Verdict on the British Enterprise Zone Experiment

The year 2006 marks the drawing down of the final curtain for Enterprise Zones (EZs) in the United Kingdom. EZs were originally announced in 1980 as experiments to stimulate free enterprise and set up in areas that had suffered significant employment loss. In each EZ there was a reduction in bureaucratic rules, in which minimal planning was the centrefold, and tax incentives aimed at property occupation and development. This paper charts the development of the EZ programme in Britain and provides a critical assessment of their operation and legacy. The legacy of EZs, it is argued, is not in the promotion of free enterprise but in rethinking planning and the use of tax incentives to address urban regeneration, notably through the creation of 2000 Enterprise areas in deprived wards.