Introduction:
De-industrialisation is the process of social and economic change which is due to the reduction in industrial capacity or the activities of a country's manufacturing and heavy industry. This essay will be focusing on the city of Sheffield and the effect of de-industrialisation on the city since the 1980’s and what steps were put in place to save the city from an economic and social disaster.
Overview of the effect of de-industrialisation on the whole of the UK
During the industrial revolution the manufacturing output from the UK was up by 9.5% (in 1830) and continued to grow into the 1870s when output was up at 22.9% then there was a gradual decline in through the 1900s and in 1973 the manufacturing output had fallen to 4.9% (Lane, 2016). The labour government attempted to reverse this decline through nationalisation “the process of transforming private assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state” and in 1967 they nationalised the steel industry. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s radical Conservative government was elected and this process was reversed with the coal and steel industry were privatised along with other major national industries
But de-industrialisation continued to hit the UK hard in the 1970s and 1980s and resulted in a significant recession in the country. There was a number of reasons or contributing factors for the decline of the UK’s industrial base especially in heavy industry but also some light manufacturing.
• Lower cost imported goods directly impacting UK Manufacturing economic viability
• Manufacturing moving to new emerging economies (NEEs) where there is lower cost labour and have more flexible employment laws.
• Restrictive work practices in the UK, battle between trade unions and management on changing working conditions in line with foreign competition further widened the gap between NEE’s and the UK.
• Export market for UK manufacturing goods diminishing as these NEE’s produced their own goods to serve their own market
• Move of heavy industry closer to the sources of raw materials, iron ore, coal etc
This then resulted in new jobs replacing traditional skills in industrial jobs, with lower wages, and the need for high and different skill requirements to work in these new jobs. Many laid-off workers lacked the qualifications and technical skill to work in these new jobs. This resulted in a knock on effect in the local economies in standard of living and services and hence accelerated urban decay.
Case – study: Sheffield “the steel city”
Sheffield may be Britain’s least known or understood large city and if you didn’t already know, Sheffield is modelled on Rome as it is situated on seven hills. Too many people Sheffield is the visible and obvious example of industrial decline, with its derelict steel mills and defunct cutlery factories from which it derives its ‘steel city’ name. Most of us are familiar with the east side of the city that faces the M1 motorway and hosts several regeneration projects like the Don Valley Stadium, the Sheffield Arena and the impressive retail outlet of Meadowhall shopping centre. Not many people are aware of the more economically prosperous south and west of the city, which includes the Sheffield Hallam constituency. Over the last 20 years, the Hallam constituency hosted the greatest number of professionals and a greater proportion of graduates than almost any other similar city in the UK. Walking amongst these leafy suburbs, lined by splendid stone Victorian villas, it is sometimes difficult to work out why this partly idyllic city isn’t booming.
But the reality is the decline in heavy industry and manufacturing has been felt in cities across the North and particularly those with a reliance on steel and coal. In the north of England, nearly all cities of a similar size which were more economically successful than Sheffield over the last two decades had a history of a large service and commercial sector. Sheffield did not have this, it was built on steel, cutlery and coal – which is a fairly poisonous combination in the 20th century city.
Although much of the decline was 20 years ago, Sheffield continues to have a higher proportion of manufacturing jobs than its more economically successful rivals. But despite its eastern face of the M1 it has very poor road infrastructure. The narrow valleys between the hills, which were perfect for providing water power to kick start the Industrial Revolution, get very easily choked up with traffic. There are a number of logistic challenges, no outer ring road through the adjacent Peak District National Park, the M1 only serves half the city to move North or South, the most direct routes to Manchester are single lane carriage ways and take hours, despite it being only 40 miles away. If road networks were not bad enough. Doncaster Sheffield Airport is situated 18 miles from Sheffield and actually handles fewer flights than Jersey’s airport. Yorkshire’s largest airport is Leeds-Bradford, which is the wrong side of the West Yorkshire conurbation for Sheffield residents and that also handles fewer flights than many cities half the size of the Leeds, Sheffield West Yorkshire conurbation. Most Sheffield residents and business’s opt for Manchester Airport, which isn’t particularly easy to get to via road, or rail. All facts which make transporting manufacturing goods difficult or at least challenge the economics of Sheffield being a major manufacturing centre.
