Catalogue description Records of the Regional Policy Department and its successors

In setting up this department the government sought to build a team of regional experts who would be responsible for putting together joint economic and physical planning machinery which would extend over the entire country.

The functions of the Regional Development Division (established in 1963) of the Board of Trade passed to this department in 1964. The Regional Planning Divisions which were created late in 1964 comprised Branches A to E which, by 1966, became Divisions I and II each with branches.

From 1966 the Regional Economics and Statistics Branch (which provided data for the Committee on Intermediate Areas, chaired by Sir Joseph Hunt and known as the Hunt Committee) and the Central Unit for Environmental Planning were both part of Division I. The Unit, which was set up in July 1966 with dual responsibility for researching regional and environmental planning on a national scale, operated within the DEA but its members (economists, statisticians, planners and administrators) were drawn from several government departments working together under a senior DEA official. Following the abolition of the DEA in October 1969, the Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning (in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government) assumed responsibility for the Unit.

The Unit was involved with the Hunt Committee which was appointed in July 1967. Its purpose was to gather information and provide recommendations for Intermediate Areas to further inform governmental regional policy, following on from the creation in 1966 of five large Development Areas and, in November 1967, the designation of 48 Special Development Areas. The Committee presented its report in Spring 1969 to the Secretary of State who, on 24 April, named the seven Intermediate Areas in the House of Commons.

The National Plan was to be supplemented by regional plans. A number of studies of individual regions had been published before 1965 and, during that year, four more appeared, three of which were produced by the DEA. Many more official regional studies followed.

The government's regional policy sought to re-locate commercial and industrial development away from the more prosperous parts of the country to the underprivileged regions. The DEA proposed the nationwide establishment of Regional Economic Planning Councils as the mechanism for implementing this policy. They came into being in 1965.

Appointed by the government, they were consultative bodies comprising professional and non-affiliated members all prominent in, and representative of, their regions. Parallel government bodies were set up alongside the Councils to service and support them. These were broadly referred to as planning boards, and were envisaged as the executive arm of the Councils. They consisted almost entirely of civil servants from all relevant ministries, such as the Board of Trade and those concerned with housing, transport and education. The boards were chaired by Under Secretaries who also headed the regional offices. They were assisted by Principals and Senior Executive Officers who acted as Joint Secretaries to the Boards and Councils. Regional offices were also responsible for detailed work on the preparation of regional plans, ensuring on behalf of the chair the prompt implementation of board decisions and communications with headquarters.

In the first instance there were eleven Regional Boards for Industry, which were announced by the Secretary of State in mid-November 1964. They included a Welsh and a Scottish board, and one for London and the South-East combined. These three disappeared from the DEA the next year when the boards were reduced in number, through re-constitution, to six. They were also renamed Regional Economic Planning Boards (although the words 'Regional' or 'Economic' are frequently omitted in both official and lay literature), which indicated the broadening of their scope beyond the original industrial interest.

Extending beyond purely industrial consultation the Boards were detailed to cover all aspects of regional economic planning: industry, transport, social amenities, housing and education, which were reflected in the research contracts received by universities on different areas relating to regional development.

'Final' agreement was reached in 1966 when the Boards were increased to eight, with the re-introduction of the South-East (minus London) and the addition of East Anglia. In 1967 the departmental superstructure was removed and a new office was formed, Regional Planning, which was revised the next year and renamed Regional Group, leaving the Boards to run themselves.

At the abolition of the DEA its regional planning machinery transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and subsequently the Department of the Environment. The Councils were abolished in 1979.