ABSTRACT
Sixty years ago, as Britain began to emerge from the Great Depression of 1929-32, the disparities in prosperity and prospects between the South and Midlands on the one hand and the North, Wales and Scotland on the other became impossible for government to ignore. They embarked on two courses of action which, over the years, have been seen many times both alone and in combination. First, they designated the depressed northern regions as “special areas” and appointed commissioners to stimulate the regional economies through public investment programmes. Secondly, they launched a study in the form of a Royal Commission to examine the Geographical distribution of the industrial population. The Barlow Commission examined the causes of regional disparities, considered the consequences of uneven development and made recommendations for improving the situation (Cmd 6153). The Commission reported in 1940 and, following the end of the Second World War, the government began to legislate on the basis of this and other reports on the patterns and processes of urban change in Britain. The legislation enacted in the immediate post-war years laid the foundations for a system of town planning that has survived remarkably intact to the present day.
