The paper documents, for the first time at the European Community scale, a relative shift of manufacturing industry from highly urbanised to rural regions during the 1970s. This shift is evident in terms of GDP, industrial output and manufacturing employment, and has occurred despite an urban...

Although there have been many initiatives designed to regenerate relatively run-down and deprived parts of major urban areas, there have been surprisingly few attempts to value their benefits. This article presents the findings of research that has sought to value the benefits of urban...

This article reports recent research that has assessed the achievements of one of the most extensive area-based initiatives (ABIs) that has ever been adopted in England-namely, the Single Regeneration Budget. This research has sought to ascertain whether, at least in relation to the findings...

Greater levels of economic integration within Europe will bring more intense competition, not least for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper identifies the key factors in the SME location decision from a survey of almost 1400 companies. The most important factor was the...

During the 1980s and the 1990s there were a number of policy initiatives designed to tackle the problems of the urban areas in the UK. By the early 1990s these initiatives represented the commitment of over £1 billion of public expenditure each year. The initiatives encompassed 'area'-based...

During the past 25 years, there has been an extensive use of Area Based Initiatives (ABIs) to regenerate run-down areas in many countries. However, despite their increased popularity, evidence on their success in helping to turn around depressed areas remains elusive. The evidence base has been...