How value is enacted by public actors within urban development funding and the implications for levelling up in England

Abstract

The aim of the article is to understand how public actors perform value and how this effects urban development. This article answers this by examining how value is enacted in urban development funding in England. Urban development funding from central to local government is a key source of financing for regeneration and infrastructure projects. Attending to how value is enacted reveals who shapes the underpinning rationale, which in turn influences how value is represented in decision-making and urban development projects. Building on the recent work in geography that questions the concept of value and drawing on performativity and diagrammatic thinking, this article argues that HM Treasury is central to how value is enacted and that the prevailing conception of value in urban development prioritises short-term, financial outcomes despite an awareness of the need to be sensitive to temporal and spatial concerns. The findings proceed from 24 in-depth interviews with senior civil servants, politicians, local government representatives and policy experts that took place during the summer of 2021. The article concludes by considering the implications for enacting value under the UK government’s Levelling up agenda.