UK Manufacturing Decline Since the Crisis in Historical Perspective

Berry, CP (2016) UK Manufacturing Decline Since the Crisis in Historical Perspective. In: SPERI British Political Economy Brief. UNSPECIFIED. Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI).

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Abstract

The new UK prime minister, Theresa May, is promising to revive and indeed enhance the industrial policy activism to which the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government was committed. In this Brief, the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute considers the recent performance of UK manufacturing in the context of the sector’s historical decline. It contrasts the latest evidence on both jobs and output within UK manufacturing with the form that decline has taken in recent decades, suggesting that rather than decline having been halted, it may instead have taken on a new form. The May government will need to understand this process if its industrial policy agenda, especially in the context of Brexit, is to succeed to any extent.