Mark Tewdwr-Jones

Planning Futures : New Directions for Planning Theory

Introduction. 1. The Post-Positivist Landscape of Planning Theory. Part One: Planning Thoughts and Perspectives. 2. Collaborative Planning: From Theoretical Foundations to Practice Forms. 3. Planning and Foucault: In Search of the Dark Side of Planning Theory. Part Two: Planning Praxis and Interfaces. 4. Personal Dynamics, Distinctive Frames and Communicative Planning. 5. Values and Professional Identities in Planning Practice. 6. Direct Action and Agonism in Democratic Planning Processes. 7. Governmentality, Gender, Planning: A Foucaudian Perspective. Part Three: Planning Movements and Trajectories. 8. A Pragmatic Attitude to Planning. 9. Planning and the Postmodern Turn. 10. A Hayekian Liberal Critique of Collaborative Planning. Conclusions. 11. Communicative Planning, Collaborative Planning and the Post-Positivist Planning Theory Landscape. References.

Housing in the European countryside : rural pressure and policy in Western Europe

1. Introduction 2. Theories and Levels of Comparative Analysis Part 1: Cohesive, Cultures, Regulatory Regimes 3. Norway 4. Sweden 5. The Netherlands 6. France Part 2: Atomistic Cultures, Laissez-Faire Regimes 7. Italy 8. Spain 9. Ireland Part 3: Divisive Cultures, Unstable Regimes 10. England 11. Scotland 12. Wales 13. Housing Pressure in the European Countryside: A Power Regime Perspective 14. Conclusions

The European Dimension of British Planning

1. Introduction. 2. The Development of a European Context for Spatial Planning. 3. The European Spatial Planning Perspective. 4. Categorizing EU Spatial Planning Measures. 5. The Impact of Europe on National and Regional Planning. 6. Urban and Regional Maritime Area: Kent. 7. Urban and Rural Area England: Northamptonshire. 8. Urban and Rural Area Scotland: Strathclyde. 9. Urban and Rural Area Wales: Mid Glamorgan. 10. Urban Provincial City: Leicester. 11. Rural Maritime Area: Gwynedd. 12. European Impacts on British Planning. 13. Conclusions.

An Anatomy of Spatial Planning: Coming to Terms with the Spatial Element in UK Planning

“Spatial planning” is a phrase that now resonates throughout many planning systems across the globe. It is being used as a label to describe pan-national, regional, strategic and even aspects of local planning processes. Within the UK, spatial planning is being utilized alongside, or even in place of, more traditional phraseology associated with planning, such as “town and country planning”. It is being used by a range of institutions of the State, professional groups and academic commentators to describe the processes of planning reform, modernization, policy integration, and strategic governance that politically are now required to make planning fit for purpose in the 21st century. The precise meaning and definition of spatial planning remains difficult to pin down, as does its origins within the UK. This paper attempts to dissect the various components of the spatial planning phrase and set out the meaning and origins of the term in the UK context. It covers re-territorialization, Europeanization and integration origins of spatial planning thinking and provides a conceptual, rather than practical, debate on the anatomy of spatial planning, situated within ongoing processes of institutional transformation, through the lens of governance and distinctiveness in state policy development.

The contested strategies of local governance: community strategies, development plans, and local government modernisation

The current round of local government modernisation in England, which commenced in 1997, has focused primarily on three main areas—new council constitutions, e-government, and performance. However, a fourth strand of initiatives relates to the power of well-being and the duty to prepare a community strategy, in partnership with a local strategic partnership. Academic commentators and planners, who have been focusing on the proposed UK planning reforms as contained within the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (passed in 2004), have largely ignored the development of this strand. In this paper we explore these aspects of the local government modernisation agenda for planners and pull out some of the key issues for comparison in the ownership, role, and development of the new plans: community strategies and development plans. Opportunities and difficulties of ensuring that new development plans become the spatial expression of community strategies is assessed through an illustration of the relationship between the London Borough of Camdens community strategy and its unitary development plan. Following a review of the content of both documents, wider assessments are drawn out and we conclude by debating the implications of and challenges for a future reformed planning system at the local level.

