Urban development grant — an early assessment of regional implications

An examination of the Urban Development Grant during its first round of operation reveals that certain regions, particularly the West Midlands and London, are winning considerably more funding than others. A change in this trend is likely to require a reassessment, by the Government, of the targetting criteria presently used to direct the grant to areas of need.     

Local economic development — the changing public/private sector relationship

The paper examines changing approaches to local economic development in the period since 1974. Initially, it proposes an ‘orthodox’ model of local economic development policies which emphasised the provision of a better industrial fabric, and of financial assistance to small, inner city firms. It suggests three recent directions of change in emphasis from this orthodox model: help in the creation of new entrepreneurs; replacement of public sector by private sector action; local authority shareholding in local firms by use of Enterprise Boards. Each approach makes different assumptions about the public/private sector relationship, the last two involve a more explicitly ideological stance on this issue.     

Planning and development

The paper describes the development role of the London Docklands Development Corporation and what sort of plan it uses. It describes the government initiative that promoted the regeneration idea and appraises the Dockland's approach. Finally, it discusses local authority involvement in the Urban Development Corporation's initiatives.     

Community business: a new role for the planner

The growing political pressure for local authorities in the UK to be seen to be doing something about unemployment has led to a variety of local economic initiatives. This paper looks at one such initiative in Scotland. Community Business aims to help those who have not benefitted from conventional schemes; that is, the long‐term unemployed with outdated skills, or with no skills at all. The paper considers how and why planners should be involved in community business promotion, on the basis of Scottish experience.     

Regional policy and recession: a new role for planning?

The recent central government paper on regional industrial development heralds a reduced role for regional policy, in contrast with the Regional Studies Association inquiry into regional problems in the U.K. A brief exploration of the central government views leads to the paper concluding with a call for an increase in regional planning and for regional planning authorities.     

A training consultancy for an Ethiopian I.D.A. urban programme evaluated

The author contributed to a short ‘in service’ course for staff engaged on a World Bank upgrading project for Ethiopian housing. The project includes both the building of new houses by self‐build co‐operatives on the periphery of Addis Ababa, and the upgrading of a dense inner city area in conditions of acute deprivation. The paper is a highly personal account of the author's impressions of the value of such initiatives.     

The continuing progress of the enterprise zone experiment: a note as to recent evidence

The latest evidence relating to the enterprise zone experiment in Britain is provided in a recent report published by the Department of the Environment. The note analyses this evidence to provide an indication of the scale of economic activity taking place within the zones. The note suggests that the simplified planning regime of the enterprise zones actually plays a relatively minor role in facilitating economic change and concludes that more detailed evidence is required in order to achieve a full understanding of the effects of enterprise zones.     

A Scottish approach to training for the unemployed: work‐start Ltd., Dundee

This article discusses the structure and performance of Work‐Start Ltd., a company located in Dundee and providing training for the unemployed. The company has attracted national and international attention by its innovative approach. Set up to meet the specific problems of peripheral housing estates, it is now responding to rapid changes in the local labour market.     

Zone planning régimes

Recent discussion of Enterprise Zones in England has been concerned with attributing development to the financial package of incentives operating, rather than the simplified planning régime, the author reconsiders the question of the significance of the new forms of planning procedure and suggests that, in the long term, the experiment will have lasting significance for the planning system itself.     

Redistributive state planning: toward an operational framework for an effective spatial development planning

The paper starts from an assessment of regional policy inspired by considerations of social justice. An effort is made to sketch the outline of a top‐down and bottom‐up approach and provide a new profile for regional planning, and for professional planners within the context of contemporary politico‐economic transformations. The planner, from having been a pure technician who does not question the nature of problems faced, must become actively engaged in, and committed to the problems and conflicts of the area, and to the specific proposals put forward.     

The effect of urban quality improvements on economic activity

This paper is concerned with the link between urban quality improvements and economic activity. A key question is whether improvements in the urban environment which might be achieved, for instance, through pedestrianisation, will affect business location choices - for example, are office or retail businesses particularly keen to locate in more pleasant urban places? The paper outlines the current state of development of the literature with respect to the influence of urban quality on economic activity, and proposes a framework for forecasting economic impacts based on three communities of reference: customers, employees, and the businesses themselves. The results from original modelling of a case study area in Manchester, England are reported and suggest that the positive uplifts that may be expected from environmental improvement programmes may well be on a scale which is significant. The research is obviously important for the urban regeneration and renaissance agendas which posit attractive and well-designed environments as a way to create the right conditions for promoting economic growth.     

Monitoring the growth of tourism — related employment at the local level: the application of a Census‐based,non‐survey method in Yorkshire and Humberside, 1981–1987

The growing political and public profile of tourism has led to the need for local estimates of its economic impact and importance, especially the number of jobs involved. In particular there is a need to produce spatially and temporally disaggregated estimates of visitor numbers, visitor spending and tourism‐related employment. This paper outlines and uses an indirect non‐survey method for estimating the tourism‐related workforce in local areas proposed by Roger Vaughan. The method is applied to recently published 1987 Census of Employment data for Yorkshire and Humberside.     

