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The Politics of City-Region Planning and Governance

Reconciling the National, Regional and Urban in the Competing Voices of Institutional Restructuring

University of Aberdeen, UK

Donald McNeill

University of Southampton, UK, donald.mcneill{at}soton.ac.uk

Issues relating to the governance of urban areas and regions have become of increasing interest to academics and policy analysts. In the global economy, urban and economic development matters are being interpreted within the governance framework. As a consequence of the lack of a formal statutory metropolitan political focus within the UK over the last 30 years, much of this debate has invariably focused on one scale: the city or the local. But the New Labour Government’s political and administrative restructuring of the institutions and regions of governance is reconfiguring the city development issue onto another level. In future, it will be possible to view the urban governance issue from the perspective of a much broader framework, involving issues relating to urban policies within institutions operating at the regional level. This article is intended to chart the development of a push towards city-region planning and governance in the UK. It focuses specifically on political and institutional restructuring as a catalyst to a reconceptualization of the urban problem, and assesses four key components that have engendered this sense of strategic policy making over the last few years: central government funding opportunities through partnerships; the emergence of regional planning; the creation of regional development agencies with an urban remit; and opportunities provided by European Union funding mechanisms. The article concludes by outlining possible future directions for city regions and identifies where future research is required.

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