ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the interpretations of British regional and office policies. It discusses the origin and evolution of policies which are explicitly titled 'regional' policy. The restriction is necessary because a large number of government policies have a differential regional impact without being called 'regional' policies. The precursors of regional policy in Britain start in the 1930s. One of the paradoxes of regional policy on the conventional interpretation is that it applies to manufacturing industry whose share of employment has remained stable around 44 per cent since the war. The year 1964 is the decisive date in the development of office policy. November 1964 marked the launching of a policy known as the Office Development Permit system (ODP) which was modelled on the Industrial Development Certificate system. The ODP policy under Labour the contribution of the policy to improving the inter-regional distribution of office jobs was continually emphasized.
