Private expertise and the reorganization of spatial planning in England

Abstract

The history of planning in the United Kingdom is one of shifting roles, responsibilities and claims to knowledge between the public and private sectors. This chapter explores how recent attempts to reform and reorganize spatial planning in England have opened up new market opportunities for private-sector consultants and public-private dynamics which are increasingly difficult to disentangle. This reflects on both the substantive reforms witnessed within spatial planning since 2010, alongside the ideational consistencies regarding public and private realms that have underpinned the privileged role afforded to private-sector actors. This seeks to show how the changing geographies of planning as a state-territorial project reveals at the very least an ambivalence toward the rise of the so-called consultocracy.