ABSTRACT
This chapter does two things. First, it provides a broad brush description of the nature of urban and regional trends in the UK and France as a context for understanding the way that the common themes of competitiveness and environmental sustainability have been interpreted in each country. The argument developed here is that the context within which they are discussed and the terms of the debate have been shaped by their respective histories of urbanisation and industrialisation, and by some basic facts of geography. Second, it considers the broad policy response to the problems of regional and city region management.
