Sheffield was once the steel-making capital of the world. During the First Industrial Revolution, almost half of the steel used in Europe was produced in Sheffield; and during both World Wars, the city became a bombing target because of the central role it played in arming the British military.

This rich steel-making tradition began to decline under Margaret Thatcher. In the 1980s, market forces caused several of Sheffield’s steel works to close and the British steel industry was ultimately privatised. Sheffield – once known as the Steel City – has never fully recovered; and

South Yorkshire is now the poorest region in England. South Yorkshire is not an isolated case. In middle-income countries across the world, time and resources are being invested into capital cities and regions around them, at the expense of rural and coastal regions located further away from the capital. These left behind regions are in dire need of development.

Hamza King sits down with Sir Paul Collier to discuss economics for neglected places. Paul is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, and author of Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places (2024). Paul has authored several other book, including The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it (2007) and The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties (2018).

➡️ Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places (2024): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Left-Behind-Economics-Neglected-Places/dp/024127916X

➡️Paul Collier: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/paul-collier