Abstract
This paper is concerned with changes in the stock of manufacturing plant at national, regional, and county levels, over the period 1976–1987. Using information provided by the annual Census of Production, the focus of the analysis is size-specific spatial change in manufacturing unit numbers, where size is defined in terms of employment bands. For Great Britain as a whole, a decline of over 20% in total unit numbers is recorded, with higher rates of decline occurring in the larger units. If the period 1976–1987 is divided into four subperiods, some growth is detected in the last subperiod, particularly in the smaller size bands. Analysis at the regional level indicates a similar pattern, and although ‘northern’ regions appear to be more adversely affected in general than ‘southern’ regions it is concluded that the relatively higher rates of decline amongst larger manufacturing units is a spatially invariant characteristic. Within the regional analysis the influence of size structure upon regional manfacturing change is also examined. Finally, examination of changes occurring at the county level shows a greater disparity of performance, and also shows that regional outcomes can be dominated by the growth or decline of manufacturing in particular counties.
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