Planning in the UK

Agendas for the New Millennium

Andy Thornley, Yvonne Rydin

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138736870
• eBook ISBN: 9781351734745
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Local & Regional Planning Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This title was first published in 2003: The advent of the Labour government in 1997 provoked major change in the political landscape of the UK. Priorities changed and different themes moved to the top of the agenda such as local democracy, community, transparency, sustainability and co-ordinated or 'joined-up' thinking. Many of the new priorities, such as community empowerment, involved a reappraisal of the purpose and procedures of planning, while others changed the legislative and institutional frame within which planning operated. This indispensable volume traces and analyzes the implications for planning created by this political shift. Presenting an overview of the general debates on contemporary UK planning, the book proceeds to identify four major areas as key themes for planning in the third millennium. These are: the new institutional context; ensuring social inclusion and participation; promoting sustainability; and the debate over building at higher densities on Brownfield sites. Illustrated with in-depth case studies, the book provides a timely and important examination of the current state of planning in the UK and suggests best-case scenarios for the future.

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An Agenda for the New Millennium

YVONNE RYDIN AND ANDY THORNLEY

The year 2000 was seen in with world-wide fireworks; the year 2001 rather more quietly. Either way we are now into the third millennium. For most planners and planning work, life continues much as normal. But that could be deceptive. For any period of profound change, always carries with it continuities from the past. For UK planning there are changes (and continuities) to deal with from a number of different directions. There are the cultural, political and economic changes associated with globalisation, that we, along with many other researchers explore in the sister-volume Planning in a Global Era (Thomley and Rydin, 2001). For the UK there is the related aspect of learning to live with and within Europe. There is the current heightening of the environmental agenda, with a recurrent sense of crisis, political protest, repeated scientific warnings and attempts at international action. There are changes in social trends, with new patterns of household formation and ways of everyday life. Many of these, at home and work, are associated with the rise of information technology, that seems to be all around us these days: PCs, mobile phones, smart equipment of all kinds. And yet, in a veiy real sense, the problems remain unchanged: poor environmental quality, health and safety threats to everyday life, unemployment and economic recession, social deprivation, and spatial inequality.

So from where might the major discontinuities arise that could shape a new agenda for planning? First, there is an increasing awareness that, although there are many continuities, the pace of change has so increased as to constitute a qualitative as well as quantitative shift. This appears to have occurred with more entrenched processes of globalisation. Also many environmentalists argue that working on the basis of simple linear trends in environmental change will underestimate the actual significance of that change. Threshold effects, aggregate effects of multiple events and the chaotic nature of complex environmental systems all mean that the environment can be precipitated into a dramatically worsened situation quite quickly. A similar point may be made about complex economic systems and their tendency to cyclical patterns despite active governmental “management” of the economy. Complacency arising from the experience of living with past trends is usually not a good model for future behaviour.

But the main discontinuity in the context for planning practice will arise when there is a shift in political power, as occurred in Britain in 1997 and is now occurring in the United States. For British planners, the new agenda of the Blair “New Labour” Government has been a major preoccupation for the last four years and, if opinion polls at the time of writing prove correct, is likely to remain so for the next four to five years. In the introduction to this volume of research into contemporary planning practice, we examine the nature of this political shift and examine its implication for planning. First, we explore the extent to which the New Labour government did represent a political discontinuity. We look at the differences with preceding governments and the nature of its political ideology, and then explore its agenda for key areas of planning practice (see also Thornley, 1999), concluding with a review of how this impacts on the field of planning theory.

New Labour: How Big a Shift?

A major change in the political landscape of the UK took place with the advent of the Labour government in 1997. After eighteen year of Conservative Party rule, the government of Tony Blair promised a new philosophy and new approach under the banner of New Labour. Priorities changed and new themes moved to the top of the agenda such as local democracy, community, transparency, sustainability and co-ordinated or “joined-up” thinking. Over the following years these themes became embodied in legislation, some of which involved significant constitutional change. As a result the context for planning also changed. Many of the new priorities, such as community empowerment, involved a reappraisal of the purpose and procedures of planning, while others changed the legislative and institutional frame within which planning operated. This volume brings together the work that has been done in recent years to trace and analyse the implications for planning of this political paradigm shift.

