ABSTRACT
As already emphasised in earlier contributions to this volume, regional economic planning and development policy in the UK has its origins in the actions taken during the 1920s and 1930s to address the structural regional disparities which became ever more evident during the Great Depression. Two lines of analysis, argument and policy were introduced during this period, many elements of which persist to the present day: firstly, various planning policies, restrictions on location and financial assistance schemes designed to guide the location and development of economic activities; secondly, measures intended to promote the occupational and physical mobility of labour. The former have been described as “taking work to the workers”, whilst the labour market and interregional migration policies have been typified as “taking workers to the work” (Richardson and West 1964).
