Planning and technological innovation: the governance challenges faced by English local authorities in adopting planning technologies

The term ‘smart city’ has become synonymous with a technologically cultivated utopia, where urban problems can be solved computationally. This approach to urban development has been promoted as a method of enabling city administrations to become more proactive when dealing with issues including pollution, traffic flow and congestion, public safety, energy use, and urban planning. This trend towards using technology in urban management and planning has sparked research and development initiatives across the planet. In the UK, the #PlanTech trend is a governmental initiative that aims to improve engagement between various actors in the planning system, including local authorities and central government, with tech start-ups and digital entrepreneurs who can design solutions to the problems currently experienced by planners, developers, and citizens alike. Despite the significant opportunities that technologies offer city council planning departments in terms of productivity, existing governance models can be shown to represent a significant obstacle to implementation. This paper uses case study research conducted at two English city councils – Coventry and Leeds – to examine the implications of planning reforms and digital transformation of public services on urban planning governance. Utilizing the information gained from a combination of semi-structured interviews and stakeholder engagement exercises, it examines the growing emphasis on technology in planning practice within the public sector and discusses the potential implications that it may have for current governance arrangements. Finally, it suggests what a framework for future urban planning governance within an English political context, in the era of the smart city might require. The paper overall offers a critical view of how current urban planning practice and governance procedures are being quickly subsumed by digital technologies which offer novel and effective methods for professional planners yet are undermined, or are inhibited, by current governance arrangements.