La English Question e il regionalismo inglese

Beside devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, regionalism has been the New Labour’s preferred option for England. Currently, the core of the government’s approach for the English regions is formed by the Regional Development Agencies. These bodies have been created mainly in order to coordinate and promote regional economic development, but the government hoped that they could have been also embryos for elected regional assemblies. This paper reveals that the potential impact of these bodies on the underlying problems of disadvantaged regions in England is limited. At the same time, it shows that Regional Development Agencies have not been able to lead to political regionalism. In fact, they are mere executive agencies of the government with members appointed by ministers and accountable through ministers to parliament, they have few powers, their budgets come entirely from Whitehall, and they are fully dependent on decisions made at central level.