Regional Referendum Study, 2004

This survey centred on the all-postal ballot referendum conducted in 2004, on whether there should be an elected regional assembly in the North East region (the referendum closed on 4 November 2004, with 78% of respondents voting against). The survey also covered the regions of the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside, where similar referendums were delayed indefinitely. <br> <br> The research had four key objectives:<ul><li>to provide an authoritative account of participation in, and the electorate's broader experience of, the referendum</li><li>to compare and seek to explain attitudes and patterns of participation between and within regions, taking account, where appropriate, of the holding of a parallel referendum on local government structure in current 'two tier' local authority areas</li><li>to explore voters' understanding and expectations of the role of the proposed regional assemblies and their likely behaviour in elections to those bodies</li><li>to enable comparisons to be made with previous studies of subnational referendums and elections</li></ul>