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The Institute for Local Government is a research and knowledge exchange partnership which was established to facilitate collaboration between some of the North East’s major public sector institutions and its academic community drawn from the region’s Universities.

This chapter presents a summary and reflection on its roles, activities, funding, outputs and outcomes, operational experience, the problems of long-term sustainability and the lessons that can be drawn from this pioneering initiative in the North East throughout the last decade and the implications for the next decade.

To present a paper which examine the UK's approach to devolution in respect of the English regions.

The paper seeks to understand the policy choices facing the UK Government in redesigning governance arrangements in the English regions. This is achieved by an analysis of the evolution of regional governance arrangements in the past decade drawing on secondary and semi‐structured interviews undertaken by the author.

Regional governance arrangements evolved in an ad hoc manner due to the government's focus on the establishment of elected regional assemblies. In this policy vacuum existing regional institutions succeeded in establishing effective working relationships. However, with an increasing focus on cities as the engines of regional growth and the pressures to devolve responsibilities to local government the existing institutional policy framework has increasingly been challenges.

The paper critically examines different policy choices for reforming regional governance.

Drawing on research and consultancy studies undertaken by the author for the English Regions Network, individual Regional Assemblies, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Cabinet Office and the Economic and Social Research Council, the paper explores issues of policy development and implementation at the regional level.

The paper presents a comprehensive overarching analysis in a complex field of territorial public policy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which the UK Labour Government “framed” the policy and practice debate on social enterprise, the way in which “strategic” networks were (or were not) facilitated and the extent to which scale and geography shaped policy choices after 1997.

The paper examines three phases of development through a series of examples/case studies all of which are based in the West Midlands in the UK. The paper draws upon the author's practice and experience as both a practitioner and researcher during this period. Interviews with other key individuals are undertaken to inform the author's reflections and analysis.

The paper suggests that there is a risk that experience, knowledge and understanding are at risk as there seems to be poorly developed processes and systems to “capture” informed understanding and that the importance of regional networks to promote practice and to protect innovation are often poorly developed and supported.

The paper is timely given the renewed focus by political parties in the UK on the role of the third sector in providing the “solution” for a number of public sector initiatives.

The paper cuts across both the literature/debate on public policy as well as that on the role of networks and decision making within informal (as well as formal) organisations.

The paper is timely and will add to an awareness of policy choices and the importance of sustaining a “memory” of past (and current) programmes.

The objective of this paper is to explore the progress of current reforms to government in the English regions through administrative decentralisation aimed at delivering economic growth and greater accountability.

In addition to government documents the paper is informed by the views of a range of public and non‐governmental bodies on key aspects of the reforms, including the preparation of integrated regional strategies, accountability arrangements and institutional capacity.

While holding out the prospect of a more effective approach to regional policy making and delivery, implementation of the reforms carries risks for the delivery of key government policies. There is little evidence that they will assist in reversing disparities in economic growth rates between the English regions or tackle England's ingrained tradition of centralisation. There are also concerns that the prominence given to economic considerations is incompatible with delivering sustainable development.

Greater attention needs to be given to the coordination of national policies with a regional dimension and to the sub‐national institutional capacity required to both prepare and deliver integrated regional strategies.

Drawing on empirical evidence this paper offers insights into the administrative and policy tensions associated with ongoing reforms to sub‐national government in England.

This new measure of consumer law of some forty‐odd sections, a short Act by present standards but as far‐reaching as any legislation since the war, establishes a code of conduct in commerce and trade which few will be able to ignore, from the manufacturer down to the counter‐hand. Operative from November 30th of this year, traders will require to urgently consider their sales practices, advertising, labelling and their trade descriptions; sales staff will need to be instructed in their new responsibilities. The new law is not just for consumer‐retailer transactions, but extends to trade between different branches of all trades, so that a retailer will be protected against misleading descriptions and misrepresentations by a manufacturer and the latter against misdescriptions of ingredients or components.

Outlines the architectural and construction history Corsham Court over its four hundred years of existence. Describes the damage occurred by neglect during the twentieth century and details the renovations undertaken to make the building structurally sound once more.

Current gazelle and high growth firm (HGF) research provides relatively little systematic knowledge if, how, why firm internationalization facilitates accelerated growth. This chapter aims at providing such an insight by addressing the following three questions: (1) What is the evidence of internationalization as an determinant of HGF; (2) How does internationalization facilitates fast growth?; (3) What do we know about the circumstance under which internationalization contributes to HGF? The chapter concludes that while there is clear evidence that internationalization and its different modes can be important determinants of accelerated firm growth, our knowledge remains limited on how different circumstances of the firm at the micro-, meso- and macro-level interact to condition growth opportunities through internationalization.