Sustainable development and the local economy

This article sets out the divergence so far between the developing “environmental economics” and local authority “green strategies”. We propose a model of environmentally sustainable economic development. Our argument outlines “environmental efficiency” and more stringent “sustainability” objectives. It reviews current local authority activities and practices. All are within the “environmental efficiency” framework. It concludes by identifying opportunities created by recent government commitment to environmental improvement targets and argues that local authorities are well placed to take up the challenge of developing sustainable development in local economies. It suggests that this process will involve intervention in the market in a way not dissimilar to that adopted in the 1980s by local authorities concerned with developing socially progressive economic strategies and that this process might be termed “social environmentalism”.     

Third time right? The EC's third action programme for women

Amid the welter of “new initiatives” from Brussels promoting social integration is a programme for women which appears to offer something new. Nothing in the way of new money, nor novel employment projects, rather a distinctly feminist flavour: “equality” is now to be integrated “into general mainstream policy”; grassroot action - organisation at the local and regional level - is required; working life has to be “reconciled” with family responsibilities and, finally, “women's unequal representation in all spheres of decision making” has to be addressed.

How far this rhetoric will translate into enhanced employment prospects for women, especially women in this country, is nevertheless highly problematic.     

Integrating the economic and the social. Policy and institutional change in local economic strategy

Since the mid-1990s policy “integration” has become an increasingly salient theme within central government and local government policy-making. In this paper we report survey findings tracing the recent emergence of explicitly “integrated” local economic and social strategies, and the evolving position of ostensibly social themes in local economic strategies. These highlight some of the more important policy and institutional changes that have characterised local economic strategy in the post-Thatcher era. Subsequently, in the light of this initial data we outline a number of possible directions for further research.     

Rethinking the role of the service sector in local economic revitalisation

This article evaluates the role of the service sector in revitalising local economies. Using case study evidence from the Fens, the view that services are “parasitic” activities is refuted. Instead, services are shown to contribute positively to local economic rejuvenation not only as “basic” activities which bring income into local economies from outside but also, just as importantly, as locally-oriented activities which stop income from leaking out of the locality. The consequences of this reconceptualisation of services for the nature of local economic policy are addressed.     

Managed workspace. Do tenants stay too long?

The managed workspace format rose to prominence as a tool for local economic development during the 1980s, Its popularity has continued into the 1990s, offering support for new and small firms in their early stages of operation through the provision of suitable premises and a “protected environment”. In this article, evidence is presented to indicate that a significant proportion of tenant firms are, in fact, remaining in managed workspace well beyond the early stages of operation for which it is primarily intended, and we examine the reasons for this. Most significantly, this examination reveals that the added costs associated with the provision of the “protected environment” often appear to produce little in the way of added value for these more mature tenant firms, and on this basis we conclude with a call for a reappraisal of the role for managed workspace in local economic development policies.     

Cable and local economic development: Local authority roles and responses

There has been much recent comment about the development of the “information superhighway” and the opportunities that this will create for economic development. Yet elements of such a superhighway are already in place through the activities of cable companies in the UK This paper outlines the development of cable to date and examines the response of local authorities to such developments.     

Re-booting the local economy: Information and communication technologies in local economic strategy

Many local economic strategies today include reference to a communications infrastructure that involves electronic networks alongside that of roads and railways. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), often referred to as the “information superhighway” or informatics, are considered useful to stimulate local economic activity. This paper, based on a North East case study, suggests that the importance of ICTs to local economic strategy lies in the rationale of key local strategy makers, while the use of ICTs for local economic development means that the local governance of ICTs will become a salient feature in future economic development.     

The community programme revisited

This paper examines the lessons for the New Deal era of some older strands in UK and European labour market measures; the Community Programme of the 1980s and the experience of “entreprises d'insertion in France, Spain and the Netherlands. It considers whether the institutional infrastructure of the New Deal is appropriate for the realisation of “intermediate labour markets”. This raises some further questions; whether ILMs are about creating employment or merely redistributing it, and whether it would be preferable to use the “benefit transfer principle” to produce social wealth without regard for commercial viability.     

Reviews

“REDUNDANT SPACE?” Green, Howard and Foley, Paul, 1986: Redundant Space, A Productive Asset Harper & Row, London, on behalf of the Small Business Research Trust, £14.95.

