England: The State of the Regions

ENGLAND......Page 2
Contents......Page 4
List of tables and figures......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
List of contributors......Page 10
1. Introduction......Page 12
New Labour and the English Question......Page 13
The structure of this book......Page 14
Introduction......Page 22
Regions and the ‘New Regionalism’......Page 23
The rationale for regional government......Page 24
What might regions look like?......Page 26
What would regional government do?......Page 27
Implementing regional government......Page 28
Conclusions......Page 30
The regional debate......Page 36
Institutions of regional governance......Page 40
Civic regionalism......Page 48
Whitehall......Page 50
Outlook......Page 51
The main social and economic challenges facing Yorkshire: the competitive disadvantage of the region......Page 56
Meeting the challenges......Page 59
Yorkshire Forward (YF): Yorkshire and the Humber RDA......Page 60
The Regional Assembly for Yorkshire and Humberside......Page 62
The Regional Chamber for Yorkshire and Humberside......Page 63
The Campaign for Yorkshire......Page 64
The main controversies: the emergence of distinctive regional policy issues......Page 65
The response of social and political interests in the regions to the prospect of elected regional government......Page 67
The regional media......Page 68
Conclusion......Page 69
Introduction......Page 74
West Midlands regional socio-economic context......Page 75
The legacy of regional working......Page 76
New Labour’s regional agenda: continuity and change......Page 77
Institutional tensions......Page 83
The politics of regionalism......Page 86
Achievements and prospects......Page 88
Introduction – a fragmented region?......Page 92
Main social and economic challenges facing the region......Page 93
How have the new regional institutions settled in each region?......Page 96
Meeting the challenges in the North West......Page 99
The prospects for elected regional government, and civic interest in regionalism?......Page 101
Conclusion......Page 102
The regional context......Page 106
The response in the main regional strategies......Page 107
Next steps – the main issues to be addressed......Page 112
Attitudes towards elected regional government......Page 115
Conclusions......Page 116
The East of England and recent institution building......Page 120
Geographical boundaries and regional identity......Page 121
Political and administrative regionalism: government and governance......Page 129
Conclusions......Page 132
9. The South East region?......Page 136
The social and economic challenges of the South East......Page 137
The new regional institutions......Page 142
The response of social and political interests......Page 143
Conclusions......Page 144
The main social and economic challenges facing the region......Page 148
The role of regional strategies......Page 150
The new institutional arrangements in the North East......Page 151
Civic regionalism......Page 154
The East Midlands......Page 158
Institution building and liaison......Page 160
Strategy and strategic plans in the East Midlands......Page 162
Strategy development and liaison with partners......Page 166
Conclusions......Page 167
Joining up: governance failure in the English regions?......Page 170
The pattern of regional governance......Page 173
Regionalisation in practice: the case of cultural policy......Page 176
The problem of regional governance......Page 179
13. Elected regional government: the issues......Page 184
What would regional government do?......Page 188
Functions......Page 190
Other issues......Page 192
Getting from here to there......Page 193
Political pitfalls......Page 194
Conclusion......Page 196
Introduction......Page 198
Pre-Barnett spending distribution......Page 199
The Barnett formula......Page 201
The English regions......Page 206
The need for a needs assessment......Page 207
The problems of needs......Page 209
The needs of the regions......Page 211
The scale of the problem......Page 212
Possible solutions......Page 213
Conclusion......Page 215
Towards regional assemblies?......Page 218
The shape of things to come?......Page 220
Limits to regionalism?......Page 223
Financing regionalism......Page 224
A space to be different?......Page 226
Best value......Page 227
The political challenge......Page 228
Index......Page 230