David Bradley

Bringing Britain Together? The limitations of area-based regeneration policies in addressing deprivation

This paper is concerned with the extent to which the new tranche of area-based policy initiatives from New Labour can address deprivation. We argue that such policies are likely to meet the failures of previous initiatives as they continue to simplify the complex processes underlying regeneration: they arbitrarily draw boundaries around regeneration areas; they represent a continuation of place commodification; and, they continue to represent accountability structures which rest with statutory bodies rather than the community. Without reinventing the wheel, urban policy needs to revisit conventional wisdom relating to territorial development: namely, that local regeneration is determined by factors inside and outside particular localities.

Relocation, relocation, relocation: Assessing the case for public sector dispersal

Marshall J. N., Bradley D., Hodgson C., Alderman N. and Richardson R. (2005) Relocation, relocation, relocation: assessing the case for public sector dispersal, Regional Studies 39 , 767–787. The paper assesses the case for public sector relocation from capital cities using evidence from Britain. The senior echelons of the British civil service are disproportionately concentrated in London. Significant reductions in operating costs can be achieved by relocating civil service functions from the capital, and these financial savings have been used to justify programmes of dispersal. However, the paper stresses the strong regional case for relocation; relocation contributes directly through employment creation to more balanced regional economic development and simultaneously reduces overheating close to the capital and the under‐utilization of infrastructure and human resources in other regions. The relocation of more senior jobs in the civil service from London strengthens the service base within problem regions. The highly centralized and strongly hierarchical nature of the civil service, combined with the buoyancy of the private sector near the capital, acts as a brake on staff mobility and the effective national deployment of staff in the civil service. Public service relocation is increasingly being used by government to facilitate modernization by using relocation as a catalyst to bring in new business practices. However, there is less of a willingness on the part of government to connect relocation with flatter forms of more devolved governance.

Public Sector Relocation and Regional Disparities in Britain

The authors use the government-commissioned Lyons review proposals for the relocation of approximately 20 000 public sector jobs from London and the South East of England as a springboard for a historical analysis of civil service dispersal in Britain. Though civil service dispersal has helped ameliorate regional disparities, this has been a secondary objective of relocation programmes. The authors highlight the interconnections between public sector relocation and civil service (re)organisation. In the 1960s and 1970s, relocation formed part of a national programme to accommodate the geographical consequences of the hierarchical and spatially centralised public sector by relocating routine functions from the capital. Today, relocation is part of a coordinated programme of public sector reform which seeks to slim down the central headquarters of the civil service—so that only strategic aspects of policy and management are concentrated in London. In the Lyons review regional development is taken more seriously than in previous programmes of relocation; however, the links between the Lyons review and Gershons review of public sector efficiency suggests that, in the short term at least, the primary emphasis remains on reducing costs and achieving efficiency savings.

The Local Nexus Network: Exploring the Future of Localised Food Systems and Associated Energy and Water Supply

The Local Nexus Network is addressing the intersection of two important emerging research areas, re-distributed manufacturing and the food-energy-water nexus. It is an on-going initiative which aims to develop an evidence-based comprehensive research agenda and foster an inclusive community of researchers and stakeholders for sustainable local food-energy-water nexuses. This paper presents the conceptual framing for understanding the challenges of local nexus, reports empirical findings around a particular case study, and makes initial reflections on the research and practical challenges and opportunities.