New City-Regional Governance in London: Redefining the Relationship between City and Region

Current academic discussions on economic development make a case for 'regional governance' in city-regions and stress the importance of 'appropriate' institutional and policy-making frameworks for effective, 'joined-up' government bringing together the interests of cities and their regional hinterlands. In England, as part of devolutionary processes, regions have experienced a resurgence in political visibility especially in the case of London with its high profile mayoral elections. New responsibilities have been established and new boundaries of responsibility drawn for London and the (former) South East region as its wider functional hinterland. This paper will look at the evolution of new forms and structures of regional governance in the London area. New territories of institutionalized regional responsibilities have been established cutting across established regional arrangements and forms of cooperation, such as the Thames Gateway, with now four regions replacing the former South East. Potentially new fronts may be opened between the three regions surrounding London, and also between them and the central city with its high profile mayor. Within London, some of the boundaries between local and regional interests and policy agendas may become more blurred. The paper will discuss the scope for coherent 'regional governance' vis-a-vis an increased number of players and a redistribution of decision rights, new territorial and institutional divisions, emerging sub-regional interest groupings, and thus the increased reliance on the co-operation (or coercion) of different decision-makers. The paper will explore the extent to which government bodies and decision-makers themselves see a need for co-ordinated, collaborative decision making, and what encourages or discourages them from contributing to a regional approach and responding more 'appropriately' to the changing interests and policy requirements of city regions.