Introduction

England, it is commonly accepted, is currently in a ‘post-regeneration’ policy era (O’Brien and Matthews, 2015). The election of the Coalition government marked both the end of funding for large-scale areabased initiatives (ABIs) and the dismantling of much of the policy architecture that had enabled a broader focus on less prosperous areas: Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), some regional data series and requirements on Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to develop neighbourhood renewal strategies (Lupton and Fitzgerald, 2015; Pugalis, 2016). From 2010, urban regeneration was recalibrated as a policy field dominated by a growth-based rather than a needs-based approach (Deas, 2013; Pugalis and McGuinness, 2013; Crisp et al, 2014). This ‘Local Growth’ agenda (BIS, 2011; DCLG, 2011, 2012) included the establishment of new city regional institutions (Local Enterprise Partnerships [LEPs] and combined authorities); new funding streams to support a range of interventions around housing and planning, skills, transport and economic development; and the emergence of locally negotiated City Deals, Growth Deals and Devolution Deals as mechanisms for funding allocation. This set of initiatives is widely regarded as the abolition of central government regeneration policy. Unlike the other nations in the UK, England now has no national strategy for regeneration, which is seen as a policy function for local or city regional institutions (DCLG, 2011, 2012).

However, the shock of the European Union (EU) referendum result, and perhaps also the ‘austerity fatigue’ that became evident in the 2017 General Election campaign, has led to a refocus in public policy debate on the plight of older industrial areas that voted predominantly to leave the EU (RSA, 2017). To some extent this echoes Tony Blair's pledge, in his inaugural speech as Prime Minister (Blair, 1997), to focus on the people and places that had been ‘forgotten’ by government and left out of growing prosperity. A new department has been established with responsibility for industrial strategy, with an early Green Paper (HM Government, 2017, p 107) signalling that ‘recognition of the importance of place will be at its heart’. It also points to the need to reduce spatial economic imbalances through infrastructure and R&D (research and development) investment, targeted programmes to raise skills, and the strengthening of place-based institutions.