ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the nature of the differential arrangements for institutional innovation and spatial planning that are evolving in order to provide a framework for accommodating interests associated with development at national, regional and local levels of decision making. Institutional innovation sits comfortably alongside the contemporary processes of devolution and decentralisation of arrangements for economic development and innovation. The creation of enhanced institutional capacity for strategic spatial planning can help to realise the full potential of participative and integrative processes involved in land use planning. In Wales and Northern Ireland, institutional innovation is based on the design of a parent economic development strategy that sets out a framework for economic management and that contains a spatial dimension at its core. The strategic and spatial dimension is linked to associated institutional innovation. An enhancement of institutional capacity in relation to spatial planning may allow more effective engagement with the geopolitical divisions and variations within national economies.
