Industy, agriculture and transport in the United Kingdom of Great Britain

 South Ural State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Industy, agriculture and transport in the United Kingdom of Great Britain

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made by: Gainanova Dinara

AC-268

 

                                                                  Checked by:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chelyabinsk

2012

 

   TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

INTRODUCTION

In the 18th century the UK was the first country in the world to industrialise, and during the 19th century possessed a dominant role in the global economy. From the late-19th century the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States and the German Empire presented an increasing challenge to Britain's role as leader of the global economy. Despite victory, the costs of fighting both the First World War and Second World War further weakened the relative economic position of the UK, and by 1945 Britain had been superseded by the United States as the world's dominant economic power. However, the UK still maintains a significant role in the world economy.

The UK is one of the world's most globalised countries. London is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York and has the largest city GDP in Europe. As of December 2010 the UK had the third-largest stock of both inward and outward foreign direct investment (in each case after the United States and France).The aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry, depending upon the method of measurement. The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the UK economy and the country has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D expenditures (after the United States and Japan). The British economy is boosted by North Sea oil and gas reserves, valued at an estimated £250 billion in 2007. The UK is currently ranked seventh in the world (and third in Europe) in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.

The UK is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union, the G7, the G8, the G20, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.

 

 

 

 

1.INDUSTRY IN THE UK

1.2.Overview of UK Industry

Industrialisation (or industrialization) is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one. It is a part of a wider modernisation process, where social change and economic development are closely related with technological innovation, particularly with the development of large-scale energy and metallurgy production.

The first country to industrialise was the United Kingdom during the Industrial Revolution commencing in the eighteenth century.

As the originator of the industrial revolution the UK’s economy initially relied on heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining, steel production, and textiles and dominated international trade in the 19th century. As other nations industrialized, coupled with the sharp losses the country suffered as result of the two world wars and the deterioration of the British Empire, the UK began to lose its industrial advantage. Ironically, today the role of heavy industry in the world's first industrialized nation continues to decline in importance.

The UK’s main industries today are banking and finance, steel, transport equipment, oil and gas, and tourism.

1.3.Major UK Industries

1.3.1.Production industries

 -Electricity and gas supply

United Kingdom produced 60 % of its consumed natural gas in 2010. In five years the United Kingdom moved from almost gas self-sufficient to 40% gas import in 2010.

Gasfields include Amethyst gasfield, Armada gasfield, Easington Catchment Area, East Knapton, Everest gasfield and Rhum gasfield.

-Electricity supply

With the development of the national grid, the switch to using electricity, UK electricity consumption increased by around 150% between the post war nationalisation of the industry in 1948 and the mid 1960s. During the 1960s growth slowed as the market became saturated. The UK is planning to reform it's Electricity Market. It plans to introduce a capacity mechanism and contracts for difference to encourage the building of new generation.

And now the electricity sector in the United Kingdom relies mainly on fossil fuelled power and 15-20 % in nuclear power. The United Kingdom is expected to launch the building of new nuclear reactors to replace existing generators and to boost UK's energy reserves

-Manufacturing

Heavy industry, employing many thousands of people and producing large volumes of low-value goods (such as steelmaking) has either become highly efficient or has been replaced by smaller industrial units producing high-value goods (such as the aerospace and electronics industries).

The aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest aerospace industry in the world, depending upon the method of measurement. British companies with a major presence in the industry include BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce (the world's second-largest aircraft engine maker). Foreign aerospace companies active in the UK include EADS and its Airbus subsidiary, which employs over 13,000 people in the UK.

The pharmaceutical industry employs around 67,000 people in the The UK. It also is home to GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, respectively the world's third- and seventh-largest pharmaceutical companies.

 

Pic.1.A Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine

 

 

 

 

-Mining and quarrying

 

 

 

 

Pic.2.A drilling rig in the North Sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mining in the United Kingdom produces a wide variety of Fossil fuels, metals, and industrial minerals. In 2006, there were over 2,200 active mines, quarries, and offshore drilling sites on the continental land mass of the United Kingdom.

The metal industry is one of UK's great exports.  Much of the industry is evolved around the production of steel for use in motor vehicle manufacturing, wire, cans, metal boxes and industrial plants.  The metal industry peaked in the 1970's until the oil crisis.  A shift to the production of smaller automobiles has negatively impacted the steel demand.  One of the most important steel companies in UK is the British Steele Corporation. It produces the majority of the nation's iron and steel supply.

The UK metal industry still needs to import about one quarter of the finished steel products to UK.  UK also imports about half of its demand for crude steel.  Steel rods typically come from Turkey or Venezuela, and structural beams from Japan or Thailand.

