The Local Economic Development Learning Network, run by the Local Government Information Unit and Warwick Business School and supported by IDeA, is exploring new tools and approaches to local economic assessment in the context of local authorities’ increasing responsibilities for economic development. At its meeting on 15 July 2010, Jenny Crawford from the ESPON UK Contact Point outlined the European context for economic assessment and explained ESPON’s contribution to testing concepts and developing analysis of the approaches to economic sustainability which were set out in the European Spatial Development Perspective in 1999 and incorporated and contested in European development policies and programmes ever since.

Core debates include the role of network relationships between urban centres (“polycentric urban development”) in maintaining a sustainable balance between the benefits and costs of agglomeration and distribution of markets. The European Spatial Development Perspective promoted “balanced competitiveness” based on maximising the development of local potentials across Europe. It represents a commitment to a place-based approach to economic and social development. This is developed further in ESPON research into the development potentials of urban and rural regions at a wide variety of scales.

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Author:

ESPON UK Contact Point

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

19-Jul-10

Categories:

Espon 

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