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Regional problems, problem regions, and public policy in the United Kingdom
Book
The rise and fall of regional industrial policy REGIONAL PROBLEMS, PROBLEM REGIONS, AND PUBLIC POLICY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM edited by Peter Damesick Wood Oxford University 1987, 275 P/J
and Peter
Press. Oxford, UK,
This book reviews the recent history of regional industrial policy in the UK. It provides a series of regional case studies around issues of regional economic change and public policy initiatives, all inter-twined with the particular characteristics of each region. A concluding chapter draws short together common threads and poses a number of pointers for the future of regional policy. The first three context-setting chapters by Damesick chart the gradual build-up of consensus for regional industrial policy, and its rapid demise after 1976, especially in the 1980s. The book was written before the announcement of the abandonment of regional industrial policy by the Conservative government in 1987.
A fresh start The authors present a picture of the UK space economy which argues the case for greater regional economic and physical planning. In this sense the book runs counter to current governmarket-led ment thinking where approaches, public expenditure reductions, and less governmental intervention are seen as central blocks of government policy. The editors argue in the last chapter that ‘regional planning and policy approaches . now need to be adapted in practice to fit the changed economic conditions of the late 1980s and 1990s. The present enfeebled state of regional planning and policy provides both motive and opportunity for a fresh start, with new initiatives these appropriate to changed conditions’ (p 226). Clearly the UK government takes the view
CITIES August
1988
that a fresh start requires the abolition of regional industrial policy which the authors often clearly demonstrate has not been particularly efficient in its past use of resources. Running through the book lies a changed agenda from the mid-1970s, that of the growing emphasis on spatial economic policy to confront the issue of urban, rather than regional, economic decline. An emphasis which has subsequently come to now dominate UK spatial economic policy, and has been amply elucidated by other books from Oxford University Press (particularly the series of studies published as a result of the Economic and Social Research Council’s major Inner Cities in Context research programme). Damesick and Wood’s book provides a useful complement to that series. There are eight regional case studies; thus not all UK regions are covered. Though the individual regional chapters have a number of structural points in common it is their diversity of approach which stands out. The regional case studies are best read as individual cases, which build up an overall impression of regional economic issues and spatial policy impacts. It is in this area that the book could have been strengthened with greater editorial control over case study content. Several themes emerge from the case studies, but most have to be searched out by the reader. These include: the significance of public spending decisions on regional economies, the differing weight given by authors to the role of local authorities in economic development; the impact of non-spatial policies as key elements of regional economic change; the tardiness of central government in developing a full understanding of issues in emergent problem regions; the sheer state of confusing lack of clarity and lack of coordination of a multiplicity of new initiatives particularly since the mid-1970s; the lack of any overall policy framework within
reviews
which policy initiatives logically fit. The editors’ draw out some of these points, but the wealth of information and analysis in the case studies is, disappointingly, not tapped as much as it deserves. Essentially one is left with the feeling of an experimenting state, not knowing what appropriate policies might be, but trying out a wide range of initiatives in the hope of discovering some form of breakthrough. Unfortunately, the impression from this and other books on this theme is that the learning, which is a key element of any experimental state, is often overlooked by policy makers who may be more anxious to develop yet more new initiatives.
