Crisis in the Industrial Heartland

This is one of five local studies carried out under the Economic and Social Research Council's Inner City in Context research programme and offers a specific example of an economy in sudden decline to set against the experience of Glasgow, Newcastle, London, and Bristol. The volume traces the economic decline of the West Midlands from its days as a highly prosperous growth area based on manufacturing, to one with a contracting industrial base. It analyses the impact of the current recession on this major industrial complex and shows how the seeds of decline were present throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. After rapid growth in the 1960s, the industrial base of Birmingham shrank by a third in the 1970s, and 26 of the largest companies cut their workforce by 40 per cent as the key sectors of manufacturing, engineering and cars declined. By 1984 regional unemployment was 17 per cent, but in ten Birmingham wards it was over 30 per cent, and in three over 40 per cent. The authors first trace the evolution of the economy in the social context of such things as demographic patterns, housing characteristics, and other environmental conditions. They then analyse the changes which have taken place in the economy of the region and offer a range of explanations for these. Finally they consider the policy responses made by large firms and by central and local government, and assess the relevance of these policies for the local economy. Graduate and first-degree students taking courses in urban and regional economics, planning, urban and economic geography, urban politics. Professionals in these fields especially in local authorities and chambers of commerce.