The decline in Sheffield began in the 1970s but carried through to the early 1980s and this caused unemployment in the area to take a dramatic rise from 4% in 1978 to 11.3% in 1981 (Lane, 2016). This was a rate of unemployment that the city had never experienced before and it was a rate that was considerably above the national average. By 1984 unemployment stood at 16% and the manufacturing industry that did employ nearly 50% of the city’s workforce in 1971 reduced to just 24% of a much reduced workforce by 1984. The country and in particular Sheffield was in deep recession, mainly as a result of massive de-industrialisation and Sheffield had become an “industrial graveyard”. Sheffield started the 1980s with the same rate of employment as the country, but as the 1980s progressed and throughout the 1990s, it lagged so far behind It was actually not until 2013 that it was deemed to have recovered.
Sheffield Recovery
Sheffield road to recovery has been a bumpy ride as it first tried to fight the realities of the global market and clung to its traditional industrial economic base. This drove much of the continued decline and increasing unemployment during the 80’s and much of the 90’s.
A ‘New Labour’ government came into power in 1997 and had a new way to approach and address the areas in the north that have been deprived due to de-industrialisation. This approach had a particular interest in the major cities of the north that had been devastated by job losses and depopulation. Examples of this are the Neighbourhood Renewal movement and Sure Start, which are schemes and polices put forward by this new government. At the same time there was a change and an appreciation of reality in Sheffield and the local council of Sheffield took advantage of this favorable time to create change in the city. Sheffield fought hard to attract all of the programmes available and because of its large amount of poverty and unemployment and because of Sheffield had now such an open minded approach to change it was very successful. Public sector invested and relocated departments to Sheffield and jobs became more and more abundant as well as a rapidly growing private sector contracts and partnerships thanks to this significant input of public funds that was widely distributed at all levels.
In the early 2000’s a new spirit of optimism in Sheffield was beginning to take shape and although even today almost half of its current jobs are in the public sector, and many of these were located here specifically to address unemployment problems. The two universities, NHS, and national and local government employees this has also fostered growth of new business development. As there is through training a highly skilled work force and in addition the area ranks in the top 20% of areas nationally for dynamism and opportunity, and have over 140,000 people educated to Level 4 or above. 6) Vibrant Economy Index 7) Level 4 Education
Sheffield has developed significant specialism’s and strength around advanced manufacturing, healthcare and digital. These strengths have generated new investment opportunities and good growth performance for local companies to generate more graduate trainee roles and apprenticeships. The focus on promoting Sheffield to firms working in these sectors has resulted in attracting significant global inward investment from Boeing, McLaren and a number of other blue-chip companies in the last few years. And as a result average salaries have grown by an impressive 13% since 2011. The University of Sheffield successfully managing to coax Boeing to set up it’s first facility in Europe, in its Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (actually in Rotherham) was recognized as a major international success and evidence that Sheffield was on the up.
Today the transfer of technology from Sheffield's universities is claimed by some to be "guaranteeing" Sheffield's continuing industrial and commercial evolution, creating cutting-edge enterprises across the city. The University of Sheffield supports the growth of technology transfer in the Sheffield City Region through the Kroto Innovation Centre and Sheffield Bioincubator which house small and medium enterprises as well as startup companies working in similar areas, and also alongside, University of Sheffield researchers. High technology businesses such as the US company Fluent, Inc., and Jennis for example, have chosen Sheffield as the centre for their international operations. 8) Kroto
A key part of attracting companies like Boeing to come to Sheffield was the less tangible assets that Sheffield had to offer and through urban regeneration were improving. The quality of life in the city is at a high level, with a thriving cultural sector with significant strengths in music, art and theatre while the cost of living in Sheffield tends to be lower than many other big cities. The Peak District within Sheffield’ boundary was and is actually the only city in the UK that includes part of a national park, providing great opportunities for leisure and recreation. This ‘attractiveness’ makes Sheffield an excellent place to live, work and play. Sheffield has rebranded itself as ‘The Outdoor City’ and this for sure has been a real selling point in getting major companies, like HSBC, Boeing etc to invest in Sheffield and become an ongoing part of its regeneration.
One of perhaps the most pleasing aspects of Sheffield’s recovery is the regeneration of the steel making industry. Sheffield has an international reputation for metallurgy and steel-making and as it was mentioned previously this industry had established Sheffield as one of England's main industrial cities during the last two centuries. The steel industry has today revitalized itself and now focusses on more specialist steel-making and, despite appearances and the dramatic decline of Sheffield as a prime manufacturer of bulk steel. The fact is Sheffield currently produces more steel per year by value than at any other time in its history. The industry is now less visible as it is not focused on volume, has become highly automated and employs far fewer people than in the past. However, a significant number of very skilled industrial automation engineers thrive in this environment. Today the economy is worth an astonishing £7 billion a year. 5)’make it in sheffield’
In 2008, Sheffield ranked among the top 10 UK cities as a business location and aims to continue to regenerate itself as a modern technology and sports based city.