Building back before: fiscal and monetary support for the economy in Britain amid the COVID-19 crisis

Berry, Craig; Bailey, Daniel; Beel, David; O’Donovan, Nick

Abstract

This paper explores the local impact of various forms of fiscal and monetary support for UK-based companies in the context of disruption caused by COVID-19 and associated public health restrictions, including support for household incomes (and therefore private consumption) via the ‘furlough’ scheme, the Covid Corporate Financing Facility and various national and local business support schemes. It shows that the economic crisis associated with the pandemic has been construed to justify interventions that preserve the spatially uneven status quo of the UK’s model of economic development, protecting business from harms arising, apparently, from the public’s reaction to the pandemic. To some extent, COVID-19 has been treated as a localised phenomenon that the national economy requires protection from.

Citation

Berry, C., Bailey, D., Beel, D., & O’Donovan, N. (2023). Building back before: fiscal and monetary support for the economy in Britain amid the COVID-19 crisis. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 16(1), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac024

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 9, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jun 27, 2022
• Publication Date: Mar 30, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2024
• Journal: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society
• Print ISSN: 1752-1378
• Electronic ISSN: 1752-1386
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 49-64
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac024
• Keywords: Economics and Econometrics; Sociology and Political Science; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/758232