Understanding 'new regional policy': What is behind the government's sub-national economic development and regeneration policy for England?

Abstract

This paper considers what is behind sub-national economic development and regeneration policy for England and how relevant it is to the economic development and regeneration challenges faced by sub-national places. It shows how the present paradigm, 'new regional policy' (or 'regionalism'), has been shaped out of endogenous growth theory and how it differs in policy prescription from the other two paradigms ('neoclassical' and neo-Keynesian' economics) which collectively provide the broad sets of ideas that have shaped national and sub-national policy since 1945. It then considers whether sub-national policy is working and what the way forward might be for policy development.