ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the performance of British industry since 1945 with particular reference to the impact of management and the institutional framework. The crisis was overcome but the industry persistently failed to realise its output and productivity goals before the late 1950s. The huge backlog of investment remained and shortages of steel, timber and foreign currency before 1951 limited the National Coal Board to small-scale modernisation projects. Britain had long produced tiny quantities of oil, but the discovery of natural gas off the Dutch coast in the early 1960s and international agreement on partitioning the continental shelf stimulated interest in large-scale exploration in the North Sea after 1964. The textile industry also emerged from war in a sellers’ market, both at home and abroad. The most important ‘modern’ industry has been motor vehicles accounting in 1966 for 7.5 per cent of manufacturing output, 6 per cent of manufacturing employment and approximately 10 per cent of manufacturing investment.
