Policy Review Section

In this issue of the Policy Review Section, Keith Shaw of the Division of Government, University of Northumbria, Fred Robinson of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Durham and Margaret Curran of the Tyne and Wear Research and Intelligence Unit, examine the findings of a local authority survey of the membership of quangos in the North East. They argue that main areas of the public sector in the region are controlled by an unrepresentative group of individuals, often self-selecting with limited accountability to the local community. In the second article Alastair Adair, James Berry and Stanley McGreal of the School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster, examine the impact of public policy and administration on the housing market in Belfast and suggest that there is scope for a redirection of funds towards a programme of social and economic recovery through inner city regeneration and housing policies. Finally Alistair McCulloch, John Moxen and Seaton Baxter of the School of Public Administration, the Robert Gordon University, critically review the support given to the voluntary environmental sector in Scotland and argue that the Scottish Office should institute action research projects in the sector to facilitate its sustainable development strategy.