Trust and governance in regional planning

This paper seeks to understand how planning systems respond to narratives of distrust, focusing on regional planning as a particularly contested field. Using a framework to explore how reforms have enhanced trust, analysis of cases in England and Denmark reveals two distinct actions: firstly, a reliance on strengthening formal mechanisms of government, a feature common in England, and secondly, collaborative governance, as seen in Denmark. However, both strategies fail to adequately enhance trust in the values of regional planning, leaving it vulnerable to ideological critique as a worthwhile form of government.