ABSTRACT
At the time of its incorporation as a city in 1893, Leeds had already developed into one of the major industrial centres in Britain. Coal mining, engineering and tanning were dominant industries, followed by clothing and printing. Innovations in these sectors coupled with specialization had enabled Leeds to expand rapidly (Thomas and Shutt 1996). As the twentieth century progressed, nevertheless, the innovative capacity of locally owned firms deteriorated as they became incorporated into the subsidiaries of externally owned companies. The result was rapid deindustrialization. Indeed, by 1991, manufacturing employed just 20 per cent of employees in the city, the vast majority in externally owned and controlled firms (Thomas and Shutt 1996). This deindustrialization of Leeds, however, is not solely due to dwindling innovative capacity. With relatively high land and labour costs in
this city compared with neighbouring areas, and regional assistance unavailable to firms in Leeds since the 1960s, the restructuring of Leeds towards the service sector is far from a simple outcome of global restructuring forces. Rather, it reflects the interplay between global trends, local conditions and national policy regimes (Haughton and Williams 1996).
