Lessons from the History of Regional Development Policy in the UK
by Ronald Martin, Andy Pike, John Tomaney, Steve Fothergill, Valerie Wright, Jim Tomlinson, Anne Green, Elvira Uyarra, David Charles, Clare Bambra and Peter Tyler

- Year
- 2024
- Publisher
- The British Academy
- Number of pages
- 108
Summary
Learning from the past to develop effective regional policies for the future is increasingly urgent in the context of longstanding but growing spatial inequalities that can be traced back to the 19th century, if not before. Regional economic inequalities in the UK are currently wider than they have been since the inter-war years, despite almost a century of regional policy experimentation in this area by successive governments. Further to this, the UK currently has the largest regional health inequalities in western Europe, which entail large costs to the economy. In the light of these challenges, this regional development policy history offers a socio-historic analysis of a number of key regional policy developments from the past century, with a view to harnessing insights and learnings from these for contemporary policymakers.