Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
has reopened with the change in technology of the new waves. As a result of a
long period of change, there is a north-south difference, for example in the
service orientation of the south versus the industrial focus in the north, in higher
unemployment in the north, and in a stronger effect of the deindustrialization
trends of the 1970s and 1980s in the north. In addition, what has been attracted
back into the north is a branch plant economy, as many MNCS have invested in
plants producing a particular component or simply assembly plants, in neither
case involving high skills or any research and development work.
Table 6.1 Regional differences in personal disposable income in Britain in 1975 and 1993.
1975
1993
Region
Population
( millions)
Personal
i ncome (£)
Population
( millions)
Personal
i ncome (£)
UK total
55.44
1331
58.19
7942
North
3.12
1234
3.10
7246
Yorks. and
Humberside
4.90
1241
5.01
7437
E. Midlands
3.73
1278
4.08
7477
E. Anglia
1.79
1252
2.08
8055
Greater London
7.11
1600
6.93
9348
Rest of
southeast
9.81
1371
10.84
8288
Southwest
4.23
1274
4.77
7967
West Midlands
5.18
1350
5.29
7622
Northwest
6.57
1297
6.41
7454
Wales
3.44
1231
2.91
7189
Scotland
5.21
1288
5.12
8065
Northern
Ireland
1.54
1110
1.63
7413
Source: Regional Trends 26 (1995) Table 12.9, personal disposable income.
Writers on the north-south divide have made a critique in terms of the
government's role in boosting the south, including investment in rail links to the
continent, and Ministry of Defence contracts placed with southern firms (Town
and Country Planning Association 1987). This kind of critque would seem
peripheral compared with the long historical process.
The north versus south contrasts may have been overemphasized, however, if
we examine data on personal disposable incomes (from Regional Trends ). The
range of differences between the highest paid region of Britain, Greater London,
and the lowest, Northern Ireland, changed from £1600 to £1110 in 1975, to
£9348 versus £7189 (for Wales, now the lowest) in 1993 ( Table 6.1 ). The
percentage difference, using the lowest as the base, declined from 44 per cent to
 
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