Spatial Policy in a Divided Nation

Over the last decade, there has been a radical departure from the traditional role and nature of public policy for the problem regions of the UK. The map of regional aids has been redrawn and there has been a major change in the package of assistance available. These developments in the area of spatial policy in the UK are taking place against the background of renewed debate on the pattern of spatial economic change at both regional and sub-regional level. There is a particular concern that the North-South divide is persisting and may in fact be widening, that the benefits of the recent growth in the national economy are not being felt to an equal extent in all parts of the country and that, reinforcing this trend, national industrial policies (such as technology policy and small firm support, which are the cornerstone of the future policy environment) have a pronounced regionally differentiated impact. This re-evaluation of the role of regional policy in the UK has been accompanied by a much closer identification of regional policy with national economic policymaking.
This book, drawing upon the contributions of a large number of experts in the field in the UK, sets the debate on the future of spatial policy explicitly within the context of the economics and politics of the North-South divide. Recent policy debates in the United Kingdom have highlighted two major issues which will shape future policy developments and their impact in the 1990s - the persistence of pronounced regional economic and social imbalances and the shift away from traditional perceptions of the role of regional policy, with a new emphasis on inner-city as opposed to regional problems. In this collection by leading researchers in the field, the role of regional policy in the UK is re-evaluated against a background of renewed debate on the economic disparities inherent in the north-south divide and an assessment of the implications for future policy.