But how big a shift was it? We can briefly explore this question through comparing the New Labour approach to that of the preceding Conservative governments. After the initial euphoria of winning the election the Labour Party in power started to feel rather uncomfortable with its pragmatic election-oriented stance and started to look around for a “big idea”. It was therefore very attracted by the concept of the “Third Way” particularly as propounded by Anthony Giddens. So what has been the influence of this concept and how far has it resulted in a political approach that is significantly different from that of the earlier period? We briefly address this issue as a context for the detailed research contributions in rest of the book.

The strategy in winning the election was to keep everyone happy and to refrain from saying anything bold or significant that might lose votes. Reliance was placed on the youth and charisma of the leader and the demonstration of organisational efficiency that was evident from the reform of the Party. However some indications of an embryonic ideological position can be detected in the election manifesto and speeches. Mr Blair made it very clear that the Labour Party would continue to support the business community and that the imperatives of the market would be paramount in the new government’s thinking (Blair 1996). New Labour was keen to establish its credentials with the private sector and Blair talked about a “new era opening up in relations between today’s Labour Party and the business community” (Blair, 1996: 107). For example Blair held many meetings with business leaders, including representatives of the Corporation of London. The need to compete internationally was seen as an important influence on government and Blair said that “since it is inconceivable that the UK would want to withdraw unilaterally from this global market-place, we must instead adjust our policies to its existence” (Blair 1996: 86). Such strong statements, stressing the need to respond to economic forces and to accommodate to economic interests, suggest a continuity with the ideology of Thatcherism.

However in two important respects New Labour can be contrasted sharply with Thatcherism. While Mrs Thatcher took a conflictual approach, Mr Blair placed consensus and conciliation at the top of his agenda. He presented an image of a social healer who wanted to bring all elements of society together. There were strong references to Christian beliefs in a caring society. This stands in stark contrast to Mrs. Thatcher’s statement that there is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families. New Labour propounded a “belief in society, working together, cooperation, solidarity and partnership” (1996: 38). Blair called upon his Christianity to criticise Conservatives because they had “too selfish a definition of self-interest. They fail to look beyond, to the community and individual’s relationship with the community”. In his speech to the Labour Party Conference in the autumn of 1997 he evoked the idea of a “giving society”. He said, in a rather biblical style, “believe in us as much as we believe in you. Give just as much to our country as we intend to give. Give your all. Make this the giving age… Now make the good that is in the heart of each of us serve the good of all” (Guardian, Oct 1^st 1997: 8).

The second contrast with Thatcherism was the emphasis given to local democracy and decentralisation. Major institutional reforms were initiated to give more autonomy to Scotland and Wales, to reintroduce regional policy, and to reinvigorate local authorities with new forms of democracy and local involvement. The reform of the House of Lords also began. There was a general commitment to increased democracy, “New Labour wants to give power to the people – to be a government working in partnership with the people, which gives them choice and responsibility” (1996:321).

As already mentioned, once in office the new government sought to develop an ideological framework in which to place the principles it had expounded during the election campaign. One of the major influences on Blair was Anthony Giddens, whose book Beyond Left and Right (1994) set out a new approach to politics. This was further developed in The Third Way published in 1998. These books suggest that the previous political divisions of neo-liberalism and socialism are now irrelevant and a new perspective is required that responds to contemporary trends, such as globalisation, increasing uncertainty and social diversification. The features of the approach include rethinking the welfare state using the principle of empowerment, more transparency in government utilising dialogue, and reconciling autonomy and interdependence in social life.

These ideas influenced the new government. During 1998 Blair and senior Ministers started to present the concept of the “Third Way”. For example in April 1998 the Foreign Minister, Robin Cook expounded his six principles of the Third Way as: strong communities, inclusive societies, open politics, rights and also responsibilities, interdependency in a global economy, and modernisation linked to social changes (Guardian, April 23, 1998). The attempt to build this philosophical basis for the new government culminated later in the year with the Prime Minister’s Fabian pamphlet entitled The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century (Blair, 1998). This claims to unite the two streams of thought – democratic socialism and liberalism. One of the significant features of the Prime Minister’s presentation of the approach is his claim that it can “reconciling themes which in the past have wrongly been regarded as antagonistic – patriotism and internationalism; rights and responsibilities; the promotion of enterprise and the attack on poverty and discrimination” (Blair, 1998).

