British Economy in 1930s
The British economy was severely affected by the Great Depression but some areas and industries were hit harder than others.
The main areas affected were ship building, steel, coal mining and textiles. These older industries suffered from lack of investment and modernisation and had been in decline for many years. Now they were just unable to cope with cheaper foreign competition. For the areas in Britain which relied on employment by these industrial giants, life was very hard. For example, over 30% of ship building workers were unemployed by 1936 and 25 per cent of miners. Scotland, the North of England and South Wales were the worst affected. Jarrow’s unemployment figures in 1934 were 68% and Merthyr Tydfil’s 62%.
Long term unemployment had a terrible effect on whole areas. Because the men no longer had wages to spend, shops had to close and many once thriving towns became like ghost towns with groups of depressed and defeated men standing on street corners or queueing in their hundreds for the chance of a few hours work.
Rowntree did a survey in York in 1934 and discovered that over 30% of families were living in serious poverty. Their health suffered and the infant mortality rate rose rapidly. In Jarrow it reached a peak of 114 deaths in 1000 live births. There was also an increase in diseases caused by poor diet, such as rickets.
However, if you lived in the Midlands or especially the south of the country, you might not have known that there was a depression. Prices fell and so the cost of living fell. If you had a job and a steady wage you had more money to spend than ever before. In the south the boom was particularly strong in the new light electrical industries springing up around London. New consumer goods were available and some workers could afford to buy cars. Cinemas were packed and families began to go away on holiday. A Butlin’s Holiday Camp was built at Skegness.
The unemployment rate in St Albans in Hertfordshire in 1934 was 3.9% and the infant mortality rate in the south was 42 per 1000. Diet was good and people’s health was steadily improving. Many accounts from the time describe Britain as seeming like two separate countries
British Society
For government policy you would need to refer to the measures adopted in 1931, the Special Areas Act, rationalisation and amalgamation and scrap and build and in social policy, the dole and means test. In leisure it is important to realise that the 1930s saw a big increase in leisure activities such as the cinema, the bicycle, the car, radio and television and rambling. The first holiday camp was opened in 1937. It was not, therefore, a decade when standards of living fell for all people.