“SMALL FACTORIES” Perry, M., 1986: Small Factories and Economic Development. Aldershot: Gower, £22.50.

“COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES” Willett, R. 1985: Village Ventures. Rural Communities in Action. Rural Voice/Bedford Square Press, £3.25

Alexander, T. 1986: Value for People, Adult Education and Popular Planning. Popular Planning Project, Clapham-Battersea Adult Education Institute, 116 Battersea Park Road, London, £2.50

Ashby, P. 1986: Trade Unions and the Community, Working for Jobs. Bedford Square Press/N.C.V.O.£2.50

“COMMUNITIES IN BUSINESS” Centre for Employment Initiatives/Community Initiatives Research Trust, 1986: Communities in Business. London: Centre for Employment Initiatives, £6.95 paper.

“LONDON TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY” London Strategic Policy Unit, 1987: Britain's Industrial Renaissance? The Development, Manufacture and Use of Information Technology. London: L.S.P.U.

“EUROPEAN EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES” Martinos, H., 1986: Employment Creation in Local Labour Markets — Four Case Studies (ILE Notebooks No 5). Paris: OECD, price FF 60.00

“CHALLENGING THE MSC” Benn, C. and Fairley, J. Editors: 1986: Challenging the MSC on jobs, training and education. London Pluto Press, £5.95 Paperback.

“SMALL FIRMS” Scott, M., Lewis, J., Gibb, A., Faulkner, T.; Editors: 1986: Small Firms Growth and Development Gower, £19.50     

Small business service firms and the 1990s recession in the United Kingdom: Implications for local economic development

During the 1990s recession, the UK experienced a dramatic growth in employment in information-intensive business firms. This paper explores this growth with reference to small management consultancy and market research firms. Business service firms continued to be established and to grow during the recession because of three related attributes: professional expertise, an existing reputation and a network of client contacts. These attributes are related to the theoretical work of Granovetter (1973; 1982; 1985) who argues that “weak ties” operate to connect different groups of people together. The implications of these attributes for local economic development are considered. Success for all companies at the level of the local economy will be partially dependent on efficient and effective use of available business service expertise. The three attributes make it impossible to develop successful mechanisms to encourage the formation of business service companies in areas with underdeveloped service infrastructure. Mechanisms, however, may be developed at the local level to encourage the establishment of “weak ties” between local companies and regional and national providers of business service expertise.     

Industrial property letting: Lessons from the GLC's policies and experience

The GLC, and the Greater London Enterprise Board, has been developing innovatory policies for letting industrial properties. The aim has been to support priority industrial sectors and to require “good employer” practices by tenants

Although the full value of this work has been cut short by the abolition of the GLC, the experience acquired raises important issues for other local authorities who wish to use their industrial property instrumentally to support other employment development policies.     

Reviews

“LOCAL ECONOMIC REGENERATION IN SCOTLAND” Hugh Morison, 1987: The Regeneration of Local Economies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £19.50 HB.

“'MANAGING' URBAN CHANGE?” Department of the Environment, 1988: Managing Urban Change: A Report on the Management Training Needs of Urban Programme Project Managers. HMSO, £7.20

“WORKER CO-OPERATIVES” Mary Mellor, Janet Hannah and John Stirling, 1988: Worker Co-operatives in Theory and Practice. Open University Press, £25.00 cloth, £8.95 paper.

“COPING WITH RECESSION” Harris, C. C. 1987: Redundancy and Recession in South Wales. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, £29.50 hardback.     

Reviews

“LOCAL EMPLOYMENT PLANS” Norwich City Council, 1987: Taking Norwich into the 1990s. Norwich, free.

Bristol City Council, 1987: Bristol: An Employment Plan. Bristol, £1.00.

Reading Borough Council, 1987: Creating Opportunities: A Programme for Jobs in Reading. Reading, no price stated.

Cleveland County Council, 1987: Unemployment Strategy. Middlesbrough, free.

Sheffield City Council: Employment and Economic Development Department 1987: Sheffield Employment Matters. Issue 1. Sheffield, £10 for 3 issues.

Lancashire Enterprises Ltd, 1987: Annual Report 1986-87. Preston, free.

“ETHNIC MINORITIES AND YOUTH TRAINING” Malcolm Cross and Douglas Smith (editors) 1987: Black Youth Futures: Ethnic Minorities and the Youth Training Scheme, National Youth Bureau. No price stated.

