A New Regional Policy for the UK

Article

There is a growing consensus that the UK's serious regional economic disparities need to be tackled, and the Government has accepted an ambitious target of reducing these disparities over the long term. Crucially, the sustained regional voice provided by the Deputy Prime Minister has been supplemented by the rise of HM Treasury as regional champions.

However, there is less consensus over the causes of these disparities and what policy instruments would make a real difference. This report addresses how levels of both productivity and employment in the regions can be improved, and in particular suggests how lagging regions can benefit from policy improvements in areas such as enterprise, innovation, skills, public investment, the housing market and labour market reforms.

Related items

  1. An unrecognisable woman playing a slot machine in a social club

    Reforming gambling taxation: How to lift half a million children out of poverty

    A key priority for the government’s upcoming child poverty strategy should be to remove the two-child limit and scrap the household benefit cap.
  2. A primary school classroom. In the foreground are pots of pencils and rulers and water bottles. Children in blue school uniform are blurred in the background

    The IPPR Inclusion Taskforce

    Our new inclusion taskforce will focus on reforming England's failing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.
  3. Southport high street on a sunny day. A colourful selection of people out shopping and some planters full of flowers

    Places to come together: Rebuilding local solidarities against the far right

    A discussion paper on the fight for local investment and why government must create, facilitate and maintain spaces where solidarity might thrive.