The politics of 'integrated' local policy in England

From its inception in the early 1970s, local economic policy has shifted, albeit in complex and locally specific ways, through a variety of distinctive periods. One critical aspect of change has been the developing relation of 'economic' and 'social' policy spheres which are becoming less distinct, or even directly integrated. In this paper, we examine the emergence of ostensibly 'integrated' local economic and social strategies in two English metropolitan districts- Sandwell and Rotherham-which were at the forefront of policy development in the mid 1990s. In developing this analysis, we locate the roots of integrated policy in the changing ideological foundations of the relationship between economic and social policy under 'late Thatcherism' and 'New Labour', and in reactions to the shortcomings of previous Thatcherite urban policies. However, the process of integrated strategy-making is critically mediated by pre-existing institutional and political forms in localities, producing distinctive institutional responses and policy processes which in turn suggest the limits of policy integration in contemporary local governance.