Devolution, Deals or Disorder: Understanding Emerging City Policies in Britain

In this article we consider whether the city policy frameworks that are currently emerging in England and Scotland, under the influence of devolution and localism, are likely to result in a locally effective yet nationally coherent set of economic outcomes or generate a disorderly pattern of local autonomies based on a series of ad hoc, local deals. Mindful of the context of slow economic growth and austerity, we look at the evolution of city policies in Scotland and England in the light of some rather fundamental requirements for cohesive decentralised policy design and implementation. Each can learn from the policy experiences of the other, but key questions remain as to whether sufficient resources and governance cohesion, to deliver greater city-led national economic growth, will emerge in England and Scotland.