ABSTRACT
New initiatives under the Urban Renewal Programme have tended to take an integrated and geographically targeted approach, combining socioeconomic strategies for urban regeneration with objectives for improvements in health and social services. The weighting included demographic data, since national data showed that use of health care varies with age and sex. This chapter describes the principles of resource allocation methods used for health and social services since the 1970s, taking a geographic perspective. The idea that provision of health and welfare services should vary in proportion to the needs of the population, was an old one. The reforms to the organisation of health services in 1990 introduced an internal market' for National Health Service health care. The responsibility for social services falls within local government. The immediate reaction of some social policy commentators was that the approach was too utilitarian and centralist in conception, through the latter was precisely what Day had recognised would be essential.
