Post-devolution blues? Economic development in the Anglo-Scottish Borders

Uneven regional development on each side of the Anglo-Scottish Border has underpinned a 'post-devolution blues' in North East England. The situation has been compounded by the economic development crisis in the Anglo-Scottish Borders region in the late 1990s. Rather than being a simplistic outcome of devolution, the 'post-devolution blues' are complicated by the particular nature of border(s) regions, the pre-devolution history of cross-border differences and the as yet inconclusive evidence of the impact of devolution on the Anglo-Scottish Borders. Future development and an antidote to the 'post-devolution blues' may require both a needs-based reform of the territorial distribution of public expenditure and a political settlement for the English regions at the national (UK) level.