Regional Problems and Policies in the North-East of England

Abstract

THE economic and social problems of the North-East of England are largely the legacy of nineteenth-century industrialization based on coal, iron and steam power. Coal-mining, metal manufacture, shipbuilding, marine and other heavy engineering provided the basis for the North-East's economic expansion, and by I914 these industries were employing approximately two-thirds of the region's working population. At its peak, the mining industry, itself, provided employment for over one-quarter of a million workers. This heavy dependence of the region on its basic industries was markedly reduced by the severe structural changes of the inter-war years, but problems of longterm adjustment still remained. The stimulus generated by war-time expansion and a decade of peace-time inflation, however, largely deferred these problems and served to disguise the extent of underlying weakness. Thus, in mid-I957, some 365,000 persons were still attached to the older basic industries of the North-East, this representing approximately one-third of the region's total working population. The contraction which followed occurred with almost surprising suddenness; and the industries which had experienced the greatest secular decline in the inter-war years-coal-mining, shipbuilding and marine engineering-were the most adversely affected [i]. Up to I957, the coal-mining industry in the North-East, as elsewhere in Britain, reflected the National Coal Board view that there would be an ever-increasing demand for fuel and power and a continuing shortage of coal. In order to maximize output and retain manpower, collieries which would otherwise have been closed were kept open. Owing to its favourable coastal situation and the shallow depth of seams in parts of the coalfield, the North-East was the first area to develop the mining of coal on a significant commercial basis, and it is now feeling the effects of this early development. Some uneconomic workings were closed in the decade following nationalization, but with the change in the market for coal which became apparent towards the end of I957 and the adoption of a more costconscious policy by the N.C.B., this process was sharply accelerated. By the end of I963 there were only I24 producing collieries in Northumberland and Durham, compared with 174 five years previously. Employment in mining, which had declined comparatively