Policy Review Section

In this issue of the Policy Review Section, Andy Pike of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, present a critique of the UK Government's strategy of attracting inward investment on the assumption that it will establish a 'demonstration effect'. Based on a study of the car industry, it is argued that a new approach is needed to promote 'hybridization' based on acknowledging the skills, experience and capital equipment of 'brownfield plants' as assets not liabilities. In the second article Keith Hayton of the Centre for Planning, University of Strathclyde, considers the implications for local authority economic development companies of the implementation of the Local Authorities (Companies) Order and a set of complimentary changes in Private Finance Rules. The issue is both contentious and confusing and has not been helped by the Government's delay in implementing this legislation since 1989. Hayton concludes that, far from achieving the objective of stimulating joint ventures led by the private sector, the measures may inhibit private sector risk taking through the mechanism of companies. In the third article Mary Cawley of the Department of Geography, University College Galway, reviews current urban population trends in Ireland which she argues are reflected in three main spatial patterns: (1) continued imbalance in population between east and west; (2) the emergence of a clearly defined network of city regions; and (3) the widespread decline of towns and villages beyond the sphere of influence of the larger urban centres. Against this background she argues that a more co-ordinated urban planning policy is needed if the major disparities in population distribution between large and small towns and between regions are to be avoided. In the final article David Gibbs of the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, explores the implications for local authorities of the increasing adoption of environmental policy initiatives by the European Union.