Urban (re)development is usually the responsibility of local government, but there are local projects which generate large national welfare effects and where national government is directly involved. However, while national government involvement in local (re)development can be legitimised theoretically, evidence from the Netherlands, France and England suggests that in practice the question of legitimacy is far from unambiguous. This paper therefore addresses the questions 1) which grounds may legitimise the involvement of national government in local urban (re)development projects (ex ante), and 2) to which extent the involvement of national government in local projects may indeed be justified by the results of the project (ex post). First, it compares the involvement of national governments in urban (re)development in the Netherlands, France and England. Second, it evaluates the involvement of Dutch national government in local development projects based on an analysis of a series of large-scale (re)development projects (key projects).