Devolution and development: Territorial justice and the North-South divide

One of the unintended consequences of devolution under New Labour is that it might make it more difficult to secure territorial justice between the nations and regions of the United Kingdom. Centralized regional policy, the aim of which was to promote economic equity between the regions, has been replaced by a devolved regional policy that aims to promote an economic dividend within each region. In the unlikely event that devolution yields a uniform economic dividend in each region, the result does nothing to redress the territorial inequalities at the heart of the North-South divide. Treating unequal regions equally is not a recipe for territorial justice.