The minerals industry in the UK covers cement, glass and ceramics.  Sand, gravel and limestone are used in the construction industry to make cement.  Other minerals valued are slate, tale, chalk, talc, clay, sandstone, gypsum, barite, celestite, dolomite and kaolin.

 The UK is home to a number of large energy companies, including two of the six oil and gas "supermajors" – BP and Royal Dutch Shell – and BG Group.

There are also:

Clothing

• Growth of international trade has had a negative impact on the apparel industry in UK.  Imports from developing countries have dominated the domestic market.  UK manufacturing companies have relocated their facilities to lower cost countries such as India and China.  This trend continues to grow today.  Jobs in this manufacturing sector have declined accordingly.  It represents a good opportunity for those importers in UK interested in buying fashion overseas.   

Footwear

• The decline in footwear manufacturing and footwear exports in UK began several decades ago.  To remain competitive, many of the UK footwear production have moved to cheaper sites outside of the UK.  Materials have shifted away from leather to less expensive plastics and vinyl.  Similar to the clothing industry, the remaining footwear manufacturers in UK began a process of specialization such as focusing on high end sports footwear.

Food and Drink

• UK's Food and Drink industry is the country's largest manufacturing industry.  It employs over 400,000 employees across 7000 companies.  As an industry, it is quite diverse.  Food products include bakery, confectionary, dairy and processed foods.  Drinks include various kinds of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.  Due to its energy intensive process, reducing CO2 emissions and footprint is a growing trend amongst Food & Drink companies.

Tobacco

• The tobacco industry in the UK produces cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, rolling tobacco and snuff.  The industry is capital intensive due to the high degree of automation.  It is also heavily taxed as a revenue source for the U.K. government.  This industry has caused much public debate over the years due to the health risks associated with the products.  Smoking advertising has been scrutinized.

Printing

• There are more than 10,000 printing companies in UK employing well over 150,000 employees.  Although this industry has over capacity resulting in declining prices, it is still one of the largest industries in UK.  Products in the printing industry include newspapers, magazines, books, stationary, greeting cards, banknotes and postage stamps.  The two largest printing companies in UK are St. Ives and Stephens and George.  St. Ives is focused on advertising and magazine printing.  Stephens and George specializes in sheet-fed litho printing of magazines and commercial products.

Chemical

• The chemical industry in the UK adds value by converting chemicals and selling the products for further conversion or for manufacturing into final products.  Such final products cover a wide range of categories from soaps, dyes, fuels, fuel additives, pesticides, fertilizers, paints, cleaners, inks, and medicines.  The chemical industry is one of the largest exports in the UK as measured by sales.  Much of the industry is regulated due to product safety and the potential impact on the environment. Reducing carbon emissions and the green movement are topics of great interest today.

Paper

• The production of paper in UK has its origins linking it to the Chinese.  The knowledge of making paper migrated from China to the Middle East and then to Europe by the eleventh century. John Tate operated UK's first paper mill on the River Lee near Hertford by the end of the fifteenth century.  Today, the production of paper in UK receives lots of attention from the Green movement due to forestry being a renewable resource. The paper industry has shifted to using recycled paper as a major raw material.  In fact, the UK has a surplus of waste paper due to the country's increasing recycling efforts.  About a third of the country's waste paper is exported to china and the Far East. Much of the paper making process has improved to be "green" friendly with goals of reducing carbon emission.

Engineering

• The engineering industry in UK can be broken down into electrical, electronic, instrumentation, transportation and mechanical types of engineering.  Many of the firms involved in engineering produce products that are highly profitable ranging from telecommunications to aerospace.  

1.3.2.Service industries

The service sector is the dominant sector of the UK economy, and contributes around 73% of GDP.

-Creative industries

The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries or the creative economy.

Creative economy comprises advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games.

Taking the UK as an example, in the context of other sectors, the creative industries make a far more significant contribution to output than hospitality or utilities and deliver four times the output due to agriculture, fisheries and forestry. In terms of employment and depending on the definition of activities included, the sector is a major employer of between 4-6% of the UK's working population, though this is still significantly less than employment due to traditional areas of work such as retail and manufacturing.

Key areas include London and Manchester which are the two largest creative industry clusters in Europe respectively.

Within the creative industries sector of the UK the three largest sub-sectors are design, publishing, and television and radio.

-Education, health and social work

 

 

Pic.3.Queen Elizabeth     Hospital Birmingham

 

 

 

 

Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments: the UK Government is responsible for England, and the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive are responsible for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.

