Business services, the regions and regional policy

Abstract

Marshall J. N. (1985) Business services, the regions and regional policy, Reg. Studies 19, 353–363. The decline of employment in manufacturing industry in the UK has encouraged a more favourable treatment of services in regional policy. An analysis of the employment prospects for private services suggests further modest growth, and justifies the inclusion of such services in a policy package. However, service employment creation in less-prosperous regions has been relatively limited. An analysis of business service industries attempts to account for the changing location of service activity, and derives implications for regional policies. In an increasingly competitive market for services, organizational restructuring, assisted in some services by computer based technology, has encouraged the decentralization of employment from London, predominantly to the Greater South East. Regional policy is unlikely to operate in such a favourable economic context in the immediate future. Rationalization investment is becoming more common in services, and employment decentralization seems unlikely to recur on the same scale. Structural adjustment in service industries, associated with technological change, could support the centralization of service activities. For a service sector regional policy to be successful it will need to have access to significant resources, emphasize existing services in less-prosperous areas, and be more flexible than recent policy.