New Technology and Regional Development Policy

Widening regional disparities have been one of the key characteristics of the current long recession,. The lagging peripheral regions whose economies have been based on sectors developed in the 19th Century (e.g. coal, steel, textiles, heavy engineering) have been joined by other more prosperous and central regions specialising in the industries of the early 20th Century (e.g. motor vehicles, other consumer durables, chemicals), as these sectors have begun to suffer the consequences of deindustrialisation and job loss. Much of this job loss in both types of regions has occurred in large corporations who have been eliminating excess capacity and/or switching investment overseas. Regional disparities have been exacerbated because at the same time a limited number of areas have experienced some growth in output and employment due to the rise of new technology based industries and services, many associated with the emergence of microelectronics technology, with much of this growth taking place in new and small businesses or within the limited number of multinational enterprises operating in this field.