Regional Development Agencies and Business Change (Urban and Regional Planning and Development)

Regional development agencies across Europe are in pursuite of sustainable economic development: an aspiration which is proving particularly difficult for economic development professionals to realize. The dilemma, however, is not new, as successive generations of policymakers and practitioners have found themselves wrestling with the fundamental challenge of how best to "facilitate" the developmental aspects of their respective regional economies. After some delay in comparison with mainland European, Scottish and Welsh experience, the English regions are finally in process of setting in place new regional development agencies (RDAs) of which much is expected. This book takes a practical look at the strategic, organizational and resource challenges faced by these new English RDAs at the beginning of 2000. This examination of the emerging agendas around the RDAs looks at one region - the West Midlands - in more detail, in order to illustrate some of the key issues which are being faced in relation to business change and transition.