{"id":1049,"date":"2019-03-27T11:04:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T11:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2019-03-27T11:06:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T11:06:12","slug":"is-theresa-mays-1-6-billion-fund-for-english-towns-enough-to-rebalance-britains-skewed-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/is-theresa-mays-1-6-billion-fund-for-english-towns-enough-to-rebalance-britains-skewed-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Theresa May\u2019s \u00a31.6 billion fund for English towns enough to rebalance Britain\u2019s skewed economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Critics have described the fund as a bribe, a rescue attempt and another opportunity to slip further behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In our latest post, Professor Calvin Jones considers the merits of the UK government’s proposed Stronger Towns Fund<\/a> and its implications for some of the UK’s most deprived areas.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

English towns with struggling economies\nwill receive \u00a31.6\nbillion of funding<\/a> over six years. The UK government announced the creation\nof the \u201cstronger towns fund\u201d \u2013 the lion\u2019s share of which will be distributed to\ntowns in Northern England and the Midlands. Critics have focused on the fund\u2019s\nassumed purpose as a \u201cbribe\u201d to gain Labour MPs\u2019 votes for Prime Minister\nTheresa May\u2019s deal to leave the EU, and on the inadequate size of the pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving the first criticism aside, the\nsecond certainly has some merit: \u00a31.6 billion sounds a large sum for a single\nproject (at least, for one outside\nLondon<\/a>). But it\u2019s a tiny amount to complete a \u201ctransformative\u201d programme of\nwork in many places over a number of years \u2013 especially when those places have\nalready lost much\nmore<\/a> than that during the past decade of austerity, and stand to lose\nfurther billions in EU support if and when the UK exits the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difficulties the fund will face have\nbeen foreshadowed by the poor performance of EU regeneration funds in Wales.\nThere, \u00a31.6 billion (plus extra funding from UK sources) has been focused on a\nmuch smaller area with a much smaller population, from 2014 to 2020. This EU\nfunding builds on similar sized programmes running from 1999 to 2006 and from\n2007 to 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet these investments in infrastructure, productivity, skills, tourism and research and development have done little<\/a> to improve the relative prosperity of the targeted area, compared to Wales as a whole \u2013 let alone the rest of the UK.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps without such funding, areas such as\nthe Welsh Valleys in particular might have slipped even further behind. But\nthis recent experience does call in to question whether the stronger towns fund\ncan really bring prosperity to relatively deprived towns in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An unbalanced system<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The UK\u2019s deeply structurally unbalanced economic system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the government has not yet provided\nmuch detail about the fund, it appears to rehash old approaches to\nregeneration, which have already proven inadequate to \u201crescue\u201d the poorest\nplaces over the last decade. For instance, the fund is to be administered by\nLocal Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the business-led groups that deliver\neconomic development across England, which attracted significant\ncriticism<\/a> over their lack of efficiency, accountability and inclusiveness.\nClearly, it\u2019s worth questioning the efficiency of allocating regeneration\nresources to local growth coalitions such as LEPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commentators have\nalso pointed out<\/a> that the UK\u2019s deeply structurally unbalanced economic\nsystem \u2013 which overwhelmingly favours investment in London\nand the south east<\/a> \u2013 will cause human,\nnatural and other capital<\/a> to \u201cleak\u201d from poor places, irrespective of the\nregeneration money thrown at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logically, this benefits wealthy elites,\nsuch as property developers and the bureaucrats who administer such funds. New\nstart-ups will leave for richer markets or be bought out; renewable power will\nbe exploited by national or international corporations with limited\nlocal benefits<\/a>; and year on year most UK regions will lose\ntheir best graduates<\/a> to the south east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From consumers to communities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Individual well-being is not dependent on status symbols but on better connections with family and vibrant local communities <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alternatives are emerging at the local\nlevel. Much is being made of the \u201cfoundational economy\u201d approach<\/a>,\nwhich aims to refocus attention on improving the everyday activities \u2013\nincluding social care, retail, trades and manufacturing \u2013 that provide local\npublic and private services and incomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPreston model<\/a> \u2013 whereby a number of public and third sector \u201canchor\u201d\ninstitutions succeeded in procuring from local firms, to boost the economy \u2013 is\nheld up as an example of what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More radical, but wholly evidence-based critiques<\/a> of\nregeneration strategies suggest that new approaches should pivot away from\neconomic prosperity and toward well-being as their ultimate goal, especially if\nprosperity enables excessive consumption, which is a key factor in climate\nand ecological collapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, a new model should be found (or perhaps an old one rediscovered) where individual well-being is not dependent on status symbols such as large houses, multiple cars and other consumer goods – but on better connections with family and vibrant local communities, and on having more time to enjoy them<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Any local attempts to change the system\nwould of course be far more effective if married to a deliberate restructure of\nthe UK\u2019s economic system from the centre. As things stands, the large buckets\nof funds at the discretion of the UK government continue to be spent in ways\nthat lock in regional inequality in production and productivity, wealth and\nlabour migration within the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, public\nspending on research<\/a> continues to focus on the \u201cgolden triangle\u201d of Oxford,\nCambridge and London universities, and defence spending is similarly oriented\ntoward the south\neast<\/a> of England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s equally as worrisome that\ninfrastructure spending in the UK still favours London at the expense of the\nregions and nations \u2013 to a surprising\ndegree<\/a>. Suspicions remain \u2013 strengthened by the outcomes of big\nspending decisions<\/a> \u2013 that the current UK government, like those that\npreceded it, believes that the UK economy stands or falls on the performance of\nLondon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, if the \u00a356bn high speed rail\nproject was really to help the Midlands and North, wouldn\u2019t they have started\nbuilding at the Leeds end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor\nCalvin Jones<\/a> is Deputy Dean for Public Value and External Relations at\nCardiff Business School.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\narticle was originally published on The\nConversation UK<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Critics have described the fund as a bribe, a rescue attempt and another opportunity to slip further behind In our latest post, Professor Calvin Jones considers the merits of the […]","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":1054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[167,514,28,100,505,414,169,115,508,166,82,301,411,366,511,509,513,242,506,16,512,230,507,48,47,510],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","tag-brexit","tag-cambridge","tag-cardiff-business-school","tag-cardiff-university","tag-cities","tag-city-region","tag-conservatives","tag-economy","tag-england","tag-eu","tag-foundational-economy","tag-funding","tag-investment","tag-labour","tag-local-enterprise-partnerships","tag-london","tag-oxford","tag-poverty","tag-regeneration","tag-research","tag-start-ups","tag-the-conversation","tag-theresa-may","tag-uk-government","tag-wales","tag-welsh-valleys"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paOfaS-gV","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2019\/03\/Heeled-leg-woman-about-to-slip-on-banana-skin.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}