The Impact of Recession: On Industry, Employment and the Regions, 1976-1981

Rich industrialised countries entered the 1980s with unemployment higher than before the Second World War. Britain experienced the impact of recession more immediately and sharply; over one million factory jobs were lost. Originally published in 1983 and now reissued with a new Preface by the author, this book points to the industries, corporations and places in which job losses occurred between 1976 and 1981. The Impact of Recession opens with an examination of national trends which includes the post-war rise and fall of manufacturing employment and the fashionable concept of ’de-industrialisation’. It considers the possible and actual roles of leading industrial corporations in distributing decline to different areas. The effects of the crisis on individual regions is examined in detail and the author emphasizes that it is not only the traditional areas of recession such as the North East that were affected, but also the manufacturing centres of the Midlands and the normally prosperous South East. Alternative explanations of the distribution of employment are examined and the adequacy of previous explanations of unequal growth and decline are questioned. The book also looks at the extent to which New Towns have suffered in the crisis and whether the well-established consensus about the merits of regional planning has been broken down by the recession.

Alan Townsend, Professor Emeritus, concluded his career at Durham University, UK, 1967-2005 as Director of the International Centre for Regional Regeneration & Development Studies at the Stockton campus. After studying Geography at Cambridge, he learnt the means of monitoring regional economic development as Research Officer at the Board of Trade Regional Office, Manchester and their Office for Scotland, Glasgow. He first came to the Northeast to work on Teesside Survey and Plan, and proceeded to qualify as MRTPI (Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute). His writing on UK economic development, planning and transport included four other single or jointly authored books. He was Director of the North East Area Study and of Nomis, the National Online Manpower Information System. He was awarded Recognition of an Outstanding Contribution by the Regional Studies Association in 2019. His work as Councillor of the former Wear Valley District Council, 1994-2007 included being Chair of Planning, and of Regeneration. He was also Chair of the North East Regional Information Network, 2011-7 and at the time of writing is Vice Chair of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and Secretary of the County Durham Fabian Society.

Alan.Townsend1939@gmail.com