Is There Space for Organisation from Below within the UK Government's Action Zones? A Test of 'Collaborative Planning'

The institutional structure and urban policy preferences of the Blair administration have now emerged from the British government's comprehensive spending review. In a series of recent publications, notably from the Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions (DETR) and the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) report Bringing Britain Together, the government places a welcome emphasis on the importance of working with communities and in community economic development. Unfortunately though, these initiatives contrast with a simultaneous commitment to fiscal restraint and work-based labour market policies, which seem to mark continuity. The extent to which the urban policy agenda and institutions are open to influence from community organisations promoting social justice claims that differ from those of government is therefore unclear. This paper uses Healey's 'collaborative planning' approach to explore the potential for the engagement of one such community organisation, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), to test the extent to which the new policy institutions are open to influence 'from below'.