The challenge of GI mainstreaming within market-led planning and development systems: assessing attitudes and experiences of regime level actors

This paper examines the challenges of green infrastructure (GI) mainstreaming within market-led planning and development systems, where the incorporation of GI depends on how developers, professional consultancies and public planning authorities interpret regulatory expectations, financial risk and development value within project decision-making. Drawing on elite interviews, the study explores how these market-facing actors negotiate the delivery of GI within development processes. The findings show that GI mainstreaming is shaped not simply by the presence of structural barriers but by relational dynamics between actors with different mandates, risk exposures and forms of authority. Developers, consultancies and public planning authorities interpret GI requirements in different ways, leading to negotiation, alignment and sometimes displacement of responsibility within development decision-making. By foregrounding actor interdependencies, the paper advances understanding of GI governance within market-led development systems and highlights the importance of analysing sustainability transitions through the institutional dynamics of development regimes.