Full-time education is compulsory for all children aged between 5 and 16, with a child beginning primary education during the school year he or she turns 5. Students may then continue their secondary studies for a further two years (sixth form), leading most typically to A-level qualifications, although other qualifications and courses exist, including Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) qualifications, the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the Cambridge Pre-U. The leaving age for compulsory education was raised to 18 by the Education and Skills Act 2008.

Higher education often begins with a three-year bachelor's degree. Postgraduate degrees include master's degrees, either taught or by research, and the doctorate, a research degree that usually takes at least three years. Universities require a Royal Charter in order to issue degrees, and all but one are financed by the state via tuition fees, which are increasing in size for both home and European Union students.

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, meaning England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own systems of private and publicly-funded healthcare. Each country having different policies and priorities has resulted in a variety of differences existing between the systems. That said, each country provides public healthcare to all UK permanent residents that is free at the point of need, being paid for from general taxation.

Taken together, the World Health Organization, in 2000, ranked the provision of healthcare in the United Kingdom as fifteenth best in Europe and eighteenth in the world.

-Financial and business services

 

Pic.4.The City of London is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York.

 

The UK's exports of financial and business services make a significant positive contribution towards the country's balance of payments.

London is a major centre for international business and commerce and is one of the three "command centres" of the global economy (alongside New York City and Tokyo).

There are over 500 banks with offices in London, and it is the leading international centre for banking, insurance, Eurobonds, foreign exchange trading and energy futures. London's financial services industry is primarily based in the City of London and Canary Wharf. The City houses the London Stock Exchange, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, the London Metal Exchange, Lloyds of London, and the Bank of England.  London is also a major centre for other business and professional services, and four of the six largest law firms in the world are headquartered there.

Several other major UK cities have large financial sectors and related services. Edinburgh has one of the large financial centres in Europe and is home to the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Standard Life. Leeds is now the UK's largest centre for business and financial services outside London, and the largest centre for legal services in the UK after London.

-Real estate and renting activities

 

Pic.5.MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester – an example of real estate activity

 

 

 

 

The real estate and renting activities sector includes the letting of dwellings and other related business support activities. Notable real estate companies in the United Kingdom include British Land and The Peel Group.

The UK property market boomed for the seven years up to 2008 and in some areas property trebled in value over that period. The increase in property prices had a number of causes: low interest rates, credit growth, economic growth, rapid growth in buy to-let property investment, foreign property investment in London and planning restrictions on the supply of new housing.

-Tourism

Tourism is very important to the British economy.

he United Kingdom is the world's 6th biggest tourist destination, with 24.8 million visiting in 2003. Nevertheless, the number of travellers originating from Europe is larger than those travelling from North America - 21.5 million compared to 3.5 million American/Canadian visitors.

-Wholesale and retail trade

This sector includes the motor trade, auto repairs, personal and household goods industries.

The UK grocery market is dominated by five companies – Asda, The Co-operative Food, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco – which together have a market share of over 80%.

London is a major retail centre and in 2010 had the highest non-food retail sales of any city in the world, with a total spend of around £64.2 billion.

2.AGRICULTURE

Agriculture in the United Kingdom uses around 70 of the country's land area and contributes about 0.6% of its gross value added. The UK produces less than 60% of the food it eats and the industry's share of the national economy is declining. Despite skilled farmers, high technology, fertile soil and subsidies, which primarily come from the European Union (EU), farm earnings are low and falling, mainly due to low prices at the farm gate. With each generation, fewer young people can afford the rising capital cost of entry into farming and more are discouraged by low earnings. The average age of the British farm holder is now 59.

The high cost of entry into farming presents a significant barrier. Land prices in the United Kingdom are high. Local authorities recognise this and some offer smallholdings intended to allow those with skill or training but little capital to set up as tenant farmers. Nevertheless, this provision is shrinking and there is an increasing shortage of farmland to let.

2.1.Organic farming

Organic farming is farming without chemical fertilisers, animal cruelty, most pesticides, genetic modification, or the routine use of drugs, antibiotics or wormers. In the United Kingdom it is supported and encouraged by the Soil Association. The Food Standards Agency says that organic food offers no additional nutritional benefits over the non-organic kind, though the Soil Association disputes this. However, there are definite benefits in terms of conservation and wildlife.

2.2.Biofuel

Biofuels are fuels derived from biomass. They can be used in their pure form to power vehicles, but most commonly they are blended with traditional fuels such as diesel.

