Abstract
ABSTRACT The paper provides an empirical review of a widely used tool in the English planning system – pre-application discussions (‘pre-apps’) and a theoretical exposition of governmental ‘logics’ that underpin neoliberal-informed planning reforms. We present five logic frames of growth, efficiency, commercialisation, participation and quality, and apply these to pre-application negotiation practice, to highlight how Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are faced with the challenge of reconciling a complex of multiple and often competing aims that appear irreconcilable in practice. We highlight that whilst ‘ordinary’ planning tools such as pre-apps may appear mundane, they can provide valuable instantiations where logics collide.
Highlights
The planning system in England is again going through a period of reform
In particular we highlight how political rationalisations derived from neoliberal ideology seek to steer the aims and objectives of the system and have purchase in the discursive interactions of planning practice
The cases were drawn from these 70 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) and using the below selection criteria to ensure a range of practices and their contexts was captured in the primary data: (1) Pressure to commercialise found in the survey (2) Claimed commitment for involvement of communities (3) Geographical spread across England (4) Local Plan status (5) Relative growth pressures and market context
Summary
The planning system in England is again going through a period of reform. The latest set of reforms presented in 2020 has proposed a shift away from the ‘discretionary’ case-by-case approach to planning decisions based on technical (planning policy and development management officers) and political (elected member and planning committee) judgements on the national and local policy framework that is unique to the UK and Ireland, towards a ‘codified’ consenting route (zoning) seen in a variety of specific forms across planning systems internationally (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government [MHCLG], 2020). In particular we highlight how political rationalisations derived from neoliberal ideology seek to steer the aims and objectives of the system and have purchase in the discursive interactions of planning practice (i.e. how logics are reflected in local practices and where/how they are reconciled by key stakeholders). We do this by drawing on the empirical case of a ubiquitous but under-researched planning tool in the English system – preapplication discussions (‘pre-apps’) – to highlight how broad reform aims are embedded (and contested) in local practice. We mobilise the case of pre-apps here because, whilst they appear at
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