Inadequate
policy
One of the key variables which the editors do discuss is that of the different administrative and political arrangements in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland; the concept of single cabinet minister responsibility for a comprehensive range of functions in Scotland and Wales in particular deserves more analysis. It is not clear what difference such roles achieve, though in the Scottish case Randall, and to a lesser degree Cooke in the Welsh case, present interesting views of the impact of differential administrative and political arrangements. English regions have no such mechanisms and in that sense are therefore at a disadvantage. This case is forcibly made in Wood’s case study of the South-East where much of his argument revolves around the case for new approaches to regional planning interestingly because of the conflicting pressures in the major regional growth area of the UK. The case is persuasively argued, but politically, concepts of regional planning and strategic planning are not in favour. As Cooke argues, the government’s view is ‘that problem regions must become more self-sustaining, more competitive, and less reliant upon central government’ (p 212). A similar point is touched upon by Bristow in his analysis of the North-West and the severe problems of Merseyside. The clear message from the less
303
Book
reviews
prosperous regions is that regional policy in 19X6 was totally inadequate to assist significant economic regeneration. Though in Scotland the case is one of greater optimism. The conclusion of the Northern Region case study is that the rationale for intervention is an economic one, but that the problems in the short term, at least, are mainly social. A similar message emerges from a reading of Bull and Hart’s Northern Ireland case study - a situation of economic change compounded by civil unrest. Since the book’s publication, the emphasis of the lY84 Regional Industrial Policy statement on a more costeffective approach, operating at a lower expenditure level and more closely linked to job generation, has given way to a complete demise of Regional Industrial Policy. Nevertheless, the editors draw out four basic
requirements which they feel need to be built into the management of regional economic growth and decline in the UK. These are the ‘abandonment of narrow conceptions of government’s role in regional development; a framework of regional strategic thinking and planning; more effective channels for communications between regions and central government; and greater support for devolved initiatives’ (p 226). The reality, however, is a government geared to a market-led approach and geared to encouraging and levering the private sector into greater involvement in the economic regeneration of our major cities, as clearly reflected in the 19% government paper Action for Cities. Kenneth M. Spencer lnsfitute of Local Government Studies University of Birmingham, UK
The built environment CRITICAL ISSUES IN URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, VOL I edited by Victor A. Hausner Clarendon
P fess,
Oxford,
1986,
235 PP CRITICAL ISSUES IN URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, VOL II edited by Victor A. Hausner Clarendon
Press,
Oxford,
1987,
207 PP Since the early 1970s Britain’s urban economic landscape has undergone a striking transformation. Manufacturonce the pre-eminent ing industry, source of employment, now provides jobs for only a shrinking minority of the urban population. In many cities the built environment which formerly accommodated the ‘workshop of the world’ remains, but in a varied state of decay. Slowly, the legacy of Britain’s industrial past is being modified. Decayed factories, warehouses and infrastructure are being cleared or rehabilitated in an attempt to provide an
304
environment more suitable for the needs of the service sector and conducive to the location of modern industry. However, service sector growth has not prevented Britain’s inner cities from becoming slums, containing some of the most deprived members of society, with high rates of long-term unemployment, youth unemployment, crime, and a whole gamut of other social problems. Spurred on by economic change and high unemployment, virtually every city council is engaged in urban economic development. Local authorities pursue a myriad of different economic initiatives. The resources available locally for these initiatives are limited, and city councils are, for the most part, dependent upon the shifting sands of central government’s urban policy and largess from the European Economic Community. It is in this context that these volumes present the findings of an ambitious research endeavour initiated by Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project began in the early 1980s with a mandate to examine the processes of urban change, their social effects and
the possibilities for, and the constraints upon, a public policy response to the urban effects of structural economic change. Given the importance for urban scholars and practitioners alike of this research agenda the volumes are somewhat disappointing.
Varied quality The chapters drawn together in these edited volumes are of varied quality, and collectively they fall short of the ESRC’s original far-reaching goals. The volumes lack a clear structure and the individual pieces in concert do not tell a story, but are merely an amalgam of recent research. Furthermore, by the time of publication the data underpinning the analysis in the more substantive chapters were already five years out of date. Despite these criticisms the volumes are recommended to the reader who is prepared to read selectively. The highlights of the first volume are two chapters by Iain Begg. The first, co-authored with Barry Moore and John Rhodes, presents an overview of the major socioeconomic changes in Britain’s cities between I951 and 1981. The population in the larger cities has shrunk and there has been a pervasive decline in the economic base, in particular in the manufacturing sector, while population and employment in smaller towns has grown. The consequences are ‘a growing polarization of society charactcrized by concentrated poverty, dependence, unemployment, and deterioration for those left behind in the cities’. These conclusions are clearly substantiated by the subsequent chapter, co-authored with David Everslcy, in which an analysis of various social indicators shows acute social polarizntion in Britain’s cities. economic development Urban promoted by local authorities in response to these conditions is then described in chapters by Liz Mills and Ken Young, and John Mawson and David Miller. The former presents data drawn from two postal surveys of local economic development officers and their staff. This examines the relative weight given by local authorities to the different economic development tools available, such as the
CITIES August
1988
The rise and fall of regional industrial policy REGIONAL PROBLEMS, PROBLEM REGIONS, AND PUBLIC POLICY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM edited by Peter Damesick Wood Oxford University 1987, 275 P/J
and Peter
Press. Oxford, UK,
This book reviews the recent history of regional industrial policy in the UK. It provides a series of regional case studies around issues of regional economic change and public policy initiatives, all inter-twined with the particular characteristics of each region. A concluding chapter draws short together common threads and poses a number of pointers for the future of regional policy. The first three context-setting chapters by Damesick chart the gradual build-up of consensus for regional industrial policy, and its rapid demise after 1976, especially in the 1980s. The book was written before the announcement of the abandonment of regional industrial policy by the Conservative government in 1987.
