Reforming the process for infrastructure planning in the UK/England 1990-2010

摘要

The 2008 Planning Act sought to give England, and to lesser extents other parts of the UK, a new planning process for deciding major infrastructure projects. The causes, gestation and politics of this measure are analysed in this paper. This shows how distinctive the UK context has become since the 1990s, with the new legislation emerging from the political economy of powerful infrastructure industries, interacting with the particular configuration of interests represented by the New Labour government. The post May 2010 government aims to keep the 2008 Act reforms, subject to some revised elements. At present the innovation stands out in European comparison, with no other state having taken this path.