ABSTRACT
Regional policy has been a prominent feature of the economic and social landscape of Wales in the post-war period. In response to the gradual decline of Wales's traditional industries—coal and steel—regional authorities have pursued a range of development strategies based on a combination of physical infrastructure provision and inward investment promotion. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly evident that the substantial transfer payments required to sustain such a strategy cannot be relied upon. At the national level, for example, UK regional policy expenditure has been reduced by some 75 per cent in real terms since 1979 (Morgan and Henderson 1997). Similarly, the envisaged future expansion of the European Union to embrace the poorer countries of Central and Eastern Europe is also likely to leave fewer resources for the peripheral regions of the present EU, such as Wales.
