Searches behind the aggregate statistics for underlying processes and complexities. Employment decline spreads outwards from the inner areas of conurbations, drawing in the suburban industrial estates and some of those free-standing towns dominated by key employers undertaking reconstruction programmes. Decline will continue as recession, internationalisation, and the adoption of new techniques combine to change fundamentally the economic base of the region. Advocates that a more effective regional policy must be founded on an Alternative Economic Strategy for the nation as a whole. -A.F.Pitty
