The Rise of the British Provincial Financial Centre (Progress in Planning)

This book analyses the growth of financial and producer services within British provincial centres from the mid-1970s. Financial and producer service employment growth is described in detail, and is attributed to the growth in local demand for these services within provincial centres and regions. The growth in local demand is a function both of the increasing vertical disintegration of production within the economy as a whole and of the growing market opportunities for financial and producer services within provincial centres. These market opportunities have increased during the 1980s as the City of London and many of the financial institutions based there have become increasingly integrated into the global financial system. Three important mechanisms of financial and producer service growth are identified; first, the growth of local, regionally-based firms; second, the office expansion of large London-based multilocational firms; and, third, office decentralisation from central London. Three major aspects of this growth are also identified.