Policy Review Section

Abstract

In this Policy Review Section, John Mohan of the Department of Geography, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, considers the consequences of the National Health Service White Paper for the geographical distribution of resources and services with the Health Service. Mohan concludes that the White Paper emphasis on an internal market, on flexibility, decentralization and localism which have echoes in other areas of public policy are likely to have an uneven impact, to the detriment of high cost service delivery areas making it difficult to maintain equal access to health care. In the second article, Alan Evans of the Department of Economics, University of Reading, explores the way in which the operation of planning controls may restrict the development of housing in growth areas causing higher property prices and how, in turn, this leads to a house price based regional policy in which differences in house prices deter immigration and may cause economic growth to be diverted. In the view of Evans, de facto such a policy did come into existence in the latter part of the 1980s and he considers the economic consequences for the prosperous areas concerned and the economy as a whole.