ABSTRACT
Depression for many established firms in Britain's outer regions was mirrored by a relatively low volume of new plant formation. The Surveys of Industrial Development (SID), conducted annually during 1932–38, covered all new manufacturing plants established, or extended, throughout Britain, where this involved the employment of 25 or more people. The East Midlands had the highest concentration of new plants in clothing/footwear related industries of any region. For most staple industries there were no overriding changes in inputs, technology, or markets that might offer powerful incentives for moves to entirely new locations. Scotland's steel industry suffered from inland locations, mainly in mid-Lanarkshire – using local coal supplies. Advances in fuel economy had reduced the volume of coal used to less than that of the ore smelted, shifting cost-minimising locations to areas offering proximity to ore rather than coal.
