Regional planning tensions: planning for economic growth and sustainable development in two contrasting English regions

The new regional governance arrangements for England are raising profound challenges for the integration of planning, sustainable-development, and economic-development strategies. The authors examine how tensions are emerging in respect of efforts to provide employment sites for large-scale inward investments, using the contrasting experiences of the South East and North East of England during the period 1997 - 2001. Some major ideological faultlines between national control over plan making and regional aspirations to devise distinctive approaches to planning for regional development are revealed.