The closure of steel production in Redcar, Teeside after nearly 100 years has had severe economic and social impacts on the local area. Unemployment in Redcar constituency jumped 16.2% in the last year, the 7th highest increase in the UK. In addition to the 2,200 jobs lost at the plant, an estimated 900 supply chain jobs were also eliminated. Locally sourced steel production in the UK strengthened the economy. Socially, Redcar is described as a "ghost town" with charity shops struggling and former steelworkers facing significant pay cuts in new jobs. There are also environmental concerns as no land has been designated as contaminated but inactivity weighs on the community dealing with job losses.

1. Winners and losers

2. What does this picture show? Can you write a definition?

3. Steel production comes to halt in Redcar, Teeside
after nearly 100 years…
produce a mind map of the ways in which the economy, society and environment
may be affected by deindustrialisation.
Watch this

4. Did you consider the following?
Social: depopulation, deprivation, crime
Environmental: dereliction and contamination
Economic: unemployment and deprivation

5. The deindustrialisation of Redcar resulted in
economic losses, including….
• According to an analysis of official figures published by the House of Commons library,
unemployment in the Redcar constituency has jumped by 16.2% in the last year - the
seventh highest increase of 650 constituencies in the UK.
• The research found 2,739 people were claiming unemployment benefit in February this
year - up 382 people on the same month the previous year - giving the constituency an
unemployment rate of 7%, the tenth highest in the UK.
• The knock-on effects in Redcar have gone beyond the 2,200 job losses at the plant. An
estimated 900 jobs in the supply chain have also been wiped out, with everyone from
child-minders to dock workers hit.
• Steel and iron are a basic commodity of most manufacturing processes. To not have it
locally sourced within the UK and to be constantly requiring it to be imported makes the
UK a weaker economic force.

6. Social deprivation as a result……..
• Redcar is described by local people as a “Ghost town”.
• Redcar’s charity shop-filled high street is already depressed; now even the
charity shops are struggling.
• Steelworkers’ skills, built up over a long period in challenging conditions,
are not easily transferable. A production operator who was on £31,000 is
looking at a job doing general factory work at somewhere between
£17,000 and £22,000.
• Young men are tired of part-time work and zero hour contracts and
consequently some turn to the black market to try and make some money.

7. Environmental concerns after the closure of
Redcar’s steel industry…
• No land has yet been formally designated as contaminated land
within Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, however, the scar of
inactivity weighs heavily on a local community struggling to come to
terms with such devastating job losses.

8. https://census.uk.dataservice.ac.uk/get-data/related/deprivation

10. Plenary:
What does the cycle of deprivation look like, as
deindustrialisation takes place, use Fig.13.3 in your
text book.

11. Homework:
‘The costs outweigh the benefits of growth’ Discuss.
(no more than 400 words)