Reform processes and discretionary acting space in English planning practice, 1997-2010

This article explores the consequences for English planning and planners of reforms to planning and wider governance processes under the Labour administrations of 1997-2010. It reports on a research project concerned with planning as a profession, which included a literature review and interviews with practitioners to identify the main pressures on planning practice. It concludes that, despite the reform intentions to widen planners' remits, other governance processes such as managerialism, outsourcing and corporatism more commonly reduced the discretionary space for public sector planners to act. Such space was instead taken up by the private sector, intermediaries and others.