ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the current location pattern of industrial activity in Britain and of the ways in which it has been changing, both inter-regionally and intra-regionally, during the recent past. It reviews the development of theory relating to the location of the individual firm, leading to the formulation of neoclassical profit-maximising location theory. The chapter evaluates by examining empirical studies of the location decision, in the form of both location surveys and correlation analyses. It examines the extent to which twentieth-century location patterns are associated with the emergence of a regional or urban problem by analysing the nature of this problem and how its magnitude may be measured. Three aspects of the impact of central government policies are then examined: their impact on regional employment levels and plant movements, on central government net revenue, and on social costs and benefits.
