Diversity in leading and laggard regions: living standards, residual income and regional policy

Luca Calafati, Julie Froud, Colin Haslam, Sukhdev Johal and Karel Williams

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 117-139

Abstract: This article develops a Foundational Economy contribution to debate about regional inequalities by presenting new calculations of household income after the costs of three essential items (housing, transport and utilities). These residual income measures illustrate the diversity of living standards within and between English and Welsh regions. The analysis shows a mosaic of variation in residual income and wealth accumulation driven by the variability of housing costs in four different tenure groups (outright owners, mortgage payers, private renters and social renters). The article argues that GVA averages and descriptors like “left behind” are a poor guide to differences within and between regions; they also misdirect policy towards “levelling up” the apparently unsuccessful places without directly addressing the quality of and access to essential services. From a foundational point of view, regional policy needs to focus on access to housing at reasonable cost for all income and tenure groups in every region.

Keywords: residual income; foundational economy; regions; liveability; living standards; regional policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cjres/rsaa027 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:cjrecs:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:117-139.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society is currently edited by Judith Clifton, Anna Davies, Betsy Donald, Emil Evenhuis, Stefania Fiorentino (Associate Editor), Harry Garretsen, Meric Gertler, Amy Glasmeier, Mia Gray, Robert Hassink, Dieter Kogler, Michael Kitson, Linda Lobao, Charles van Marrewijk, Ron Martin, Peter Sunley, Peter Tyler and Chun Yang

More articles in Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society from Cambridge Political Economy Society Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().