North West England 1971–1977: a study in industrial decline and economic re-structuring

Lloyd P. E. and Reeve D. E. (1982) North West England 1971–7: a study in industrial decline and economic re-structuring, Reg. Studies 16, 345–59. The North West, as one of Britain's traditional industrial regions has seen a sharp acceleration in the pace of its industrial decline during the seventies. In concert with regions of the periphery and joined by formerly prosperous regions like the Midlands and South East, it has been overtaken by emerging de-industrialization. Differential sub-regional performance in terms of employment has been less a function of manufacturing success or failure (failure has been virtually universal) and more a product of differential service growth. While the region's two cities have taken the brunt of de-industrialization, there is some evidence of a weak decentralizing trend favouring the ex-urban free-standing towns and previously non-industrial centres. This is consistent with revealed trends for the nation as a whole. Underpinning such structural and spatial shifts is the process of re-structuring being undertaken by the region's major industrial enterprises together with the reduction in city-based public expenditure. The events described are representative not simply of short-term cyclical trends but are consistent with the once-for-all collapse of a regional economy founded on a previous stage of capitalist development.