New Strategic Drivers for the Regeneration of Cities

Abstract

Since 1997, when the Planning Policy Guidance note 1 (PPG1) was revised, the English government has attempted to reinvigorate and update the role of planning in policies of local and national territorial control. Several documents explicitly stressed the new task of active intervention that should connote the actions of local authorities in assuring adequate qualitative standards for the enhancement and development of urban areas, not merely from a spatial perspective but also in terms of their social and economic profiles. Given the complex knit of objectives to be pursued in any attempt to wed competitiveness and sustainability, legislation placed particular emphasis on the plan as a flexible and indispensable instrument for controlling and verifying development processes.