ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the tensions of planning for economic progress in the UK, where the dominant framing of the economy overemphasises the role of specialisation and agglomeration as growth strategies, underplaying the role of economic diversity and the costs of agglomeration. It reviews the way planners approach planning for the economy, looking at how national guidance has changed, with increasing emphasis on market imperatives. It considers the nature of the ‘evidence’ on the economy that is prepared and used to inform planning policy, and what this evidence typically includes and excludes. It concludes by reflecting on what future political and economic changes might mean for planning for economic progress.