Regional economic disparities in Belgium and regional,national and supra‐national policies: an analysis of collective failure

Two kinds of regional disparities can be distinguished in Belgium. First there is the internationally well‐known dispute between Flanders and Wallonia. Secondly, there are large disparities within the regions. Three policy levels deal with these disparities: the (Flemish) regional level, the national government level and the EEC level. The purpose of this paper is to sketch the regional problems in Belgium, to analyse the policies that deal with them, to consider the co‐ordination problems between them and to shed some light on the public choice aspects of government interventions. It is concluded that regional policy in Belgium is a highly politicised affair. Furthermore public attention paid to regional policies has outgrown the importance of our regional disparities. Even other forms of micro‐economic policy are jeopardised by regional disparities and the resulting pressure.     

Helping the small business sector: an evaluation of the work of two agencies

The paper is concerned with the impact of small business advice agencies on their clients. The work of two agencies (an Enterprise Agency and a local authority Development Unit) operating in the same geographical area (Swale in Kent) is evaluated using a survey of clients as evidence. It is concluded that both agencies are meeting real and distinctive needs among start‐up and established small businesses in the area, and have established effective systems for the delivery of their services. Quality of staff is confirmed as a key factor influencing client satisfaction with the agencies. The impact of the agencies on busines efficiency is ambiguous; it is suggested that major beneficiaries of the work of the agencies are the banks.     

A human ecological assessment of air quality management: A convergence in economic and ecological thinking?

Traditional air pollution management practices are examined using the human ecological framework adopted by Boyden and others (1981) in their study of Hong Kong—the biohistorical or biosocial approach. The subsequent analysis of current air quality management practices assesses their effectiveness in protecting the overall health of both humans and the natural environment. The uncertainties inherent in air pollution management practices which emerge highlight the need to reduce emissions rather than rely on scientific knowledge to define clean air. The assessment also clearly defines roles for research in various areas such as atmospheric models, health effects, and environmental damage. The final recommendations emphasize the need for the introduction of such incentives to reduce emissions as economic instruments and warn against using health information to define clean air. Health and environmental damage information can, however, be used in risk assessment strategies together with atmospheric dispersion models.     

Management of sustainability transitions through planning in shrinking resource city contexts: an evaluation of Yubari City,Japan

This paper evaluates the planning competences required to enact a managed transition to sustainability at the municipal level for cities facing population, economic and employment decline. Drawing on the ‘shrinking cities’ literature, we argue consolidation of the built environment can become a focal point for sustaining citizen welfare when transitioning cities that are facing decline, especially those previously reliant on resource industries. We evaluate the former coal mining city of Yubari, Japan, which is developing a consolidated urban form with the aim of creating a ‘sustainable’ future city. Findings from interviews and content analysis of Yubari’s planning policy indicate, however, that to translate ‘shrinking’ a city into a managed transition, spatial planning must be accompanied by a wider range of social policy measures and strong cross-sectoral engagement. We also caution that the unique geographical and political context of Yubari mean its model may not be directly replicable in other contexts.     

Water and economic development: The role of variability and a framework for resilience

The article advances the hypothesis that the seasonal and inter‐annual variability of rainfall is a significant and measurable factor in the economic development of nations. An analysis of global datasets reveals a statistically significant relationship between greater rainfall variability and lower per capita GDP. Having established this correlation, we construct a water resources development index that highlights areas that have the greatest need for storage infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of rainfall variability on water availability for food and basic livelihood. The countries with the most critical infrastructure needs according to this metric are among the poorest in the world, and the majority of them are located in Africa. The importance of securing water availability in these nations increases every day in light of current population growth, economic development, and climate change projections.     

Urban regeneration and democratization of information access: CitiStat experience in Baltimore

This article explores the potential of a GIS-based approach to city management - Baltimore's CitiStat e-government program - for meeting the goals of sustainable urban regeneration. The argument advocated here builds on the widely held recognition that the application of ICTs in general can lead to both new forms of inclusion and exclusion of citizens. Therefore attending to the 'digital divide' is a relevant issue because cities are complex environments where outcomes of interventions are uncertain and widening participative arenas to different actors can increase the possibilities to regenerate declining urban areas in a more democratic way.     

Nowe Tychy: an assessment of a polish new town

No we Tychy is the most prominent and successful of the new towns in post‐war Poland. The paper describes the new town programme resulting from the Regional Plan for Upper Silesia and provides an appraisal of the town's achievement from the point of view of the residents’ living conditions, the usability of the housing stock and the spatial character of the town. The conclusions provide a critique of the process through which the town was developed and built.