Government Research Establishments, State Capacity and Distribution of Industry Policy in Britain

HEIM C. E. (1988) Government research establishments, state capacity and distribution of industrial policy in Britain, Reg. Studies 22, 375–386. Location decisions concerning government research establishments are examined to understand why defence and civil establishments were concentrated in the South in the late 1940s when regional policy to disperse economic activity was being actively promoted by the Labour Government. World War Two, while increasing state capacity generally, strengthened individual departments within central government with opposing views on regional policy, thus having both positive and negative implications for pursuit of particular policies such as distribution of industry. Defence departments and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, favouring southern locations, generally prevailed over the Board of Trade. The major exception—the National Mechanical Engineering Laboratory sent to Scotland—owed its location to political pressure more difficult to mobilize for oth...