Technical change and productivity growth in the British coal industry, 1974–1990

Abstract

After 15 years of comparative stagnation, labour productivity growth in the coal industry since 1985 has outstripped that of all other British industries. This paper assesses technical change in the British coal industry since large programmes of colliery investment and mining R&D were launched during the 1973–1974 oil shock. A wide range of innovations in mining technology and measurement and control systems were developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s and then widely applied from 1985 onwards. These increased the productive potential of the lower-cost pits, and led to the concentration of output on far fewer coalfaces and collieries, and a huge reduction in manpower. Since the 1984–1985 miners' strike there have also been changes in labour relations and management authority, but these could not by themselves have secured the step jump in daily output per coalface in an industry in which production has long been mechanised. Despite the productivity growth and cost reduction, British coal remains vulnerable to competition forn imported coal which is cheap at the current exchange rate. Decisions to be taken over the next few years will determine whether the sustained effort to modernise the British coal industry will have been worth while.