1. The End of Regions?
What new role for cities?:
the case of England
Kevin Richardson
kevin.richardson@newcastle.gov.uk
www.slideshare.net/30088

2. EU Context
• EU Parliament / Committee of Regions; increased co-decision following
TFEU – but what real power compared to EU Council?
• Only limited examples of significant / constitutional regional government
(AU, DE, BE?); exceptions often based on identity (Scotland, Cataluña etc)
• Few (if any) examples of genuine functioning regional economies.
Regional geography (often) defined by statistical (i.e. artificial) NUTS 1
boundaries (e.g. England, RO, PL, HU?)
• Sufficient institutional capacity within DG REGIO to ‘manage’ growing
number and widening characteristics of regions (including continued
accession). New ‘regions’. Experiments with ‘macro’ and cross border
‘regions’ (Interreg / EGTC)
• Regulations allow delegation of EU funds to cities…but rarely / not used
• Trend away from grants and towards greater use of risk based investment
finance (JESSICA, JEREMIE etc)

4. Bonfire of the Regions
May 2010 (Con / Liberal)
• Regional Development Agencies
• Regional Spatial Strategies (inc. housing &
transport)
• Regional offices of Central Government
• Regional Business Link (enterprise agencies)
• Regional Funding Allocations
• Regional Tourism Boards
• Nationalisation of Employment Programmes and
Inward Investment
• Nationalisation of all funding for technology and
regeneration, including European Social Fund

5. History: Regional Government in England
• ‘14 – administrative / ‘military’ regions
• ’79 – (CON) neo-liberalism, end of spatial strategies
• ’94 – (CON) Government Offices for the Regions (GOs)
• ’97 onwards – (LAB), formal regional government for
Scotland, Wales & N Ireland; and indirectly (unelected)
Regional Assemblies & many new regional strategies &
institutions (including RDAs) in England
• ’04 North East referendum farce (78% ‘No’; all 25 districts
reject proposal for formal regional government, including
Newcastle as a the Core City)

8. OECD Review of Newcastle
in the North East (2006)
• central government is the ‘dominant actor’ in regional development
• no national spatial strategy for either regions or cities
• only a small number of central departments engaged in regional development; most
remain focussed on design, funding and delivery of standard services to people and
firms regardless of their location
• funds for regional economic development tiny when compared to other mainstream
budgets
• sub national agencies with only very limited authority & autonomy
• existing artificial boundaries of institutions increasingly not reflective of functioning
economic areas (at all levels of geography)
• a ‘democratic deficit’ and a lack of public legitimacy in some of these agencies
preventing those bodies from making difficult choices
• public identities rooted much more in parochialism than regionalism

11. Sub National Review
(Phase 2) ‘09- ‘10 (Labour)
• The beginnings of renationalisation; e.g. Technology Strategy Board,
Strategic Investment Fund, Business Support Simplification Project, UK
Finance for Growth (UKFG), Capital for Enterprise, UK Innovation
Investment Fund and (national) Regional Growth Funds
• Abolition of regional Learning & Skills Councils, Cultural Consortia, Arts
Councils
• Creation of new national agencies e.g. Homes & Communities Agency,
Technology Innovation Centres etc
• top-slicing’ of RDA budgets e.g. to pay for housing investments in the South
East and ‘Accelerated Development Zones’
• Meanwhile, major investments in Thames Gateway, Crossrail, 2012
Olympics, Heathrow airport, & High Speed Rail 2 (London – Birmingham)

12. The New ‘Localism’
• ‘Rebalancing’: North/South, rich/poor, public/private, service /
manufacturing
• Localism Bill (directly elected Mayors, neighbourhood planning,
community assets)
• Local Councils or Local Places / People? 27% cut in budgets for local
councils over 4 years, impact of community right to challenge?
• New forms of ‘local finance’ e.g. New Homes Bonus, Business Rates
Bonus, Big Society Bank, Green Investment Fund, Tax Increment
Financing, (national) ‘Regional’ Growth Fund and Enterprise Zones (tax
breaks)
• (Part time junior) Minister for (all) ‘Cities’
• Local Enterprise Partnerships

14. LEPs and Cities
• No status, powers, functions, democratic accountability or
money
• Functioning economic areas or administrative simplicity for
weakened central departments?
• Doing or thinking? Making difficult choices?
• Growth, Enterprise & Jobs or sustainable development?
• What future for cross boundary working?
• Cities as one equal partner amongst many!

19. What Role for Cities?
• Does it matter? NEG tells us that growth and the market is increasingly
(inter) dependent on cities (see Krugman et al)
• Understanding ‘trade offs’ between supporting agglomeration and high
speed rail (between cities) and, (for now) local cost air travel
• Planning to building the ‘urban core’; why facilitate travel to work by car?
• Any real hope within informal partnerships? But what genuine political
interest or benefit in hard administrative / boundary reform? (at all levels)
• A false dichotomy between national and local levels (towards shared
design, management & delivery)?
• Or towards a contractual relationship based on evidence / results / rewards
(see Barca (2009)?
• Risk based investment capital favours cities; e.g. the ‘C’ in JESSICA
• SMART strategies for growth also dependent on cities (and their
universities) (see McCann (2011)