ABSTRACT
The Localism Act’s commitment to promoting Neighbourhood Planning has received an enthusiastic response from community groups in England, with over 2,000 plans prepared in the first six years. At the same time, academics and practitioners have raised questions about the neo-liberal and exclusionary nature of Neighbourhood Planning, given its requirement to comply with broader government agendas for growth. This chapter explores these contradictions by exploring the more progressive credentials of planning by and for neighbourhoods, and highlighting the variegated and non-uniform landscape of Neighbourhood Planning in London, where tensions raised by neo-liberal urban politics are particularly tangible.
