Sustainable development in regional planning: The search for new tools and renewed legitimacy

This paper focuses on sustainability appraisal as a key technique for pursuing the political goal of 'sustainable development' within English planning. We conclude that unlike many planning tools of the past which have sought to depoliticise decision making by using more 'scientific' techniques, the early experience of sustainability appraisal has instead repoliticised them, by highlighting where tensions exist but without providing solutions.