Devolution, Sustainability and Local Economic Development: Impacts on Local Autonomy, Policy-making and Economic Development Outcomes

Abstract

In this paper, we examine how devolution has affected local sustainable development. We focus on attempting to gauge how devolution will affect the promotion of sustainable development in the English regions through an analysis of the changes to date in Scotland, Wales and London. This evaluation is made more difficult because of the range of changes which devolution involves - political, institutional, organizational and cultural, and it is hard to ascribe particular outcomes to particular changes. The focus of the paper is examining how local sustainability regimes have been affected by devolution in the three case study regions. We then conclude that devolution can only add value to existing arrangements if it creates an additional level of legitimacy which supports local coalitions deepening their commitment to the principles of local sustainable development.