Delivering strategic economic development in a time of urban austerity: European Union structural funds and the English city regions

Alexander Nurse and Matthew Fulton

Local Economy, 2017, vol. 32, issue 3, 164-182

Abstract: Supranational funding such as that from the European Union has become a key ingredient of the economic development of many major cities. Set across comparatively short time frames, these schemes are constantly evaluated and realigned to reflect current priorities, becoming increasingly competitive as cities deploy every strategy available to mitigate the effects of urban austerity. In the United Kingdom, European Union funding is currently allocated through a multi-level structure involving the state, subregional structures and cities, all conforming to supranational (i.e. European Union) guidelines. Considering this, this paper explores the extent to which funds such as the European Regional Development Fund can be effectively drawn down to focus upon issues deemed to be locally important. The paper achieves this through a case study of policy making in Liverpool, United Kingdom which, having successfully used Objective One funding to support an economic recovery in the 1990–00s, is now fully engaged with European Regional Development Fund agendas. In doing so, the paper explores how successful European Regional Development Fund-funded schemes are developed, drawing out the experiences of key stakeholders working at each level of the funding process. This allows for a reflection on the effects of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and, moreover, makes a series of policy recommendations as to how future funding strategies might be improved.

Keywords: Brexit; centre–local; city regions; European funding; Liverpool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094217704646 (text/html)

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:sae:loceco:v:32:y:2017:i:3:p:164-182

DOI: 10.1177/0269094217704646

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Local Economy from London South Bank University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().