Does More Mean Worse? Three Decades of Enterprise Policy in the Tees Valley

Abstract

This paper argues that there have been three distinct phases of enterprise policy in the UK in the past 30 years: the 1970s saw no effective enterprise policy ('policy off'); the 1980s witnessed an attempt to increase the number of start-ups; and the 1990s saw a concentration on 'business quality'. This paper looks at how enterprise has evolved in Cleveland/Tees Valley over the past three decades. It suggests—and finds—that businesses in the 1980s were more numerous but of lower 'quality' (even if the influence of unemployment is accounted for) than those from the 1970s and 1990s. This implies that we should be cautious about the value of policy attempts to increase business formation rates in areas such as Cleveland/Tees Valley.