GCSE Geography | Deindustrialisation in the UK (UK Economic Futures 2)

During the second half of the 20th century the UK started to go through deindustrialisation - this is the process where a country shifts away from the traditional industrial base of manufacturing, and moves towards service-based industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology. This process was accelerated during the 1970s and 1980s, and since the mid-1960s, UK manufacturing has shed more than 6 million jobs.

There are a number of reasons that that deindustrialisation occurred in the UK...

Mechanisation

One reason that UK manufacturing has declined is due to mechanization - machines and new technology have been developed that do the jobs previously done by humans, but much quicker and more efficiently, so there is less need for actual workers. Once factory work was viewed as a highly skilled and specialised job, however it is now considered unskilled work, as it now often just involves pressing a button to operate a machine that is doing a job once carried out by a person.

Over the years this technology has become increasingly advanced - particularly in the automotive industry with cars assembled by robots, and the whole assembly line production process controlled using tablets as you can see in the images below.

Competition from overseas

There is also a huge amount of competition from overseas - many firms have shifted production to LICs and NEEs where they can take advantage of cheap labour so they can make and sell goods for less, meaning that traditional firms in the UK can’t compete. UK products are now too expensive - there has been very little investment in manufacturing for many years so machines are outdated and inefficient, and minimum wage laws make labour costs too high.

Government policies

Government policies have also played a huge role in the shift to a post-industrial economy...

Between 1945 and 1979 the UK had state-run industries, e.g. British Steel Corporation – declining UK industries were kept alive by government money, despite them being unprofitable. The 1970s was strikes, social unrest, factory closures and power cuts. The 1970s were known for being really difficult in terms of the UK economy, with the 3 day working week and frequent blackouts.

Between 1979 and 2010 the UK saw a period of privatisation, selling off state-run industries to create more competition. Lots of closures and job losses, such as the UK mining industry which PM at the time Margaret Thatcher almost destroyed. But it was also a time of private investment, which led to huge redevelopment of derelict industrial areas, such as the London Docklands. The docklands had declined due to deindustrialisation and ships using coastal ports as they had become too big to travel up the Thames. There has been a huge transformation into a modern financial centre with huge shiny skyscrapers, based around Canary Wharf (see the image below).

From 2010 onwards the UK has experienced post-recession economic recovery, with an attempt to rebuild manufacturing, investment into huge infrastructure projects (see separate study notes), loans for small businesses and encouragement of TNCs to come to the UK. This was needed after the 2008 economic crash which sunk the country into a deep recession, so lots of effort was put into stimulating the economy again.

How did deindustrialisation affect the UK?

Coal mining

At the start of the 20th century the UK had over 3,000 coal mines (like the one pictured below in South Wales) - by the end of the century there were only 30. The last working coal mine was Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire which closed down in 2015, making 450 coal miners redundant.

Shipbuilding

In the early 1900s over 300,000 men were employed in shipyards, concentrated in areas such as Clydeside in Glasgow and Tyneside in the North-east of England (areas that offered little else in the way of employment). At the start of the 20th century, half of the world's ships were being made in the North East of England! However, Britain was reluctant to adopt new shipbuilding methods that were being used in other countries, so the shipbuilding industry moved to China and South Korea. In 1983 the industry was privatised resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs.

Iron and steel

This industry grew up around the coal fields with iron ore and coal being the raw material needed for making steel. The majority of this steel was then used in shipbuilding. In the 1960s 268,500 people were employed by British Steel. The demand for steel plummeted with the closure of shipyards and recessions during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992 the Ravenscraig steelworks closed, ending steelmaking in Scotland. In 1999 British Steel merged with a Dutch company to form Corus, with a UK workforce of 28,900. In 2007 Corus was bought by Indian company Tata Steel, and in 2016 Tata Steel announced that it would sell its loss-making UK steel business, with the loss of at least 15,000 jobs at sites in South Wales, South Yorkshire and the North-east.

North-south divide

Deindustrialisation is linked to the north-south divide (see separate notes). The effects of deindustrialisation have been felt most heavily in parts of the north-west in Lancashire in old mill towns like Burnley, the north-east in old shipbuilding areas such as Hartlepool, and in former mining towns, like those in South Wales. Deindustrialisation has had less of an impact in the south of England as service industries have grown so rapidly here.