Institutional capacity building in a strategic policy vacuum: the case of the Korean company LG in South Wales

In recent work on collaborative planning arguments have been made for the l and-use planning system and local government to be considered within a broa der context of local systems of governance and institutional capacity build ing. We consider the impact of the planning system upon a major inward-inve stment project within a system of governance in Wales which is unique in th e sense that there is a vacuum of formal strategic planning. The investment by the Korean company LG, at Newport, South Wales, has prompted a degree o f strategic collaboration between some of the institutions and organisation s of local governance in South Wales. However, the LG case reveals some imp ortant limits to such strategic collaboration. The extreme flexibility requ ired of the planning system by major inward investors promotes a rather imp overished form of strategic collaboration which is hierarchical in nature a nd select in its coverage both of the relevant institutions and organisatio ns of governance and of the planning issues involved. In conclusion we iden tify some of the implications of the rather limited way in which the planni ng system currently impinges on inward investors through local systems of g overnance.