ABSTRACT
The reorganisation of sub-national governance in the United Kingdom has been an enduring theme of New Labour’s political programme. Following the party’s election to national government in 1997, elected governments in Scotland and Wales were soon established. A further round of regional restructuring followed with the creation of an assembly for Northern Ireland and in 2000 a city-wide mayor and assembly for London. But elsewhere in England, the process of decentralisation was more problematic.Although an extensive system of regional governance was created, attempts to create a democratically accountable form of regional government that would mirror the Greater London Assembly elsewhere in England failed.This culminated in a resounding Government defeat in a referendum on elected regional government in North-East England in November 2004 (Tickell et al. 2006).