“HOMEWORKING” Allen, S. and Wolkowitz, C., 1987: Homeworking: Myths and Realities. London: Macmillan, £25.00 cloth, £7.95 paper.

“STRATEGY FOR RETAILING” Montgomery, J., 1987: Trade Winds — the changing face of retailing and retail employment in the South East — an alternative strategy. South East Economic Development Strategy, Daneshill House, Danesgate Street, Stevenage, Herts. No price stated.     

Reviews

“THE LONDON EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM” Buck, N., Gordon, I. and Young, K. with Ermisch, J. and Mills, L., 1986: The London Employment Problem. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £7.95.

“CLYDESIDE IN TRANSITION” Lever, W. and Moore, C., 1986: The City in Transition: Policies and Agencies for the Economic Regeneration of Clydeside. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £7.95.

“MANAGING THE LOCAL ECONOMY” Wilmers, Peter and Bourdillon, Bernard, Editors, 1985; Managing the Local Economy: Planning for Employment and Economic Development. Norwich: Geo Books, £15.00 paper.

“SUNBELT CITY?” Boddy, M., Lovering, J. and Bassett, K., 1986: Sunbelt City? A Study of Economic Change in Britain's M4 Growth Corridor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, £7.95 paperback.     

Reviews

“THE POLL TAX” Flannery, Kate, 1987: More than Just a Poll Tax. Centre for Local Economic Strategies, £5.00. MacGregor, Susanne, 1988: The Poll Tax and the Enterprise Culture. Manchester: Centre for Local Economic Strategies, £3.95.

“ECONOMIC THEORY AND THE LOCAL ECONOMY” Smith, D., 1987: The Rise and Fall of Monetarism: The Theory and Politics of an Economic Experiment. Penguin, £3.95.

Holland, S., 1987: The Market Economy: From Micro to Mesoeconomics and The Global Economy: From Meso to Macroeconomics, Weidenfeld, £12.95 each.

Green, F. and Sutcliffe, B., 1987: The Profit System: The Economics of Capitalism. Penguin, £5.95.

“THE SERVICES REVOLUTION?” Rajan, A., 1987: Services: The Second Industrial Revolution? London: Butterworths, £27.50.

“ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY IN EUROPE” Joyce, F. E. and Schneider, G. (editors), 1988: Environment and Economic Development in the Regions of the European Community. Aldershot: Avebury/Gower, £18.50 hb.

“POLITICS OF PRIVATISATION” Ascher, K., 1987: The Politics of Privatisation: Contracting Out Public Services. London: Macmillan Education Ltd. £30.00 cloth, £8.95 paper.

“RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING POLICY” Davies, T. and Mason, C., 1986: Shutting out the Inner City Worker. University of Bristol, School for Advanced Urban Studies, £4.30.

Chapman, P. G. and Tooze, M. J., 1987: The Youth Training Scheme in the United Kingdom. Avebury: Gower Publishing Company, £22.50.

“JOB GENERATION RESEARCH” Storey, D. J. and Johnson, S., 1987: Job Generation and Labour Market Change. London: Macmillan.     

Reviews

“Urban unemployment”

Hasluck, C., 1987: Urban Unemployment: Local labour markets and employment initiatives. London, Longman, £6.95 paper.

“Property and industrial development”

Fothergill, S., Monk, S. and Perry, M. 1387: Property and Industrial Development London: Hutchinson, £12.95 paper.

“High-tech”

Breheny, M. J. and McQuaid, R. W. 1987: The Development of High Technology Industries: An International Survey. London: Croom Helm, £35.00.

Monde, C. (ed), 1986: Science Parks -- Their Contribution to Economic Growth. Birmingham: UK Science Parks Association, £15.00 paper.

“American perspectives”

Bergman, Edward M. Editor 1986: Local Economies in Transition: Policy Realities and Development Potentials. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, $40.00 cloth, $16.95, paper.

“Marginal regions”

O'Cearbhaill, D. and Cawley, M. (editors) 1986: New approaches to the development of Marginal Regions, 8th International Seminar on Marginal Regions in association with University College Galway, 3 Vote: no price stated.

“Training without jobs”

Finn, Dan 1987: Training Without Jobs:New Deals and Broken Promises:From Raising the School Leaving Age to the Youth Training Scheme. London: Macmillan £6.95.

