Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
30 per cent. Using a coefficient of variation weighted by population, following
the method established by Williamscn (1965), the differences decline from 0.65
to 0.60. These indicators of a reducing difference run contrary to the usual
presentation of a large and growing divide between the northern and southern
parts of the country.
Thus the disparities forecast by the north-south researchers are not evident.
According to Martin (1986), “of all the forms of state policy, the freemarket
conservatism of the Thatcher government is the most likely to exacerbate
widening disparities in the British industrial landscape”. On the other hand,
Martin himself, in the same topic (Ch. 1), noted that industrial maturity means
that dynamism in Britain moves on from the nineteenth century iron and steel
industries to other sectors and other regions. There is no hope of recovering the
past.
British regional policy
Regional development in Britain has mostly been directed at industrial problem
regions. This basic fact needs emphasizing, since other approaches might have
been possible, focusing, for example, on peripheral regions, growth regions or
rural regions. As a result of the focus, most efforts have been towards retaining
existing industries or bringing in new ones. The history starts in the period after
the First World War, when production levels declined after the huge war effort.
World depression in the 1930s was already anticipated in Britain by the 1920s;
the force of this depression was felt most in the industrial zones set up in the
nineteenth century, where coalmining, iron and steel industry, and heavy
engineering were dominant (
Fig. 6.1
). These regions included central Scotland,
the Northumberland and Durham coalfield centring on Tyneside, the Yorkshire
industrial towns, the South Wales coalfield, the south Lancashire cotton district,
and Northern Ireland. In contrast to these, as already outlined, regions in the
south were experiencing growth, with their chemicals industries, car
manufacturing and electrical goods. In addition, the services sector was growing,
again mostly in the south. Rural areas in Britain were also in depression
conditions, but they represented no concentrated block of unemployed people as
did the industrial zones, and the awareness of the industrial zones was heightened
by the actions of unions and protest movements at the closure of mines and
factories.
High levels of awareness of the problem through the media, and the political
problem of strikes and protest marches, made some kind of reaction inevitable. A
first attempt was through stimulating the movement of labour. From 1921
onwards, workers began to move with encouragement from firms, and in 1928
the government established an Industrial Transference Board to give formal aid
to movement. About 650,000 people moved to the growth areas over 1921-37,
nearly 600,000 being aided by the Board which covered movement costs and
gave retraining to workers from such industries as coalmining.
