Local economic strategies: Paradigms for a planned economy?

Interventionist local economic strategies are perceived by the present government as a significant threat, as shown by the concerns of the Widdicombe inquiry. But are they of lasting influence, or mere “fashionable playgrounds for the new left"? John Benington identifies a major shift in the way local authorities see their own role as employers and purchasers. But there is also a risk that the new left approach will become depoliticised and bureaucratised, and that certain community and trade union activities which have been strengthened by the local state will become dangerously dependent on it.