The reconciliation of this last antagonism reflects the view expounded during the election campaign that it is possible to pursue economic objectives in an era of globalisation while also achieving social goals. Giddens extends this argument to the achievement of environmental goals when he describes the “Third Way” as rejecting the assumption that there is a trade-off between economic development and the protection of the environment. Instead “environmental protection is seen as a source of economic growth rather than its opposite” (Giddens 1998: 19). This fits within an approach developed elsewhere in Europe and known as “ecological modernisation” (Gouldson and Murphy, 1998). Such an emphasis on the reconciliation of views that appear conflictual leads to a desire to build up consensus around a more co-ordinated policy approach.

The exposition of the “Third Way”, as with the earlier Manifesto statements, has little directly to say on urban planning. However many of the themes discussed potentially have strong implications for planning. There is a belief that the state may need to intervene in the market to protect certain social goals, such as avoiding social exclusion. The renewed emphasis on the importance of community is of particular importance to planning as it could support the value of planning intervention in achieving community interests. According to Giddens “the theme of community is fundamental to the new politics” (1998: 79). Globalisation is seen as providing new opportunities to develop local identities while also providing a focus for collective responsibilities. Giddens does not deny that the concept of community also has its difficulties; for example it can contain differing views, is often difficult to define geographically and can create antagonism to change through NIMBY attitudes. Nevertheless the shift from the individualism of the Thatcher era to the acceptance of community cannot fail to give planning greater legitimacy. Community responsibility is also the foundation of a more environmentally aware society – another aim strongly propounded by New Labour.

The emphasis on the openness and transparency of government can also be expected to affect the planning process. The importance of local democracy and the desire to explore new forms of democracy should potentially reinvigorate participation in planning. Another of the false antitheses that Blair identifies and seeks to overcome is that between representative and participatory democracy (1998: 15). Planning participation has traditionally been circumscribed by the tensions between these two forms of democracy and so new experiments that achieve a better relationship between them could open up new opportunities in the planning process.

The rhetoric of New Labour gives greater credence to the long term view, for example in environmental and education policy. It is also stated that government must pursue policies that reinforce social solidarity. The “Third Way” claims that the pursuit of economic prosperity can be sought at the same time as achieving social and environmental goals. The details of how this can be done have yet to be spelt out. How can economic policies adapt to the imperatives of the global economy with its push to competition, minimising social costs, and short-term results while not compromising the longer term aims? As far as planning is concerned, the emphasis on consensus and co-ordination in the New Labour approach could lead to the resurrection of its role in balancing different interests. The purpose of planning could once more encompass economic efficiency, environmental sustainability and social needs, in contrast to the Thatcherite emphasis on economic interests at all costs. The interesting question will be how the inherent contradictions in pursuing all three objectives will be resolved. Will Blair’s belief in the need to react to international economic competition over-ride the other objectives? The indications are that planning will be used to contribute to the aim of co-ordinating different interests. It will be do this within an ideological framework that believes that all interests can be brought together in a way that can make everyone happy. Solutions can be found that create a win-win situation for all. This seems to be a principle message of the “Third Way”.

However there is an alternative view. This states that some interests will always be in mutual opposition and one person’s gain will be another’s loss. This is likely to apply particularly in a situation where both interests seek a scarce commodity – such as development land. To give just one simple example, the expansion of a city’s international airport is necessary to ensure it retains a competitive position in the globalised economy. This is a goal which Blair would support as necessary. However this will also create noise for local residents and decrease their quality of life. Now it may be argued that a win-win situation can be found through locating the airport expansion in a place that has no adverse impact on any residents. In practice such a solution is not likely to be found in many cities and so there are bound to be some losers. In the post-war period such conflicts of interests where masked under the disguise of consensus. Thatcherism exposed the true nature of the conflicts of interest in society. However, in this period, the resolution of such conflicts, through the free operation of the market, benefited certain powerful economic interests. Under the “Third Way” we may be returning to a position in which conflicts are dismissed because of the belief that a “Third Way” can always be found to overcome antagonisms. Maybe too much faith is being place in such a possibility and in reality these conflicts need to be accepted as inevitable and a political choice made over whose interests should be given priority.

