Changing Economic World

Social and economic changes in a rural area of population decline (outer Hebrides, Scotland):
Social

 The population in the Outer Hebrides has declined from 46000 in 1911 to 30000 in 2011.
 The natural population change has been negative over the last 10 years leading to population decline.
 Until 2012 net migration helped maintain population size however after 2012 the population has been
declining due to there being more emigration.
 The population structure is of an ageing population with 20% of population being 65+ in 2001. This
increased to 23% in 2011.

Economic

 Decline in fishing as the smaller firms are unable to compete with the large foreign ships.
 More than 20% of businesses identified a negative effect due to population.
 Sheep farms are only able to operate for 2 days a week.
 Labour shortages in several employment sectors including education and health.

Social and economic changes in a rural area of population increase ( South Cambridgeshire):
Social

 Average age of the population increasing from 42.4 to 45.3 between 2004 and 2019.
 Population has increased from 120000 in 2001 to 140000 in 2011.
 High rates of employment with 21% of the workforce being in the quaternary sector.
 Increased number of migrants from relatively poor parts of Europe putting pressure on services.
 Increased traffic on roads as there a decline in public transport which is bad for elderly.

Economic

 Good size of working age population which provides for a strong workforce.
 Highest petrol prices in the country due to high demand
 Growth of high technology and R and D industries
 80% car ownership causes an increase in traffic congestion which can waste productive time.
 House prices are rising causing the people who grew up there are having to move out when looking to
buy a house of their own.

Improvements to transport:
Port improvements:

 The UK’s port industry is the larges in Europe. 96% of all UK import and export trade enters and leaves
via ports. Around 32 million passengers travel through UK ports and they employ over 120000 people.
 London Gateway links the UK to more than 110 ports in over 60 different countries which increases
the UK’s trade. London gateway facility will deliver about 12000 new direct jobs. It is a new deep
water port than can handle the biggest container ships in the world and is based on the north bank of
the Thames.

Railway improvements:

 HS2 is a high speed rail line to connect London with Birmingham and then to Sheffield Leeds and
Manchester.
Changing Economic World
 People argue that it is necessary to meet UK’s rapidly growing demand to travel. High Speed rail will
provide the greenest, safest and most efficient form of transport.
 It would cost £106 bn so people also argued against it. It also would have a big impact on the
environment.
 Crossrail is building a railway running from Reading to Heathrow through 42km of new tunnels under
London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
 It is expected to benefit the UK economy by £42 billin by providing better links with London’s major
commercial and business districts.
 It is estimated to create 55000 full time jobs and will help ease congestion on roads.
 It is also however going over budget by £650 million and was delayed from 2018 to 2021.

Road improvements:

 The government launched the first road investment strategy in 2015. They wanted to make England’s
motorways and major trunk roads world class by investing £15 billion between 2015 and 2020.
 This would improve access to jobs and would transform connections across the Pennines and other
parts of the network in the North through the building of the Northern Powerhouse.
 It would also link the country together. It also tackles noise problems as it would lead to the
construction of further noise barriers .
 A smart motorway is a section of a motorway that uses traffic management methods to increase
capacity and reduce congestion. They would convert hard shoulders into more lanes but then make it
back into a hard shoulder in the event of a stopped vehicle being detected. Environmentally it would
be positive as better traffic flow would lead to decreased emissions.

Air improvements:

 Heathrow airport expansion would allow it to compete with airports such as in New York. The
estimated £18.6bn would be privately funded.
 It is estimated to boost the economy by over £200 million. It would also increase the number of jobs
as it is already a big employer of 250000 jobs.
 However it is already the larges emitter of CO2 in the UK and a third runway would only increase it.
There is a lot of noise pollution and it will get worse for the one million people living under the flight
path.

North and South divide:

Health differences:

 10% more northern women than southern women die of heart disease.
 People in the South live 3 years longer than the North.
 General obesity levels are higher in the North compared to the South.

Employment and income:

 London has 470 businesses per 10000 residents whereas Yorkshire only has 292.
 The North east has an unemployment rate of 10% compared to the South east only being 4.4%

Living standards:
 Poverty in Northwest is 22% while in Southeast is 19%.
 The North contains 9/10 of the UK’s most deprived areas.

Strategies to narrow the divide:

Changing Economic World
Financial support:

 Improvements to transport networks could be made.

 Enabling faster broadband as the North is currently rated as poor in terms of broadband speeds
 Local enterprise partnerships would also reduce the gap as they identify business needs in the local
area.
 Enterprise zones could be set up to attract private businesses to regions needing investment. For
example in Lancashire the enterprise zones will create 6000 high skilled jobs.

Encouraging FDI (foreign direct investment):

 Yorkshire saw the biggest increase in projects as it was increased by 1455%

 Example of it working is in Sunderland. Nissan invested £50 million and that has led it to becoming
the UK’s biggest car making site and employs over 7000 people

Focusing tourism and energy development into those areas:

 Northern destinations are going to receive £10 million in order to boost tourism and attract
international visitors.
 Example of how this helped was the Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour de France being in Yorkshire.
There were 3.8 million spectators. This gave £150 million combined economic benefit.

Mayors in North:

 It is expected by improving connectivity between Manchester, Leeds, Hull and Sheffield, a super
economic power will be created and the cities will start to work together. It is hoped that elected
mayors will help this process.
 Future plans include £13 billion investment into transport. The Building of HS3 which will link
Manchester and Leeds.

Place of the UK:

Changing Economic World