Britain’s spatially unbalanced economy is both wasteful and unstable. The solution requires much more than small-scale measures

In the wake of the economic crisis and Great Recession, there has been much talk of spatial re-balancing the UK economy from South to North. The ‘re-balancing’ mantra is far from new, however; the British economy has long been skewed towards London and the surrounding South East region and. In a recent paper, Ron Martin, Ben Gardiner, Peter Sunley and Peter Tyler document how the degree of spatial imbalance in Britain’s economy is both real and has continued to widen. However, the various policy measures introduced over the past three years or so do not add up to a coherent and effective response. The solution to the problem will require addressing the fundamental constraints preventing the re-balancing of the United Kingdom – both sectorally and spatially.