Building Institutions in a Vacuum: Devolution and England's South East, 2002

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>The South East region has long been seen as peripheral to the process of devolution in England. Claims that the region lacks a clear identity of its own, that it is in fact a series of economic sub-regions and that London, although governed separately, is the cultural and economic core of the South East, are easy to make and to substantiate. This research project moved beyond these preliminary analyses of the 'problem region' of English Devolution. It focused on the process through which the region is constructed as a network of institutions. It considered the emergent relationship between the three institutions of regional government, the Regional Development Association (RDA), the Government Office and the Regional Assembly, to be critical in the formation and operation of the region. This triad of regional institutions has had an immediate and significant impact on local and county government in the South East. However, the effectiveness of their promotion of the South East's interests on the inter-regional and national scale is more questionable.<br> <br> The research found that institutions of regional government in all parts of England are concerned primarily with physical regeneration and economic development initiatives. However, the policy imperatives for South East England are to address the problems of economic success such as transport congestion, labour shortages and a lack of affordable housing. As such, the regional government of the UK's core economic area is failing to address the fundamental requirements of the regional economy. Institutional links between the South East region and London remain under-developed and as such inter-regional policy on important common issues such as housing and transport are fragmented. There is much scope for London government to develop common strategies with their counterparts in the South East and the East of England, although as yet they have achieved relatively little in this respect.<br> <br> This qualitative data collection comprises six transcriptions from interviews with key informants from county councils and regional government organisations in South East England. The interviews were carried out by the project team between May and August 2002. Each of the six interviews was carried out face-to-face by one or more interviewers. The interviews each lasted between 45 minutes and one hour. A common series of issues was raised in each interview and a prompt list is included in the background documentation. However, a relatively unstructured approach was adopted and scope allowed in each interview for new themes and issues to emerge. The data collection has been anonymised prior to deposit at the UK Data Archive; the anonymisation process has involved the removal of names and locations that could allow interviewees to be identified. A common system of replacement has been adopted and as such 'District X' in Interview 1 refers to the same location as 'District X' in Interview 6.<br><B>Main Topics</B>:<br>The interviews covered the following topics:<br> <li>identification of the region;</li><br> <li>working with and within the region;</li><br> <li>partnership building and network development;</li><br> <li>relationship between the local and the regional scales;</li><br> <li>inter-regional relations;</li><br> <li>England;</li><br> <li>Europe.