Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
manifestations of urban decline, such as Tyne and Wear. These corporations aim at
the promotion of physical development of inner cities through subsidies for
property developers. They are much more focused on housing, retailing and leisure
activities than on rejuvenating the local and regional manufacturing industry. In
Labour-controlled areas such as the North East, these centrally led corporations
often clash with local authorities.
Second, some new organisations in the North East were set up during the late-
1980s, which were partly supported by the central government (quangos; quasi-
autonomous, non-governmental organisations). The Northern Development
Company used to be one of the most important institutions within the ''economic
development industry'' (Hassink
1993
). This Company, which started its work in
1986, was joined by trade unions, employers' organisations and local authorities.
The Company tried to attract inward investment by improving the image of the
North. Additionally, it had an important lobby function and started to devise
initiatives to support indigenous firms and authorities. Until the end of the 1990s,
the Company received much less financial backing from London than the Scottish
and Welsh Agencies and the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation. Hence, it
was not able to co-ordinate regional economic development initiatives very well.
This situation improved in 1999 when the NDC became part the of the larger
organisation called One NorthEast (ONE), one of the nine English regional
development agencies established by the UK government. Due to devolved powers
and finance from the central government to this organisation, it was able to steer
and co-ordinate regional innovation policy. Unfortunately, however, the regional
innovation support system weakened again in 2011 when One North East, together
with other regional development agencies, was abolished and replaced by much
weaker Local Enterprise Partnerships (Pugalis and Townsend
2012
).
Third, technology political organisations and measures compensated for the
loss of regional political aid. The Enterprise Initiative of the Department of Trade
and Industry tries to support innovative SMEs by providing financial investment
grants and financial support for business and technological consultancy. Further, a
country-wide network of Regional Technology Centres has to foster technology
transfer between institutions of higher education and firms in the regions. These
centres advice SMEs on technological problems of all kind and often refer firms
with specific questions to professional organisations. One of the most successful
initiatives taken by the Regional Technology Centre North is Knowledge House, a
project aimed at overcoming the barriers between SMEs and universities. Finan-
cial aid for technology transfer, though, has been short-term orientated. Hence, the
approach towards firms in the region is reactive instead of proactive. They tend to
focus on innovative and financially strong firms instead of helping weak and small
companies. One of the main initiatives of One NorthEast was the establishment of
five Centres of Excellence (Coenen
2007
).
There have also been a few attempts to set up science parks or technology
centres in the North East. As the examples of the Sunderland Technology Park and
the Offshore Technology park show, there are difficulties to fill these parks with
innovative SMEs. Another example of a science park is the North East Technology
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