Local business representation and the private sector role in local economic policy in Britain

Private sector involvement in urban governance: The case of Business Improvement Districts and Town Centre Management partnerships in England

“…Rather, it is to say that they are often only secondary considerations. This study has also demonstrated that material interests do not automatically translate into local political activity in the way that Cox and Mair implicitly suggest (Wood et al, 1998;Wood, 2004). This would be a functionalist argument.…”

“…Whether or not the partnerships and their services will enhance the profitability of their relatively-fixed assets appears to be the central factor in the private sectors' decisions to donate time, money and resources. This is not to say that other factors, such as a cultural attachment to place, are not important (Wood et al, 1998). Rather, it is to say that they are often only secondary considerations.…”

“…Wood and colleagues (Wood et al, 1998;Wood, 2004), however, are unconvinced that material interests easily translate into local political activity in the way that Cox and Mair imply. In a study of local business political mobilisation in Barnsley, Accrington and Macclesfield, they reason that ''the creation of local business agendas may be simply one among a number of avenues through which businesses seek to realise their interests in the locality" (Wood et al, 1998, p. 22).…”

“…Manager, independent retailer, Reading (interview, August 2006) Some explained that their desire to help the locality has been down to a personal attachment to the area. Many of those interviewed live in the locality or have grown up there and witnessed firsthand the decline of their centre (see also Wood et al, 1998). Many, however, were relatively new to the locality as store managers often had to relocate to take up jobs.…”

“…More crucially, they argue that local dependence alone does not explain private sector mobilisation and involvement. Rather as Wood (2004Wood ( , p. 2112 Wood and colleagues (Wood et al, 1998;Valler et al, 2000;North et al, 2001;Wood, 2004) also criticise the inattention to business agendas and agency within the 'state-centric' understandings of urban governance which focus on the creation of 'institutional space' for the private sector and the extra-local pressures on local PPPs. A more productive avenue of research, they argue, is to analyse the formative actions of business elites, business organisations and business agendas.…”