A think-tank report examined poverty and social exclusion in London. It predicted that the gulf between London's 'haves' and 'have-nots' was likely to widen over the following few years.
Source: Will Norman and Rushanara Ali, Stuck on London's Hard Shoulder: Social needs in a fast moving city, Young Foundation
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined proposals by the new government to replace Regional Development Agencies with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). It said that the move was 'profoundly anti-regionalist' and amounted to recentralization in disguise, given that many economic development functions were being taken back by Whitehall. The problem risked being exacerbated by a fragmentation of LEPs into small territorial units, and by a lack of resources.
Source: Gill Bentley, David Bailey and John Shutt, 'From RDAs to LEPs: a new localism? Case examples of West Midlands and Yorkshire', Local Economy, Volume 25 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A paper examined the process of spatial integration in 10 European cross-border metropolitan regions. The greater the economic disparities, the greater the level of interactions measured by cross-border commuting. Strong economic interactions also had an impact on the cross-border integration of communities, measured by the proportion of residents based on the other side of the border.
Source: Antoine Decoville, Frederic Durand, Christophe Sohn and Olivier Walther, Spatial Integration in European Cross-Border Metropolitan Regions: A comparative approach, Working Paper 2010/40, Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies (CEPS/INSTEAD)
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined the strengths and weaknesses of the city or sub-regional approach to economic development. Although proposals by the new government for 'rescaling' sub-national governance away from the regional level created the necessary 'space' to develop sub-regional bodies, and offered genuine opportunities for both city and county local economic partnerships, the scale of the sub-regional challenge should not be underestimated – particularly given the context of economic recession and major reductions in the public sector.
Source: Keith Shaw and Paul Greenhalgh, 'Revisiting the "missing middle" in English sub-national governance', Local Economy, Volume 25 Issue 5/6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A report examined the links between housing and regional economic disparities. Housing was likely to contribute to regional disparities: but there was a danger of blaming housing for more deep-seated social issues.
Source: Geoffrey Meen and Andi Nygaard, Housing and Regional Economic Disparities: Economics paper 5, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Nov
An article examined university 'spin-offs' in Northern Ireland. It was found that the companies involved were 'technology lifestyle' businesses rather than start-ups with a high growth potential. The prominence given to spin-offs in the analysis of technology transfer, and in discussions of the economic impacts of universities, was misplaced.
Source: Richard Harrison and Claire Leitch, 'Voodoo institution or entrepreneurial university? Spin-off companies, the entrepreneurial system and regional development in the UK', Regional Studies, Volume 44 Number 9
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report examined the effect of the government's 2010 Spending Review on the north-south divide. The fundamental problem with the Review was that it lacked a rigorous and challenging strategy for economic growth. In the absence of such a strategy the north of England needed to seize the initiative itself and drive forward an economic agenda that liberated regional economic prosperity from the limitations of a Whitehall agenda tied to the demands of the south-east of England.
Source: Ed Cox and Katie Schmuecker, Well North of Fair: The implications of the Spending Review for the north of England, IPPR North/Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Oct
A report examined the impact of abolishing regional planning strategies in England, focusing on regions in the midlands and the north. There had been a substantial delay in replacing house-building targets. Some local authorities were struggling to understand the nature and scope of their new responsibilities, and were concerned that they did not have the financial or technical resources to assess local housing need.
Source: David Burton with Ben Pattison, Jennifer Strutt and Jim Vine, Abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies: Rapid impact assessment for the midlands and north of England, Building and Social Housing Foundation
Links: Report | BSHF press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper examined static equilibrium-based notions of regional resilience, and instead advanced a more dynamic evolutionary approach to explain local and regional resilience. It explored the notions of adaptability, adaptive capacity, and new path creation in developing local and regional resilience.
Source: Stuart Dawley, Andy Pike and John Tomaney, Towards the Resilient Region? Policy activism and peripheral region development, Discussion Paper 53, Spatial Economics Research Centre/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Sep
The new coalition government announced that it had revoked regional spatial strategies (by an order under the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Act 2009).
Source: Written Ministerial Statement 6 July 2010, columns 4-5WS, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | DCLG press release | RTPI press release | PCS press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government confirmed that regional development agencies in England would be scrapped. They would be replaced by 'local enterprise partnerships' that would bring together local councils and businesses. The government also launched a £1 billion 'regional growth fund' to help areas and communities at particular risk from public spending cuts.
Source: Press release 29 June 2010, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: DBIS press release | Centre for Cities press release | CBI press release | BCC press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jun
An audit report reviewed the data systems used to support delivery of the Labour government's public service agreement 7 – to 'improve the economic performance of all English regions and reduce the gap in economic growth rates between regions' – over the period from 2008.
Source: Review of the Data Systems for Public Service Agreement 7, National Audit Office
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
An audit report said that the physical regeneration programmes of regional development agencies had helped to generate additional regional wealth. But it identified weaknesses in procedures for identifying the projects that would maximize regional economic growth.
Source: Regenerating the English Regions: Regional development agencies' support to physical regeneration projects, HC 214 (Session 2009-10), National Audit Office/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The government published a policy statement setting out a framework for the preparation of regional strategies, including the main expectations in relation to form, content, implementation, and monitoring.
Source: Policy Statement on Regional Strategies, Department for Communities and Local Government/Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Policy statement
Date: 2010-Feb
A paper said that cuts in public expenditure proposed by all the main political parties would have a 'devastating effect' on most regions of the United Kingdom – except the south east – because of their direct or indirect reliance on the state for employment and welfare.
Source: John Buchanan, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver and Karel Williams, Undisclosed and Unsustainable: Problems of the UK national business model, Working Paper 75, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change/University of Manchester
Links: Paper | Manchester University press release
Date: 2010-Feb
An article examined the way in which the Labour government 'framed' the policy and practice debate on social enterprise, the way in which 'strategic' networks were (or were not) facilitated, and the extent to which scale and geography shaped policy choices after 1997. The importance of regional networks in promoting practice and protecting innovation was often poorly developed and supported.
Source: John Mawson, 'Social enterprise, strategic networks and regional development: the West Midlands experience', International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Volume 30 Issue 1/2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Feb