radical action on demand management was lost as national government failed to grasp the nettle. Direct action by fuel protesters and sensitivity to the interests of car owning middle England may have played a significant part.