Levelling Up Left Behind Places

Ron Martin is Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Emeritus Professorial Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, UK. From 2015 to 2020 he was President of the Regional Studies Association. He is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK. Ron has published some 25 books and more than 275 journal papers on economic geography, regional and urban development, the economic resilience of regions and cities, the geographies of money and finance, and spatial policy. He has undertaken research for the European Commission, the OECD, the UK Government, and national and regional institutions. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2016 he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Victoria Gold Medal for his ‘outstanding contributions to economic geography’. In 2018 he was selected as a ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ by the Web of Science.Ben Gardiner is a Director and Chief Operating Officer of Cambridge Econometrics (CE), Cambridge, UK. He holds a Doctorate in Economic Geography from the University of Cambridge. His interests are in regional and city economic growth across Europe, regional productivity, and the economic resilience of regions and cities. He has been involved with several ESRC projects on regional and city economic growth and transformation. For several years, he was a Research Associate in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, and has also worked for the European Commission (DG JRC-Seville) on their regional ‘RHOMOLO Model’ of Cohesion Funds.Andy Pike is the Henry Daysh Professor of Regional Development Studies, Newcastle University, UK. From 2012-2017, he was Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University. His research interests, publications and research projects are focused on the geographical political economy of local, regional and urban development and policy. He has undertaken research projects for the OECD, UN-ILO, European Commission, UK Government and national, regional and local institutions. He is a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.Peter Sunley is Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Southampton, UK. His research has focused on geographies of labour and labour market policy, business clusters and venture capital, design and creative industries, urban development and resilience, and manufacturing in industrial regions. He is a member of the Research Committee of the Regional Studies Association and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.Peter Tyler is Emeritus Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Emeritus Professorial Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, UK. His research interests cover the economics of regions and cities, regional policy and urban planning, with a special focus on public policy impacts. He has directed over 70 regional and urban research projects for the UK Government, many of which have involved the evaluation of flagship policy programmes. He has also been an Expert Advisor to the OECD, the European Commission, and the UK Government, and in 2016 was Expert Advisor to UN Habitat III. Peter is a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

This is a timely and highly significant contribution to the current policydebate on ‘levelling up’ in the UK. The authors draw upon their long-standingexpertise and understanding to provide a rich and insightful contemporaryanalysis of the problem of the UK’s ‘left behind places’. Drawing on robust anddetailed evidence, they present a powerful argument that nothing less thana transformative shift in policy approach and resource commitment will berequired if the ‘levelling up’ ambition is to be achieved. Whilst this analysis isfocused on the UK, the approach provided and the lessons to be learned havewider relevance for all countries seeking to reduce spatial divides and developgreater place-sensitivity in national policy-making.Gillian Bristow, Professor of Economic Geography, School of Geography andPlanning, Cardiff University, UKThis is a highly recommended book that clearly documents why some places(cities, towns and localities) in the UK have been left behind economically,making a convincing case for the role of place-based policies using novelevidence and analysis and identifying clear radical policy recommendations forthe UK and valuable lessons elsewhere.Jose Enrique Garcilazo, Head of Regional and Rural Policy Unit, Centre forEntrepreneurship SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECDThis is a very timely book, dealing with an issue which is becoming urgent inmany countries, i.e. how to help many places currently struggling economicallyand socially. Based on solid theory and carefully researched, the book providesthe reader with clear evidence and draws useful and fundamental policyrecommendations, which go beyond the UK context and could have a widerapplication in other parts of the world.Alessandra Faggian, Professor of Applied Economics, Gran Sasso ScienceInstitute, L’Aquila, Italy"Since the 1980s, income and employment inequalities between the United Kingdom’s North (including such formerly industrial cities as Manchester and Glasgow) and the South (i.e., including Greater London) have been increasing. The COVID-19 pandemic only served to highlight these inequalities. Although some degree of spatial inequality is inevitable, it does not detract from the importance of minimizing its scale. The book provides valuable guidance on how to reduce these variations in what they call "levelling up left behind places."[…] This 135-page book is easy to read and helps in understanding the predicament of left-behind places and the challenges in leveling them up for economic prosperity." — David Varady (2022) Levelling Up Left Behind Places: The Scale and Nature of the Economic and Policy Challenge, Journal of the American Planning Association, DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2022.2099178

• 1. Introduction: The new discourse of left behind places 2. Becoming left behind: How places have grown apart 3. Why places have fallen behind: The geographically uneven effects of economic transformation 4. Economic shocks and the differential resilience of places 5. Learning from past policies for levelling up and left behind places in the UK 6. Institutions and policies for levelling up and left behind places