Policy Review Section

Abstract

In this issue of the Policy Review Section, Sue Kidd and Ashok Kumar of the Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool, examine the speed of plan production in the pre–1986 and post–1986 planning systems in the English metropolitan counties. Abolition of the metropolitan county councils and their associated structure plan process in 1986 was followed by the establishment of a unitary plan-making system in the metropolitan areas, with the new unitary local planning authorities charged with responsibility for producing district-wide unitary development plans combining strategic and local planning concerns. It is a particularly appropriate moment to examine unitary development plan progress in the light of the current review of the structure of local government in the shire counties, which may ultimately lead to a largely unitary local government system and, in turn, the widespread application of the UDP system. In the second contribution to the Policy Review Section, Jamie Peck of the School of Geography, University of Manchester, presents a short polemic on the role of economic forecasting in regional and local economic development. He argues that use of conventional economic forecasting methods over the past decade has reinforced the view that there is “no alternative” to prevailing orthodoxy in economic development practice.