Glasgow City Region is Scotland's only metropolitan area and covers a third of Scotland’s population and generates a third of its economic wealth.

The City Region has a long and distinguished history of joint working on strategic planning dating back over 70 years with the current being Clydeplan. Predecessor organisations include Strathclyde Regional Council and the Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Structure Plan Joint Committee. Previous statutory regional plans were called Structure Plans and Strategic Development Plans.

Clydeplan operates as a Local Government Joint Committee and comprises the eight local authorities of East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire. These authorities work together on regional planning matters as set out in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

The principal role of Clydeplan is to prepare and maintain an up-to-date Regional Spatial Strategy for the Glasgow City Region. This process involves engagement through joint working and consultation with a number of key stakeholder organisations and the wider community.

Unlike its predecessor the Strategic Development Plan, the Regional Spatial Strategy will not form part of the statutory Development Plan system. This will now comprise of the National Planning Framework and the Local Development Plan.

To support this process a Management Team comprising senior planning officers from the eight local authorities and a dedicated Core Team have been established.