This chapter addresses the reform of government in England over the entire period between 1997 and 2007. First, the chapter considers the nature of the territorial strain, problem and resources for change present in England. Second, the chapter considers peripheral elite leadership in England — whether through intermediate English elite or English regional elite leadership — and the codes, strategies and goals pursued. It explores further the thesis that movements for territorial change also in England adopted indirect instrumental cases for territorial reform rather than direct identity-based ones, emphasising functional arguments and the development of institutional mechanisms for gradual decentralisation, rather than major root and branch reform. Third, the chapter analyses the approach of UK central government, and in particular that of the British Labour leadership both in opposition before 1997 and in government afterwards. Here, we should note that Bulpitt suggested that the English governing code had tended to parallel the indirect local elite assimilation approach used territorially in the rest of the UK. Nevertheless, under modernisation projects since the 1960s, including those of the Thatcher–Major governments, the overall government strategy was a promotional one, often requiring direct central intervention in the short term to realise central governing projects. Finally, the chapter assesses the policy process by which English reform was developed, the extent to which it may be seen as effective and legitimate, and judged as successful or not in sustaining a new centre.
Territorial Politics, Devolution and Spatial Planning in the UK: Results, Prospects, Lessons