Globalisation, regions and cluster policies: the case of the Rover Task Force

In March 2000, BMW announced plans to restructure and sell substantial parts of the Rover Group and threatened to close Rover completely. In response the government brought together local actors through the West Midlands Regional Development Agency (RDA) and Government Office of the West Midlands (GOWM) by setting up the Rover Task Force (RTF). After a local consortium purchased Rover, and Land Rover was sold to Ford, the RTF focused on modernising the auto cluster, diversifying into other clusters, and a regeneration programme linking cluster policy with spatial targeting. This paper assesses the role of the RTF as a response to the crisis and explores to what extent regionally based cluster policies are likely to succeed, using the RTF as an example. Whilst the RDA and GOWM were in a sense able to use the RTF to legitimise and adapt their emerging clusters policy, there have been a number of advantages arising from the RTF’s work. However, there are limits to what a resource-constrained RDA can achieve given the fragmentation of policy delivery in the region, given trends in the auto industry and given the tensions with and incompatibilities of central government policy. The case also raises the critical issue of coordination of regionally based cluster policies where the cluster in question clearly crosses administrative regional boundaries.