The Tory way to help a depressed area's economy is to give privileges to businesses in that area — for instance, tax exemptions.

There are many ways to use public funds to help rebuild the economy of a region. I suspect that politicians' enthusiasm for local "enterprise zones" as a method comes from the desire to reduce taxes on business and thus shift more wealth to the wealthy. The more parts of a country enjoy the lower tax rate, the more of a disadvantage other parts will claim to suffer, until finally they all get the same tax reduction for business.