ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on regional planning processes in the English regions and in particular, on the role of the Government Offices for the Regions (GORs). It examines the nature of this partnership in more depth. The chapter also focuses on the role of the GORs which are increasingly seen as having a partnership role with an ever-increasing number of other regional/local institutions and bodies but, nevertheless, also have a remit to implement national planning policy at the regional and local level. English regional planning, in the form of English Regional Planning Guidance (RPG) issued by the Secretary of State for the Environment, first emerged in the early 1990s. This adopted the model established for the preparation of strategic planning guidance (SPG) in London and the metropolitan areas following the abolition of the metropolitan county councils and the subsequent strategic gap in planning policy.
