Towards an Integrated Spatial Planning?

Abstract

The notion of “spatial planning” has emerged as something of a new planning orthodoxy. Underpinning it lie various notions of integration—of policy communities and agendas, for example. This paper considers the evolution of integrated spatial planning in the various UK territories, focusing particularly on the experiences of Scotland. It analyses horizontal and vertical forms of integration using the notion of “governance lines”. These help explore the interaction between policies and actions at various spatial levels to examine how governance action can be re-scaled. A focus on Scotland highlights both divergence from European experience and a number of long-standing, but often subtly different, concerns for planners. Notable among these are the power spatial planning has in other policy sectors to pursue integration, and the co-ordination of land-use issues and infrastructure delivery. These issues present challenges for agendas of integration and highlights their political nature, raising as they do questions such as: how far can integration be pursued in the contemporary governance landscape; and thus to whom and on what might focuses on integration be directed? Such an analysis suggests potentials and limitations for a spatial planning agenda in the future.

Notes

ESRC Project number RES-000-23-0756.

Renamed a Strategic Development Plan under the Planning Act 2006.

From 2008, the Edinburgh City-Region was broadened to encompass two further local authorities in the Fife region.

This is a highly contentious issue! Scotland has traditionally received more money per capita due to high concentrations of deprivation, particularly in the central belt, and to facilitate a degree of universality in service provision in its remoter areas given its different geography to much of the UK. In 2004/2005, £7600 per person was spent by the state in Scotland, compared with £6570 in England (The Economist, 2006). This settlement is challenged and looked on enviously by many English regions.

Recognizing this, Government Offices for the Regions are expected to perform a vertical co-ordinating role (between the centre, the regions, and locally) in England (Cabinet Office, 2000).

From June 2007, planning and transport were integrated in the same “Ministry for Finance and Economic Growth”, a large portfolio but one which could facilitate greater integration.