Sidelining Sustainable Development: Structural Constraints on the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the UK

Abstract

The Agenda 21 agreement of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development specified a central role for local government in achieving sustainable development through a process, known as Local Agenda 21 (LA21), which required local authorities to involve all sections of their local communities in decision-making, policy-formation, and practical action. Thus, in each country, the scope and powers of local government provided the (generally unacknowledged) context for the implementation of the LA21 process. However, in the United Kingdom (UK), in addition to serious budget cuts and some relatively well-documented reductions in the functions and powers of local government, there have also been a number of less well understood systemic changes to its form, scope, and organisational culture, which together have resulted in the political, economic, and structural impoverishment of the ‘hollowed out’ local state. This chapter discusses the historical and international context to these changes, in order to analyse the implications for the implementation of the sustainable urban development policies and practices required by the New Urban Agenda in the UK.