Regional Policy in the United Kingdom

It is not possible, nor indeed desirable, to attempt a full factual description of the history and operation of regional policy in Britain in this paper. The paper begins with statements of the main problems which have necessitated regional policy. It then moves on to an analysis of the objectives and some of the main issues of regional policy in the United Kingdom and concludes with a discussion of the relationship between national and regional economic planning. This subject is treated at some length because the organisers of the conference wished us to do so, and because it is an issue which is central to both national and regional economic policies in the United Kingdom at the present time.