Coalfields and neighbouring cities: economic regeneration, labour markets and governance.

This study looks at the extent to which the regeneration of Britain’s coalfields depends on links with neighbouring cities. It is about the relationship between places – in terms of the economy, labour market and governance. As Britain has moved further away from its position as one of the world’s industrial powerhouses, people and places have had to adapt to new social and economic requirements. In particular, increasingly open local economies raise questions about how a growing network of links between places alter the role and identity of former industrial areas. This question is closely bound up with key contemporary policy issues. These include geographical disparities in welfare and productivity, the uneven operation of the labour market, the governance of economic development, and the competing claims of ‘city regions’ on the one hand and ‘regions’ and ‘sub-regions’ on the other as the appropriate arena for sub-national policymaking. The evidence and analysis presented in this report seeks to shed light on these issues. The report is based on a study of three former coalfield areas and their neighbouring cities (Lothian and Edinburgh; Central Valleys and Cardiff; and South Yorkshire and Sheffield). This investigated economic, social and governance links between the coalfields and their cities, and assessed whether the coalfields are reviving in their own right or are more likely to become residential hinterlands for newly resurgent cities. These matters were examined in terms of commuting and migration links, the job-search patterns and social networks of unemployed individuals in the coalfields, and collaborative governance and policy arrangements covering coalfields and neighbouring cities.