ABSTRACT
Victory in 1945 was followed by serious economic problems, though social consequences were less severe than during the inter-war depression. War time defence expenditure masked the vulnerability of the regional economy, but problems re-emerged with the coming of peace. The seriousness of the situation was for some time veiled by temporary demands for post-war reconstruction at home and abroad, and then the Korean War’s require ments in defence-associated production. These fortuitous circumstances could not erase relatively low productivity and reliance on a narrow range of declining industries. Fundamental problems remained and in some import ant respects the situation had worsened. (Robinson 1988, 17)
The rebuilding and modernization of the regional economy was not easy. In some ways though, wartime experience helped in post-war years. Tentative moves towards an official policy of regional aid during the 1930s set a precedent followed by later governments. In 1937, the government appointed a Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Popu lation - the Barlow Commission as it became known. Its terms of reference illustrated the changed climate of opinion in which it was established:
To inquire into the causes which have influenced the present geo graphical distribution of the population of Great Britain and the prob able direction of any change in that distribution in the future; to consider what social, economic or strategical disadvantages arise from the concentration of industries or of the industrial population in large towns or in particular areas of the country; and to report what remed ial measures if any should be taken in the national interest.
