Following the Thatcher and Major administrations there was an apparent renaissance of planning under New Labour. After a slow start in which Labour's view of planning owed more to a neoliberal,
rolled back state model reminiscent of the New Right, the government began to appreciate that many of its wider objectives, including economic development, climate change, democratic renewal,
social justice and housing affordability intersected with and were critically dependent upon the planning system. In England a new system of development plans was created along with the notion
of 'spatial planning' as a way of bringing together the fragmented landscape of governance towards a range of broad objectives including sustainable development, urban renaissance and tackling
climate change.
A wide range of initiatives, management processes, governance vehicles and policy documents emanated from government. Planning, like other areas of the public sector, was to be reformed and
modernised and given a prime role in tackling national, high profile priorities such as increasing housing supply and improving economic competitiveness. The result was a hyperactive period of
activity and change that had a variety of intended and unintended impacts as well as longer term implications for the way in which we think about planning and the role of the state.
But the experiences of Labour tell us more than how national governments succeed, or don't, in policy change. The Labour era also calls to attention the nature of planning itself and how
sources of stability and change in the wider governance landscape react to and interpret change. Drawing upon an institutionalist framework the book will also seek to understand how and in what
circumstances change emerges, either in an evolutionary or punctuated way. It will, for the first time, chart and explore the changing nature of development and planning over the Labour era
whilst also stepping back and reflecting upon what such changes mean for planning generally and the likely future trajectories of reform and spatial governance.
