New Labour at work: long-term unemployment and the geography of opportunity

New Labour has placed great faith in active labour market policies to address problems of long-term unemployment and poverty. This paper considers the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programmes in light of persistent regional employment disparities within the UK. It is argued that the government has proceeded from a flawed analysis of the causes and magnitude of long-term unemployment, framing the issue in terms of ‘worklessness’ and neglecting demand-side concerns of job availability and job quality.