The New Labour Planning Policy Agenda

The main body of the book addresses the key planning policy issues that have arisen during the New Labour government’s first term of office. Four major areas are identified: the new institutional context; ensuring social inclusion and participation; promoting sustainability; and the debate over building at higher densities on brownfield sites, an issue which encompasses both social and environmental concerns.

Since it won office in 1997 the new government has been heavily preoccupied with institutional changes. These stem from a concern for greater devolution and encompass the new Parliament for Scotland and Assembly for Wales, the new government for Greater London, an emphasis on regional development and major reforms to local government. Three chapters focus in particular on how such institutional changes impinge on planning. The first contribution by Lloyd and McCarthy highlights the different institutional arrangements that have been implemented across the UK and explores how these are leading to different forms of strategic planning. The second chapter by McEldowney et al. is a case study of the new kinds of regional strategy being developed in Northern Ireland with an emphasis on the consultation processes. The last paper by Hammond discusses, in a historical context, the changes taking place in regional planning as a result of pressures from the EU and the new government. The message from these contributions is that the regional level is gaining in importance again but that a variety of approaches will coexist across the UK. This will put some pressures on planning as practitioners learn to live with complex multi-tier systems (again).

Social inclusion and more participatory government are key political priorities of the New Labour government. The next section explores these themes and their implications for planning over five chapters. The first chapter by Bailey and Peel takes the government programme of “modernising” local government as its starting point and explores the issue of community empowerment. It reviews the theoretical material and applies this to a detailed case study of participation practice. The second paper by Femie explores the government’s social inclusion priority by looking at its impact on one city, Dundee. Then Hull explores the same theme through an evaluation of the New Labour approach to urban regeneration. Using another local case study, this time of the innovative policy tool of “Good Neighbour Agreement”, Illsley examines its participatory potential. Finally in this section, Larkham et al. return to a traditional area of planning practice, conservation of the built heritage, and consider how public participation occurs in this context. Taken together these five contributions provide a good critical account of how the government’s rhetoric of “community” is already being, and might further be, translated into practice and how this might lead to greater local empowerment.

Sustainability has been a major issue over the last decade and has been given a boost by New Labour’s emphasis on environmental issues. The next three chapters address aspects of this issue. The first by Brown and Duhr gives a good overview of the way sustainability is currently being incorporated into planning at the national, regional and local levels, identifying gaps and inconsistencies in coverage. The next contribution by Percy and Hands focuses on the local level, through a case study of a sustainabi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• 1 An Agenda for the New Millennium
• 2 Instrumental Rationality, Intelligent Action and Planning: American Pragmatism Revisited
• 3 Theorising Participation: Pulling Down the Ladder
• 4 Shaping the Planning Profession of the Future: The Role of Planning Education
• 5 Developing Indicators to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Land Use Planning
• 6 Asymmetrical Devolution, Institutional Capacity and Spatial Planning Innovation
• 7 Shaping our Future: Public Voices – a New Approach to Public Participation in the Regional Strategic Framework for Northern Ireland
• 8 New Approaches to Regional Spatial Planning?
• 9 Building Sustainable Networks: A Study of Public Participation and Social Capital
• 10 Changing Patterns of Social Exclusion in Dundee
• 11 Neighbourhood Regeneration: Delivering Holistic Area-Based Strategies
• 12 Love Thy Neighbour: Good Neighbour Agreements
• 13 Public Involvement in Residential Conservation Planning: Values, Attitudes and Future Directions
• 14 Understanding Sustainability and Planning in England: An Exploration of the Sustainability Content of Planning Policy at the National, Regional and Local Levels
• 15 Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into Local Politics
• 16 Mitigating and Monitoring Ecological and Visual Impacts of EIA Projects
• 17 Brownfield Land: Owner Characteristics, Attitudes and Networks
• 18 Mixed Use, Densification and Public Choice
• 19 Brownfield Sites: Problems of Definition, Identification and the Evaluation of Potential
• 20 Who Needs Housing in the South East?