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In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world initiated a programme of temporary road-space reallocation measures. These temporary measures helped to create more space for social distancing and encouraged an uptake in active travel (including walking and cycling). This paper examines the impact of the pandemic on travel behaviour in two contrasting local authorities in the North of England, and specifically, examines the deployment and impact of the temporary road-space measures introduced. This research shows that, overall, there was a substantial degree of change in usual travel behaviours amongst the sample in both locations; and this included modest shifts towards active modes (which were more pronounced in Sheffield). Notably, awareness of the temporary measures was high in both Lancashire and Sheffield (77.7% across the whole sample). Yet, actual use of the measures was relatively low (33.0%), although those using them held largely favourable views of their experiences. Increases in cycling were seen across both those who were aware of the measures and those who were not, but notably, the highest increases in cycling (for commuting, shopping, and leisure trips) were across those who were aware and then went on to use the temporary measures. For those not cycling pre-pandemic, there appears to be a positive relationship between beginning to cycle and use of the measures. In contrast, the temporary measures appeared to have little impact on levels of walking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government's new Industrial Strategy could have a significant impact on the country's regions and localities. However, this has received little attention to date. The analysis presented here examines the existing location of the sectors targeted by the first phase of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and the location of the R&D laboratories likely to be first in line for funding. In focusing on an extremely narrow range of sectors, the Fund is likely to have limited impact on the UK's persistent regional inequalities. The activities eligible for support account for relatively little of manufacturing or the rest of the economy and the basis of this targeting and its potential distributional consequences are spatially blind. As such, it runs the risk of widening regional divides in prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews changes over the last 10 years in the governance arrangements and processes involved in sub-national economic development and cross-boundary collaboration. It begins with a summary of the institutional changes in the main countries of the UK, in the dual context of fiscal retrenchment and neo-liberal deregulation. The picture that emerges is one of a confused patchwork in England; incremental modifications in Scotland; and embryonic developments in Wales. This is then contrasted with a range of experiences in other countries, involving wholesale recentralisation and a sidelining of local and regional institutions at one end of the spectrum, to resistance to restructuring through repurposing, increased mutual collaboration and improved management at the other. However, enhanced economic links and benefits do not automatically flow from any particular form of rescaled governance arrangements. As our original article found, the key ingredients are robust and inclusive political and decision-making processes, a suite of appropriate policy instruments and deployment of sufficient resources to ensure that they have an effect. The paper also concludes that a more comprehensive theoretical framework is needed to advance understanding of what lies behind different forms of state governance rescaling, and what makes a given instance more (or less) effective than another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the general elections and the local public services in Great Britain for 2015. Topics discussed include the politics and government in the country, the social programs of the country, and the financial management. Also mentioned are the regulation on taxation, the public services management, and the decision-making regarding social policies in Great Britain.

This paper examines attempts to integrate environmental sustainability goals into the design and implementation of projects funded by the EU Structural Funds programmes in the U.K. between 2000 and 2006. It does so by comparing how the two "horizontal priorities" (environmental sustainability and gender equality) fared in terms of understanding and acceptance by project applicants. It places this material within the wider context of literature on environmental policy integration and inter-agency cooperation. A "policy coordination" framework is used as a heuristic device to construct an account of the ways in which the two themes were handled through the interplay of the myriad of actors and organisations involved in the process. A key part in this involved the deployment of "policy champions" to work with external organisations bidding for funding to support projects that formed the core of programme implementation. The paper also examines the variable reactions on the part of project designers to the requirement to incorporate environmental and gender goals and the greater inter-professional networking that these implied. The comparison between the two priorities clearly demonstrates the difficulties inherent in the breadth and complexity of environmental issues and the need in the first instance to link them to relatively simple actions directly associated with economic development activity. The study concludes that this is essentially the first step in a more protracted "policy learning" process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demise of the coalmining industry has entailed an increased geographical separation of individuals from workplaces, highlighting the importance of understanding the spatial dimension of job search for those living in the coalfields. There has been an increasing interest among labour market researchers on the role of place and social networks in influencing labour market behaviour. A growing body of literature focuses on the importance of social networks in shaping people's attitudes, behaviour, and decision making-in particular, the links between people's social sphere and the nature and extent of their participation in the labour market. We aim to examine the area effects of social networks and how these affect labour market position. We will draw on material gathered from a Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded project on the economic, social, and governance links between coalfields and their neighbouring cities. Part of this research was composed of eighty-five interviews carried out with unemployed job seekers across three contrasting coalfields (Lothian, South Yorkshire, and the central Wales valleys). We will focus in particular on the issues of accessing of South Wales jobs, knowledge and experience of the spatial labour market, and the role of social networks in influencing job search and job knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a critical exploration of the issues raised by the attempt to integrate aims and concerns derived from one European Union (EU) policy domain into another. It does this via an examination of the ways in which the European Employment Strategy (EES) has been taken into account in the design and initial implementation of Structural Fund program in the 2000–2006 round. In particular, it examines the nature of this ‘mainstreaming’ relationship in terms of the structures and mechanisms associated with current Objective 1 program operating in the UK. It maps out the vertical and horizontal linkages between European, national and regional levels, and assesses the extent to which strategic frameworks, program guidance and program content have successfully integrated EES considerations. The article concludes by identifying some implications for theories of European governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part of the decentring process that has evolved with the relative empowerment of sub-national actors has permitted the growth of policy networks. This paper explores which type of governance structure is required to affect unemployment and growth rates when the economy comprises workers in dematerialized firms. Governance is found to influence the regional success of a 'weightless economy', but not in a manner that necessarily requires precise strata. Instead, as dematerialized firms are composed of potentially highly mobile workers, policies should be geared towards attracting (and keeping) mobile workers (not companies) and hence governance needs to be flexible and ad hoc to meet the locational tastes of such workers. Benefits will then spill over into the locale through increased aggregate demand for tangible goods, thereby reducing local unemployment and stimulating local growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to place policy research undertaken in the Yorkshire and East London regions of the UK within the broader context of regional innovation system building. In particular, it attempts to draw out the releasing factors and conditions that shaped stakeholder relationships in these two EU Objective Two regions during the 1990s. This is undertaken with a view to drawing out conclusions about the extent of autonomy, institutional lock-in and compatibility within regional governance. The extent to which such EU stimulated influences are relevant to the practice of regional technological development is explored in areas which have experienced industrial restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study in projecting population and household numbers for Yorkshire and Humberside. Regional planning guidance; 1989-based projections; Comparison of 1989 based projections for mid-1991 and the 1991 Census; Assumptions about net migration; Alternative population projections; Methodology in converting households; Comparison of extent in difference of household assumptions in 1991 Census and in 1989-based household projections; Alternative household projections.

No abstract available for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For decades regeneration programmes in England targeted areas where spatial concentrations of poverty exist. These 'area-based initiatives' (ABIs) came under sustained attack, however, from the previous coalition government for being expensive and ineffective. This paper assesses this claim by re-evaluating past evidence on the impact of regeneration on poverty. It finds regeneration did relatively little to transform households' material circumstances but significantly ameliorated negative experiences of living in poverty in relation to housing, community safety and the physical environment. This partially undermines the rationale for the policy shift away from neighbourhood renewal interventions toward the current focus on 'local growth' as the sole remedy for spatial inequalities. It also suggests a need for more nuance in wider critical accounts of regeneration as a deepening form of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]