A fresh start The authors present a picture of the UK space economy which argues the case for greater regional economic and physical planning. In this sense the book runs counter to current governmarket-led ment thinking where approaches, public expenditure reductions, and less governmental intervention are seen as central blocks of government policy. The editors argue in the last chapter that ‘regional planning and policy approaches . now need to be adapted in practice to fit the changed economic conditions of the late 1980s and 1990s. The present enfeebled state of regional planning and policy provides both motive and opportunity for a fresh start, with new initiatives these appropriate to changed conditions’ (p 226). Clearly the UK government takes the view
CITIES August
1988
that a fresh start requires the abolition of regional industrial policy which the authors often clearly demonstrate has not been particularly efficient in its past use of resources. Running through the book lies a changed agenda from the mid-1970s, that of the growing emphasis on spatial economic policy to confront the issue of urban, rather than regional, economic decline. An emphasis which has subsequently come to now dominate UK spatial economic policy, and has been amply elucidated by other books from Oxford University Press (particularly the series of studies published as a result of the Economic and Social Research Council’s major Inner Cities in Context research programme). Damesick and Wood’s book provides a useful complement to that series. There are eight regional case studies; thus not all UK regions are covered. Though the individual regional chapters have a number of structural points in common it is their diversity of approach which stands out. The regional case studies are best read as individual cases, which build up an overall impression of regional economic issues and spatial policy impacts. It is in this area that the book could have been strengthened with greater editorial control over case study content. Several themes emerge from the case studies, but most have to be searched out by the reader. These include: the significance of public spending decisions on regional economies, the differing weight given by authors to the role of local authorities in economic development; the impact of non-spatial policies as key elements of regional economic change; the tardiness of central government in developing a full understanding of issues in emergent problem regions; the sheer state of confusing lack of clarity and lack of coordination of a multiplicity of new initiatives particularly since the mid-1970s; the lack of any overall policy framework within
reviews
which policy initiatives logically fit. The editors’ draw out some of these points, but the wealth of information and analysis in the case studies is, disappointingly, not tapped as much as it deserves. Essentially one is left with the feeling of an experimenting state, not knowing what appropriate policies might be, but trying out a wide range of initiatives in the hope of discovering some form of breakthrough. Unfortunately, the impression from this and other books on this theme is that the learning, which is a key element of any experimental state, is often overlooked by policy makers who may be more anxious to develop yet more new initiatives.
