Evaluation of the spatial and economic effectiveness of industrial land policies in northwest Europe

ABSTRACT

This article stems from the discrepancy between the lack of attention paid to industrial land policy by academics and the predominant thought among elected representatives and development agencies, i.e. that industrial land policy plays a key role in the creation of growth and new jobs. The article begins with a reflection on the literature, which stresses the need to develop knowledge on industrial land policies. To help fill this research gap, we have developed an exploratory piece of research on the theme of their ‘spatial’ and ‘economic effectiveness’, on the basis of statistical analyses dedicated to seven countries. As regards ‘spatial effectiveness’, the results underline significant national differentials in terms of land consumption on the one hand, while highlighting the economic sprawl that affects France and Belgium on the other hand. As regards ‘economic effectiveness’, our results show that the impact of the development of economic estates on growth depends largely on regional contexts. In particular, the ‘intermediate regions’ in western Germany stand out as belonging to a specific context where land policies seem particularly effective from an economic standpoint. By contrast, the ‘economic effectiveness’ of industrial land policies requires readjustments in the Netherlands as well as in most ‘predominantly rural regions, close to a city’.

KEYWORDS:

• Regional development
• land policy
• economic estates
• industrial land
• land consumption
• spatial effectiveness
• economic effectiveness
• economic sprawl
• urban sprawl

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Marcus Dejardin from the University of Namur as well as Bernadette Mérenne-Schoumaker from the University of Liège, whose valuable advice helped to develop the research. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for their richly detailed comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

It was possible to carry out the research for this paper thanks to a research grant from the Walloon Region (Belgium) through the CPDT (Conférence Permanente du Développement Territorial – Standing Conference on Territorial Development).