The Location of Industry The plight of the distressed areas
during the last. few years has raised in an acute form the problem of the loca- tion of industries. It has been realised that industrialists cannot choose factory sites at random without grave danger of intensifying the labour and social problems arising from any industrial activity. A belated CensuS of Production volume, published this week, shows that in the old centres of industrial activity the output of pro- duction declined seriously between 1924 and 1930, and that of London and the South of England increased. This change has undoubtedly been magnified since 1930 and has been the cause of anxiety to many local authorities in the north. The Great. West Road may be, a pleasanter place for a new factory than the banks of the Tyne or the outskirts of Manchester, but each time a new factory rises from the Middlesex grass the task of those attempting to revivify the afflicted areas is made more difficult. Industrial undertakings attract a portion of the available labour supply, and, the. new community must have its share of social services—housing, education and the rest —and each time. a new community arises a proportion of the well-established organisation of the older industrial areas is' impoverished.
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