Inadequate
policy
One of the key variables which the editors do discuss is that of the different administrative and political arrangements in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland; the concept of single cabinet minister responsibility for a comprehensive range of functions in Scotland and Wales in particular deserves more analysis. It is not clear what difference such roles achieve, though in the Scottish case Randall, and to a lesser degree Cooke in the Welsh case, present interesting views of the impact of differential administrative and political arrangements. English regions have no such mechanisms and in that sense are therefore at a disadvantage. This case is forcibly made in Wood’s case study of the South-East where much of his argument revolves around the case for new approaches to regional planning interestingly because of the conflicting pressures in the major regional growth area of the UK. The case is persuasively argued, but politically, concepts of regional planning and strategic planning are not in favour. As Cooke argues, the government’s view is ‘that problem regions must become more self-sustaining, more competitive, and less reliant upon central government’ (p 212). A similar point is touched upon by Bristow in his analysis of the North-West and the severe problems of Merseyside. The clear message from the less
303
Book
reviews
prosperous regions is that regional policy in 19X6 was totally inadequate to assist significant economic regeneration. Though in Scotland the case is one of greater optimism. The conclusion of the Northern Region case study is that the rationale for intervention is an economic one, but that the problems in the short term, at least, are mainly social. A similar message emerges from a reading of Bull and Hart’s Northern Ireland case study - a situation of economic change compounded by civil unrest. Since the book’s publication, the emphasis of the lY84 Regional Industrial Policy statement on a more costeffective approach, operating at a lower expenditure level and more closely linked to job generation, has given way to a complete demise of Regional Industrial Policy. Nevertheless, the editors draw out four basic
requirements which they feel need to be built into the management of regional economic growth and decline in the UK. These are the ‘abandonment of narrow conceptions of government’s role in regional development; a framework of regional strategic thinking and planning; more effective channels for communications between regions and central government; and greater support for devolved initiatives’ (p 226). The reality, however, is a government geared to a market-led approach and geared to encouraging and levering the private sector into greater involvement in the economic regeneration of our major cities, as clearly reflected in the 19% government paper Action for Cities. Kenneth M. Spencer lnsfitute of Local Government Studies University of Birmingham, UK
The built environment CRITICAL ISSUES IN URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, VOL I edited by Victor A. Hausner Clarendon
P fess,
Oxford,
1986,
235 PP CRITICAL ISSUES IN URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, VOL II edited by Victor A. Hausner Clarendon
Press,
Oxford,
1987,
207 PP Since the early 1970s Britain’s urban economic landscape has undergone a striking transformation. Manufacturonce the pre-eminent ing industry, source of employment, now provides jobs for only a shrinking minority of the urban population. In many cities the built environment which formerly accommodated the ‘workshop of the world’ remains, but in a varied state of decay. Slowly, the legacy of Britain’s industrial past is being modified. Decayed factories, warehouses and infrastructure are being cleared or rehabilitated in an attempt to provide an
304
environment more suitable for the needs of the service sector and conducive to the location of modern industry. However, service sector growth has not prevented Britain’s inner cities from becoming slums, containing some of the most deprived members of society, with high rates of long-term unemployment, youth unemployment, crime, and a whole gamut of other social problems. Spurred on by economic change and high unemployment, virtually every city council is engaged in urban economic development. Local authorities pursue a myriad of different economic initiatives. The resources available locally for these initiatives are limited, and city councils are, for the most part, dependent upon the shifting sands of central government’s urban policy and largess from the European Economic Community. It is in this context that these volumes present the findings of an ambitious research endeavour initiated by Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project began in the early 1980s with a mandate to examine the processes of urban change, their social effects and
the possibilities for, and the constraints upon, a public policy response to the urban effects of structural economic change. Given the importance for urban scholars and practitioners alike of this research agenda the volumes are somewhat disappointing.
Varied quality The chapters drawn together in these edited volumes are of varied quality, and collectively they fall short of the ESRC’s original far-reaching goals. The volumes lack a clear structure and the individual pieces in concert do not tell a story, but are merely an amalgam of recent research. Furthermore, by the time of publication the data underpinning the analysis in the more substantive chapters were already five years out of date. Despite these criticisms the volumes are recommended to the reader who is prepared to read selectively. The highlights of the first volume are two chapters by Iain Begg. The first, co-authored with Barry Moore and John Rhodes, presents an overview of the major socioeconomic changes in Britain’s cities between I951 and 1981. The population in the larger cities has shrunk and there has been a pervasive decline in the economic base, in particular in the manufacturing sector, while population and employment in smaller towns has grown. The consequences are ‘a growing polarization of society charactcrized by concentrated poverty, dependence, unemployment, and deterioration for those left behind in the cities’. These conclusions are clearly substantiated by the subsequent chapter, co-authored with David Everslcy, in which an analysis of various social indicators shows acute social polarizntion in Britain’s cities. economic development Urban promoted by local authorities in response to these conditions is then described in chapters by Liz Mills and Ken Young, and John Mawson and David Miller. The former presents data drawn from two postal surveys of local economic development officers and their staff. This examines the relative weight given by local authorities to the different economic development tools available, such as the
CITIES August
1988