Treatment of the Environment in Regional Planning: A Stronger Line for Sustainable Development?

In this article we review the treatment of the environment in the current round of Regional Planning Guidance(RPG), focusing upon policies for biodiversity and water management. Although different regions address these issues in different ways, with regional development politics setting the remit within which policies are initially formed, new arrangements for greater stakeholder involvement and public examinations can be seen to be having an important impact. Our analysis demonstrates how the RPG process has helped to strengthen environmental policies in some regions, like the North, whilst in others what were fairly strong approaches to the environment were questioned on the grounds of development.