Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with a look at recent trends in employment growth. It presents some evidence of the character and distribution of manufacturing industries, to explain how the regional manufacturing structure works and what its locational consequences seem to be. The book deals with more localised factors in the supply and demand for labour and attempts to measure the ways in which towns vary in their economic and social character, with the significance of these variations. The centre of the region around the conurbation and Coventry, continues to grow. Outside the central urbanised mass, the problems of development are compounded by the medium to small size of the towns and their relative lack of manufacturing. The book considers the problems of development within regions, using the example of the West Midlands as a crucial testing ground for regional policies in Britain.