ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the legacy for New Labour in the fields of planning and environmental policy left by the outgoing New Right Major government, and additionally attempts to identify the political ideological ethos and history of policy development behind changes to planning occurring after 1997. It outlines the major policy amendments announced to date and offers a perspective on the development of the planning polity under a New Labour administration since 1997.
The scale of the Labour Party’s parliamentary victory in the British General Election on 1 May 1997, and what appeared to be the widespread sense of relief amongst the general public that accompanied it, brought an end to the increasingly shambolic government of John Major. The collapse of the financial markets in 1992,
