Place leadership revisited: partnerships in environmental regeneration in North West England, 1980–2010: a practitioner perspective

Abstract

Place leadership has recently emerged as a key theme in regional development and with it a call for practical guidance for implementation in practice. Drawing on the experience of a number of novel environmental partnership initiatives in North West England in the 1980s that introduced new ideas, new ways of working and an energised popular movement relevant to all, this article outlines the history of two of these partnerships: Groundwork and the Mersey Basin Campaign from 1980 to 2010. The authors, who were involved at the time, consider a number of key factors for place leadership: vertical and horizontal partnerships; scale in landscape; the sustainability of outcomes; institutional context; and leadership itself. Some challenges of the approach are also briefly considered. We suggest that this experience has a wider relevance to current challenges in place leadership – decarbonisation, climate change adaptation and the conservation of biodiversity – offering lessons for mobilising practical and lasting change.