Developing UK spatial planning policy to respond to climate change

In 2004, the UK government published advice to planning authorities on ways in which the planning system might respond to climate change. This paper provides an account of the process of the formulation of that advice and the subsequent policy guidance, analysing the tensions revealed and offering an explanation of why the process took some time. It argues that the story can be understood in institutionalist terms, which recognize the different perspectives of planning policy communities and climate change policy communities. The decision to publish advice provided a policy arena in which these different interests sought to influence the agenda, employing competing policy discourses of discretionary enablement and more urgent prescription. These discourses partly reflected different approaches to the role of government, but also revealed the complexities of climate change as a new and uncharted issue facing the planning system.