Abstract
The new Coalition Government formed in May 2010 in the UK is to abolish
Regional Development Agencies and, in the name of a ‘new localism’, is to replace
them with Local Enterprise Partnerships, ‘joint local authority-business bodies
brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development’. This
article looks at the proposals for LEPs, in the light of theories of governance. It
explores the case examples of the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside,
where there have been differing proposals for region-wide LEPs. It argues that far
from localism, the move to set up LEPs is profoundly ant-regionalist and is
re-centralisation in disguise, given that many economic development functions are
being taken back to Whitehall. That problem of recentralisation, we suggest, risks
being exacerbated by a fragmentation of LEPs into small territorial units, and a lack of
resources.
Regional Development Agencies and, in the name of a ‘new localism’, is to replace
them with Local Enterprise Partnerships, ‘joint local authority-business bodies
brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development’. This
article looks at the proposals for LEPs, in the light of theories of governance. It
explores the case examples of the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside,
where there have been differing proposals for region-wide LEPs. It argues that far
from localism, the move to set up LEPs is profoundly ant-regionalist and is
re-centralisation in disguise, given that many economic development functions are
being taken back to Whitehall. That problem of recentralisation, we suggest, risks
being exacerbated by a fragmentation of LEPs into small territorial units, and a lack of
resources.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 535-557 |
| Journal | Local Economy |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |
Bibliographical note
The full text is not available from the repository.Keywords
- regional development
- UK
- decentralisation
- re-centralisation
