ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the micro-level policy developments, which have to be set against the background of macro-economic developments since 1979. It discusses the changes that have taken place and indicates their possible impacts such as changes in the scope of the public enterprise sector; measures to raise its efficiency; liberalisation in its regulatory framework. The government's macroeconomic policies aimed at reducing the rate of inflation were highly deflationary and, at least initially, accentuated the severity of this recession in the United Kingdom. The rate of deindustrialisation accelerated sharply from 1979, especially in manufacturing. In the five years since 1979 the share of employment in manufacturing fell by 4.5 percentage points, from 31.1 to 26.6 per cent, almost the same as the 4.9 percentage point fall that occurred in the eighteen years between 1961 and 1979. The chapter ends with an overall evaluation of government policy.
