Relative to most other European countries, the governance of the United Kingdom has tended to be characterised by a high degree of centralisation. Some areas of policy-making social security, defence have typically been managed largely or exclusively from London, with a limited degree of administrative decentralisation to regional outposts. However, this general pattern of centralised governance is complicated by asymmetric devolution to the Celtic nations in respect of some aspects of government.

For the most part, regional government in England is weakly developed. Regionally-based institutions and policy initiatives in England have been dependent on Westminster and Whitehall for their existence. In general, regional government in England has been an area of intermittent experimentation and occasional tentative interest, rather than an established feature of the political landscape.

But for the UK as a whole, reform to territorial governance, and increasing devolution of power to the Celtic nations, has emerged as potentially a profound challenge to the integrity of the UK as a hitherto largely unitary state. Indeed, the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 potentially presaged an existential crisis for the UK as currently constituted. Whilst electors voted by an unexpectedly narrow majority to reject independence, apparently limited levels of support for the status quo nevertheless prompted far reaching questions about the future of territorial governance in Britain.

The report begins by explaining in brief the broad lineaments of the constitution of the UK as it relates to regionalism, before examining the historical approach to regions in England. One way of chronicling the evolution of regionalism is in terms of its political and economic dimensions. These are typically separate, but occasionally combine as in the Blair government’s abortive regional project of the late 1990s and 2000s.

The subsequent section of the report, therefore, summarises in broad terms the historical trajectory of political regionalism, focusing in particular on policy and governance developed for the English regions, in a wider context of reform relating to the government of the four national territories of the UK as a whole. Complementing this is discussion of the experience of economic regionalism and the array of recent subnational territorial initiatives aimed at improving economic circumstances.

This provides some of the context for the subsequent part of the report, which details contemporary experience of regional governance and policy, outlining the abandonment of much of the inherited regional institutional infrastructure and its replacement after 2010 with a series of new initiatives focused principally on inducing economic growth. The report concludes by considering the prospects for the future evolution of regional governance and policy in Britain.

by Iain DEAS & Lee PUGALIS