Is Planning “Under Attack”? Chronicling the Deregulation of Urban and Environmental Planning in England

Successive attempts to reform planning practice in England have given rise to an impression that planning is “under attack”. Various academic commentaries have performed the valuable service of cataloguing aspects of this reform agenda, often within the context of the analytical framework offered by neoliberalization. In this paper, we seek to chronicle the cumulative effects of the sustained programme of neoliberalization to which urban and environmental planning has been subjected in England over a period spanning approximately the last 15 years. In doing so, we hope to show why planning has been such an intractable issue for all governments that have sought its reform irrespective of the particularities of their political agenda.

The collaborating planner? : practitioners in the neoliberal age

© Ben Clifford and Mark Tewdwr-Jones 2013. Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a greater pace of reform to planning in Britain than at any other time. As a public sector activity, planning has also been impacted heavily by the wider changes in the way we are governed. Yet whilst such reform has been extensively commented upon within academia, few have empirically explored how these changes are manifesting themselves in planning practice. This book aims to understand how both specific planning and broader public sector reforms have been experienced and understood by chartered town planners working in local authorities across Great Britain. After setting out the reform context, successive chapters then map responses across the profession to the implementation of spatial planning, to targets, to public participation and to the idea of a ‘customer-focused’ planning, and to attempts to change the culture of planning. Each chapter outlines the reaction by the profession to reforms promoted by successive central and devolved governments over the last decade, before considering the broader issues of what this tells us about how modernisation is rolled-out by frontline public servants. This accessible book fills a gap in the market and makes ideal reading for students and researchers interested in the UK planning system.

Devolution and the modernization of local government: Prospects for spatial planning

Abstract The creation of devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, coupled with the proposals for the English regions are creating new operational environments for local government in different parts of the UK. This paper reviews both the key factors affecting these new environments and their relationship with local government. The paper assesses the factors influencing the context for change, and considers these comparatively within England, Scotland and Wales. Attention is focused on emerging forms and practices of spatial planning within the devolved countries at the local level, caused by sub-national, local and community institutional change. Spatial planning is utilized as an example of the changing nature of central–local government relationships within the UK. The article concludes that there is evidence of convergent and divergent trends occurring at different speeds within the three countries and that the new local government relationships in Scotland and Wales may be more defined as a direct consequence of devolution. In England, by contrast, the new relationships between local government and central government appear more complex, not least as a result of the emerging picture of governance being brought about by regionalization. This leaves the future structure and powers of spatial planning within English local government more uncertain at the present time.

The Planning Polity : Planning, Government and the Policy Process

1. Introduction. Part I: Political Ideology, Policy Relations and the Planning Process. 2. A Theoretical Context of Planning Policy. 3. The Politics of Planning Policy: The Major Era. 3. The Politics of Planning Policy: The Blair Era. 5. National, Regional and Local Planning Policy Relationships. Part Two: Planning Policy Conflicts in Government Relationships. 6. National Consistency in the Planning Policy Process. 7. Regional Certainty and Compatibility in the Planning Policy Process. 8. Local Discretion in the Planning Policy Process. 9. National Agendas and Planning Policy Variation: Wales vs. England. Part Three: Devolution, Distinctiveness and Planning Policy Development. 10. National Planning Policy and Devolution in Wales After 1999. 11. Devolution and Planning Policy Development in Scotland After 1999. 12. Planning Policy Within New Forms of Governance. 13. Conclusions.

Plans, Policies and Inter-governmental Relations: Assessing the Role of National Planning Guidance in England and Wales

The provision of national planning guidance from central government to local authorities and property developers to shape urban land-use policy and practice has been a feature of the planning system in Britain since the 1940s. This guidance, however, has not been released in any consistent form and has occasionally been subject to criticism by commentators. While the original role of national planning advice was to provide strategic direction, central government has modified its planning remit and has recently utilised its land-use obligation to set parameters on detailed planning control and policy matters at the local level. The nature of central government intervention in local land-use matters has therefore changed over time. The current form of national advice in England and Wales is contained within the series of Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPGs). This research paper considers the role and significance of PPGs in planning practice at the local district authority level of policy-making and determination, particularly in relation to the introduction of recent planning legislation. It will show that the governments use of PPGs to provide strategic national direction in planning has been widely accepted by professional officers throughout the country. But there still remains uncertainty over the governments reliance on PPGs to intervene in detailed local planning issues.