The Greenest government ever? Planning and sustainability in England after the May 2010 coalition government

This paper assesses how reforms being introduced in England by the May 2010 Coalition government may affect the capacity of the planning system to promote sustainability. Although moves towards decentralization may allow more innovative local responses to environmental challenges than seemed likely under New Labour, they raise dilemmas of coordination, capacity and accountability for wider, international environmental goals. In certain key respects, the implications of the Coalition's proposals for sustainability and planning echo those of preceding Labour governments. Neither allows planning a major role in more reflexive forms of governance, through which localized challenges to plans and projects can be connected to wider, overarching policy change. Both have sought to increase the emphasis on economic growth in their conception of sustainability