The State, the Market and Regional Inequality: Critical Reflections on the South East

The State, the Market and Regional Inequality: Critical Reflections on the South East Allan Cochrane The Open University Presentation to CEEDR, University of Middlesex, October 23rd, 2013

South East as the norm, against which others are judged • Capital city – seat of government • Home Counties • Englishness (maybe even Britishness) • The rest is peripheral – defined as ‘provinces’…. ‘distressed areas’…. ‘the regions’ South East as core

So…not a ‘real’ region – more of an accidental region in administrative terms • BUT needs to be regionalised – to be understood as part of set of socio-spatial relations • Within and beyond England and the UK • And in the end also mobilised as part of explicit and implicit national regional policy Regionalising the South East

‘Rethinking the Region’ • Defined as ‘growth region’ and specifically region of neo-liberal growth • But a particular version of neo-liberalism which involved a continual process of state privileging for the South East • What’s in and what’s out, not just an academic debate – feeds into policy debates Defining the South East

Activity space stretches across a huge area of England (Gordon) • Over half the population of England included in some versions (Dorling) • Polycentric city region (Hall and Pain) • Edge city (Garreau) • Worrying about city regions – mega region, super-region – but…beyond the metropolis (8m) London city region

South East as national champion – England’s ‘world region’ - England’s (and so the UK’s) economic success relies on the success of the South east • The SE as (more than a) suburban heartland • SEEDA says it’s ‘England’s World Class region’ • Diamonds and clusters • London as ‘world city’ • The South East as (explicitly regionalised) economic driver under new Labour Making up a region

Subject of explicit and active state strategy in first decade of 21st century focused on housing growth to underpin economic growth (housing as driver) • ‘Sustainable communities’ • Squaring the circle • Economic growth • Social sustainability • Environmental sustainability • Growth regions identified (our research focused on one of these) Inventing a regional policy

Carefully targeted nudges to the housing market, working with developers and house builders • A neo liberal belief in the power of the market (and house builders in particular) • Combined with active state support through planning and infrastructural development • Paid for through rising property values Market utopianism

Strategy seems predicated on inequality and its reinforcement • Sustainable communities in the SE; Pathfinders in the North • Maybe making different claims – spreading out over the rest of England (Hall) • BUT based on ‘growth’: what happens when growth stops and the ‘growth region’ stops growing? Sustaining growth

Still at the imaginative core of public policy – housing growth on the edge of the South East • Centre for Cities – focuses on growth in growth areas (and still housing) • City Deals – the case of Milton Keynes • From sustainability to viability (removing perceived constraints of the planning system) No escape…

The State, the Market and Regional Inequality: Critical Reflections on the South East