Decentralisation is a key thread running through current UK policy making. The Coalition Government has abolished New Labour’s regional legacy in favour of a new set of strategies around growth and development that has tapped into the localist agenda. Drawing on a series of recent...

In the absence of regional government, New Labour has pursued a process of administrative decentralisation in the English regions outside London, including the appointment of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), charged with stimulating economic modernisation and assisting in reducing regional...

Compared with the constitutional changes introduced elsewhere in the United Kingdom, in the English regions a more cautious approach has been adopted based on administrative decentralisation. A key feature of the government’s reforms has been the strengthening of regional spatial planning and...

Pearce G. and Ayres S. (2007) Emerging patterns of governance in the English regions: the role of Regional Assemblies, Regional Studies 41, 699-712. The case for elected English regional government outside London has lost momentum, but the machinery of regional governance continues to expand....