“The coopera tive workplace”

Rothschild, J. and Whitt, A. J. 1986: The Cooperative Workplace: potentials and dilemmas of organizational democracy and participation. USA: American Sociological Association Rose Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press. No price stated.

“Opposition to plant closures”

Maunders, A. 1986: A Process of Struggle. Aldershot: Gower £20.00 cloth.

“Property data”

Investment Property Databank, 1987: The IPD Annual Review 1987 London, £45.

“Urban economic development”

Hausner.V. A. (editor) 1987: Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development. Volume II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £22.50 hardback.     

Reviews

“THE RURAL ECONOMY” M. Healey and B. llbery (Eds), 1985: The Industrialization of the Countryside Norwich: Geo Books, £32.50.

P. Lowe, G. Cox, M. MacEwen, T. O'Riordan, M. Winter, 1986: Countryside Conflicts. The Politics of Farming, Forestry and Conservation.

Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company, £19.50 hardback, £8.95 paper.

E. Stern and J. Turbin, 1986: Youth Employment and Unemployment in Rural England. Report of a One Year Pilot Study in Four Rural Areas for the Development Commission Development Commission/Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.

“GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING, LOCAL RESPONSE?” Philip Cook (Ed), 1986: Global Restructuring, Local Response. London: Economic and Social Research Council £10.00.

“LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT” Cordle, P., 1985: Employment and Industrial Development-Local Authority Initiatives. CIPFA, £5.00. V. Hausner (Ed) 1986: Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development, Volume II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £22.50

“CRISIS IN THE INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND” Spencer, K., Taylor, A., Smith, B., Mawson, J., Flynn N. and Batley, R., 1986: Crisis in the Industrial Heartland: A Study of the West Midlands. Oxford University Press, £7.95.

“BLACK POLITICS AND URBAN CRISIS” Brian D. Jacobs, 1986: Black politics and urban crisis in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press £25.00 Hardback.

“UNEMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR MARKET POLICIES” Hart, P. E. (Ed), 1986: Unemployment and Labour Market Policies Aldershot: Gower, 1950     

Local governance and urban prospects: The potential of city pride

The recent re-alignment of urban policy, involving the promotion of a diversity of public-private partnerships, a fostering of local business elites, and the increasing importance of city marketing and image reconstruction, all point in the direction of a “new localism” in urban regeneration. Focusing on the potential of the recent City Pride initiative in building up consensual and holistic “visions” of Britain's main cities, the following set of papers assess the role of the “urban prospectus” in fostering local coalitions and the benefits of mutuality in order to address issues of resource procurement and allocation. The potential of this new approach for targeting large-scale programme and project investment in the local economy, infra-structural priorities and aspects of social cohesion are all considered by the contributing authors, who look specifically at recent developments in London, Manchester and Birmingham.     

Stakeholding and the local economy

During the 1980s local economic policy became an issue of major political concern. The polarisation of the New Right market-led strategies advanced by the Thatcher governments and the New Left-inspired counter-response, typified by the last years of the GLC, reflected the tenor of national political and economic debates at the time. Arguably, in the 10 years since the abolition of the GLC, local economic development has been devoid (some might say spared) of any “big idea” arising from wider political debates. Recently, however, there have been signs that a new political direction may be emerging at the national level with significant implications for local economic policy. That direction is the notion of stakeholding.     

Urban development corporations and enterprise boards revisited: A survey of current policies and practice

This article aims to fulfil three functions. First, it provides a brief survey of the current state of policy and practice amongst two categories of local economic development institution, Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) and Enterprise Boards. This includes forming some impressions of the impact on Enterprise Boards of the abolition of the GLC and the Metropolitan Councils, and of the provisions of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (Part V). And it includes some assessment of the responses of Urban Development Corporations to the largely critical assessments of them made by the National Audit Office (1988) on Liverpool and LDDC, and the House of Commons Employment Committee (1988) on employment effects. The recent expansion of numbers of UDCs (five “second-generation” ones set up in 1987, and four “third-generation” ones established during 1988 and 1989) also allows wider analysis of the form to be carried out.

The second aim of the article is to explore the extent and causes of diversity both between and within the two groups. This includes analysis of the degree of overlap and convergence between the two groups as well as the range of models within each.

A third aim is to explore the validity of either model for future implementation of local economic strategies.