The Information Requirements for an Effective Regional Policy: A Critique of the Allsopp Report

This paper considers the recommendations of the report of the Allsopp Committee on the adequacy of UK statistics. We raise concerns over the philosophy underpinning the review but, more specifically, we question whether the Committee’s recommendations are sufficient to operate effectively the present regional policy regime. In particular, the institutional arrangements that make up the “new localism” in regional policy have informational needs that are more extensive than simply monitoring performance on hitting targets. Many of these were simply not considered or given an inappropriately low weight in the Committee’s deliberations.