The principal results of the third and latest Booming Towns study are presented. The patterns of local economic performance across Britain's 280 local labour market areas for the late 1980s are examined and the degree of variation within regions compared with that between regions. In particular, the extent to which the economic recovery which began in London around 1983 penetrated across the country over this period is assessed and the effects of this process on the scale of the North-South divide are investigated.
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