Localism: a planning panacea?

© 2019 Liverpool University Press. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2019.31It has been observed that there is a 'global trend' towards devolution of power from national governments to regional and local authorities, and planning is one of the activities often devolved. In England, the UK government has since 2011 gone further and, it claims, devolved planning powers to the community level. The introduction of a new form of statutory planning - neighbourhood planning - was heralded by the UK government as an embodiment of their commitment to 'localism', representing a shift from top-down to bottom-up control in the English planning system. This Policy and Practice explores some of the tensions inherent in localism as exemplified through the practical implementation of neighbourhood planning.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio