Olivia Gibson is a Policy and Data Analyst at the RTPI
In an increasingly uncertain global economy , how can stakeholders harness Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs) to drive domestic economic development, and what considerations will need addressing during their implementation? The devolution agenda has ramped up over the past year, with the government looking to build on existing mayoral strategic authorities and achieve full coverage across England – including full coverage of SDSs. With proposed geographies under discussion, further guidance on the way, and preparation to commence later this year, SDSs could prove a key spatial policy lever in the Government’s growth mission.
Building the strategic evidence base
To deliver on their Local Growth Plan (LGP) and SDS, each strategic authority must consider the evidence base underpinning the case for investment in their area. New strategic planning authorities should decide early on how to approach building their evidence base, including which existing sources to draw on, and what new data will be needed, balancing foresight of future requirements with what’s practical and ethical to collect.
Given that planning teams have finite resources, to ensure efficiency, authorities can use evidence already collected by their constituent LPAs. While the formula for calculating housing need is standardised, economic needs assessments are not, so different LPAs may use varying sources and methods. This flexibility can help tailor assessments to local context, but it also complicates comparison and aggregation, making it harder to evidence LGPs and SDSs. Some standardisation of economic needs assessments would help create more coherent evidence bases at both strategic and national levels. Standardisation would also facilitate cross-boundary collaboration to make the most of authorities’ individual and collective economic strengths.
Cross-boundary collaboration
Final SDS geographies will not always align completely with functional economic geographies, meaning cross-boundary cooperation will be important for delivering on economic development. Devolution will facilitate this.
Within mayoral strategic authorities (MSAs), the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill allows mayors to appoint commissioners for specific policy areas (including economic development and regeneration). It also empowers mayors to convene local partners and creates a new duty to collaborate, replacing the abolished duty to cooperate, which had caused compliance difficulties, leading to local plan failures.
These powers will make it easier to maintain ongoing inter-authority relationships in commissioners’ policy areas, facilitating collaboration and information exchange. The powers will also make it easier to bring stakeholders together to build consensus and streamline delivery .
In non-mayoral areas, an ‘existing local consensus’ will be relied on to establish SDSs, which will ideally reflect existing productive working relationships. Here, the Planning and Infrastructure Act provides for the creation of strategic planning boards (SPBs), consisting of local representatives, who will devise their SDS in partnership. However, it is possible that – as with the duty to cooperate – the potentially contentious process of SDS creation could strain these inter-authority relationships, or a change in the political makeup of constituent authorities could alter their priorities relating to the SDS.
As SPB terms of reference will be agreed on a case-by-case basis, it is essential that the arrangements have sufficient robustness to address issues like policy disagreements or political churn. The government has an opportunity here to address this in their forthcoming SDS guidance, and ensure that residents and industry can be confident in a consistent approach to economic development.
Engagement with industry and investors
Ensuring that SDSs provide a coherent and consistent spatial vision will form a sustainable foundation for strategic planning authority engagement with industry. Relatedly, building and maintaining collaborative relationships with external stakeholders is another key consideration for authorities.
In the case of private sector investment, while intended to be light touch and high level, SDSs will enable strategic planning authorities to identify and publicise places suitable for economic development. Policy tools like AI growth zones and Industrial Strategy Zones, and the use of powers to be devolved to mayors will help make the relevant areas more attractive to invest or locate in. In addition to the power to convene, these measures will provide certainty and predictability for investors and industry to help deliver on the vision outlined in each area’s SDS.
As we outlined in our 2025 Autumn Budget submission, this must be underpinned by adequate funding for strategic authority planning teams. At the same time, strategic authorities should ensure that strategic planning expertise is represented at senior levels so that the plans and strategies they oversee are spatially coherent, and feed through into the authority’s SDS.
SDSs are intended to spatially represent growth priorities set out at national and strategic levels and will constitute a key mechanism for building consensus on and implementing those priorities. Ongoing global economic uncertainties make it more important than ever that domestic policy provides the long-term vision and stability to deliver on economic development priorities. To make the most of devolution and spatial development strategies, strategic planning authorities must consider how they will collaborate cross-boundary to maximise collective economic strengths and use newly devolved powers to engage proactively with external stakeholders. Strategies must also be underpinned by a robust evidence base. While some of the above will rightly be devolved to strategic planning authorities, clear guidance from the government would still be welcome to help ensure authorities seize the opportunities presented by SDSs.
