The quest for an effective regional policy, 1934–37

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Abstract
Pitfield D. E. (1978) The quest for an effective regional policy, Reg. Studies 12, 429–443. Surveys of regional policy tend to suggest that either there was no policy before 1934, or that labour transference was replaced at this date because it had been a failure. An examination of the historical record shows that the origin of the Special Areas Act was not so simple and that both policies operated in the late 1930's. The possibility is raised that policy instruments were contradictory. The historical record again demonstrates that this was not possible until after the 1937 Amendment Act, for it was not until this time that the policy was designed to influence the location of industry. The rationale of the 1937 Act that states that it was designed to cure the faults of the 1934 Act is not admissible as the 1934 Act had different aims. Neither can the 1934 Act be judged in terms of a rationale of intervention that did not emerge until later and that was only codified in legislation in 1937.

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