. With the UK’s membership of the
European Union, policy and action after 1972 also became subject to supranational
influence and support under a system currently undergoing reform. It remains to be
seen how far structural reform of funding within the EU and the move towards greater
regional devolution of power within the UK will affect the locus of decision making in
the future. As far as methods of intervention are concerned, a variety of possibilities exist, ranging
from grant aid to businesses to stimulate investment and growth to schemes to
promote enterprise through the deregulation of business or the creation of a favourable
fiscal climate. In the UK, such schemes have largely formed the core of what have
become known as regional policy and urban policy