ABSTRACT
The story of Britain in the half-century after the Second World War was one of rapid change, unparalleled in some respects during any other era, save that of the Industrial Revolution. The Barlow Commission seems to have assumed, and the professional planners followed them without serious question, that it would be possible after the war largely to control inter-regional migration through effective controls on new industrial location. The local authorities had the power but were unlikely to agree on a strong regional strategy. The return of a political concern with a wider focus on the governance and planning of not only English regions, but also metropolitan areas, had been associated with the devolution agenda of the New Labour government after 1997. That localism manifested itself through neighbourhood planning schemes that allow local people to have a direct statutory say over local planning issues over smaller, recognizable, geographical areas, is not in any doubt.
