ABSTRACT
In the built-environment sector, planning efforts have always rested on a foundation of regulation and will continue to do so; this is explored further in Chapter 9. From time to time, right-wing governments have experimented with creating no-planning areas (such as Enterprise Zones or Simplified Planning Zones in the UK in the 1980s). That these experiments did not always make as much difference as expected was not so much a reflection on the overall lack of regulation within the UK planning system but rather testimony to the continued benefits of other modes of planning interventions, notably coordinated plans and detailed discussion between planners, developers and other interested actors on the future of sites and areas. Therefore these patterns of engagement between planners, developers and others, in order to create plans and policies and bring them to fruition, will continue to characterize planning activities; that is, planning will continue to involve governance processes. Planning through governance has come to be termed spatial planning. Understanding how spatial planning through governance processes works and how it relates to other modes of governing is of key importance in discussions of promoting sustainable urban development.
