Urban Policy in the Thatcher Decade: English Inner-City Policy, 1979–90

Abstract

England has witnessed more than a decade of formal urban policy effected by Conservative administrations elected in 1979, 1983, and 1987. Most initiatives have fallen into one of three categories: Those designed to improve coordination; innovations in liberalisation; and urban development programmes. These initiatives can collectively be evaluated within a number of parameters. Central government has argued that urban policy is a coordinated, adequate, efficient, and consensual approach to difficulties faced by the older conurbations. Evidence from Parliament, academics, practitioners, and lobbyists suggests, however, that it remains an ill-coordinated, limited, inefficient, and sectorally divisive policy. Other interpretations rooted in concepts such as privatisation and accentuated control have greater validity in explaining British urban policy.