The planning polity: planning, government, and the policy process

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION -- chapter 2 A THEORETICAL CONTEXT OF PLANNING POLICY -- chapter 3 THE POLITICS OF PLANNING POLICY: the Major era -- chapter 4 THE POLITICS OF PLANNING POLICY: the Blair era -- chapter 5 NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND LOCAL PLANNING POLICY RELATIONSHIPS -- chapter 6 NATIONAL CONSISTENCY IN THE PLANNING POLICY PROCESS -- chapter 7 REGIONAL CERTAINTY AND COMPATIBILITY IN THE PLANNING POLICY PROCESS -- chapter 8 LOCAL DISCRETION IN THE PLANNING POLICY PROCESS -- chapter 9 NATIONAL AGENDAS AND PLANNING POLICY VARIATION: Wales vs. England -- chapter 10 NATIONAL PLANNING POLICY AND DEVOLUTION IN WALES AFTER 1999 -- chapter 11 DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN SCOTLAND AFTER 1999 -- chapter 12 PLANNING POLICY WITHIN NEW FORMS OF GOVERNANCE -- chapter 13 CONCLUSIONS.

Planning is not a technical and value free activity. Planning is an overt political system that creates both winners and losers. The Planning Polity is a book that considers the politics of development and decision-making, and political conflicts between agencies and institutions within British town and country planning. The focus of assessment is how British planning has been formulated since the early 1990s, and provides an in-depth and revealing assessment of both the Major and Blair governments' terms of office. The book will prove to be an invaluable guide to the British planning system today and the political demands on it. Students and activists within urban and regional studies, planning, political science and government, environmental studies, urban and rural geography, development, surveying and planning, will all find the book to be an essential companion to their work.