 

Pic.6.Oilseed rape growing in Cornwall

 

 

 

 

 

Biofuel crops grown in the UK include oilseed rape (which is also grown for other purposes), short-rotation coppices such as poplar or willow, and miscanthus. Unfortunately biofuels are quite bulky for their energy yield, which means processing into fuel needs to happen near where the crop is grown; otherwise, most or all of the benefit of biofuels can be lost in transporting the biofuel to the processing area. Such local processing units are not generally available in the UK, and further expansion of this market will depend on politics and industrial finance.

2.3.Arable farming

Arable farming is the production of crops. Crop growth is affected by light, soil, nutrients, water, air, and climate. Crops commonly grown in the United Kingdom include cereals, chiefly wheat, oats and barley; root vegetables, chiefly potatoes and sugar beet; pulse crops such as beans or peas; forage crops such as cabbages, vetches, rape and kale; fruit, particularly apples and pears; and hay for animal feed.

Since the Second World War, scientific and technical progress and the removal of tenancy-based restrictions on choice of crop have given British arable farmers a great deal more freedom to plan cropping sequences. Strict crop rotation is no longer technically necessary or even financially desirable. Factors that influence crop sequences include the soil type, weather, the price and availability of labour and power, market outlets, and technical considerations about maintaining soil fertility and crop health. For example, some vigorous crops such as kale or arable silage will, when liberally fertilised, tend to outgrow and smother weeds. Many pests and diseases are crop-specific and the more often a particular crop is taken, the greater the buildup of pests and diseases that attack it. The farmer will therefore try to design a sequence to sustain high yields, permit adequate weed control, service market needs, and keep the soil free from diseases and pests.

2.4.Pastoral farming

Pastoral farming is the breeding of livestock for meat, wool, eggs and milk, and historically (in the UK) for labour. Livestock products are the main element of the UK's agricultural output. The most common meat animals in the United Kingdom are cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry. Overwhelmingly, British wool comes from sheep, with only a few goats or alpacas bred for exotic wools such as cashmere or angora. The vast majority of milk comes from cattle, and eggs from chickens.

Most British farm animals are bred for a particular purpose, so for example, there is a sharp division between cattle bred for the beef trade—early-maturing cattle are best to increase yield, and those that store fat marbled within the muscle rather than as layers outside are preferred for the flavour—and those bred for dairy, where animals with a high milk yield are strongly preferred. Nevertheless, because dairy cattle must calve to produce milk, much of the British beef output is from surplus dairy herd calves.

-Cattle farming

There are about 17,000 dairy farms in the UK, largely in the west. Average herd size is 86 cows in England, 75 in Wales and 102 in Scotland.

 

 

Pic.7.Jersey cattle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cows require significant areas of grassland to raise. Dairy cows need 0.4 to 0.5 hectares per cow, including the area needed for winter silage; suckler beef cows can need up to a whole hectare each. The UK produces very little veal, and UK law requires that animals are kept in daylight in groups with bedding and access to hay, silage or straw.

-Sheep farming

Over 41,000 farms in the UK produce sheep, but more than half of breeding ewes are on hill or upland farms suitable for little else. National Parks and heather moors such as the Lake District, the Pennines and Snowdonia in Wales are dominated by sheep farms, as are the Scottish Highlands. In the lowlands, pockets of sheep farms remain. Romney Marsh (which gave its name to the Romney sheep) and The Downs in Kent are famous for their sheep.

Nowadays many ewes are housed indoors for lambing, which costs more but facilitates earlier lambing with lower mortality and replacement rates. It also rests and protects the grassland, leading to better early growth and higher stocking rates. Sheep are also important in helping to manage the landscape. Their trampling hinders bracken spread and prevents heather moor from reverting to scrub woodland. Wool production is no longer important in the UK, and nowadays, sheared fleeces are often treated as a waste product.

-Pig farming

 

Pic.8.Large black pigs

 

 

 

 

 

About 4,600 farms produce pigs, and the UK is 90% self-sufficient in pork, but only about 40% self-sufficient in bacon and ham, which reflects a traditional British preference for these cuts. Nowadays many pig farms in the UK breed intensively-farmed hybrids of types like the large white, British Landrace, Welsh or British Saddleback, and formerly-popular breeds like the Cumberland and small white are extinct. Wild Boar are sometimes farmed. They are presently covered under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 and farmers need permission from their local authority to keep them.

-Other livestock

The UK has about 73,000 goats, mostly as milk producers; this number is relatively small by EU standards. Venison production in the UK is mainly from red deer, with a few fallow deer as well, but there are only about 300 venison-producing farms. As noted above, there are about 26,500 farms with chickens. However, more than half the UK's eggs come from fewer than 400 flocks, mostly with more than 50,000 birds each. Other livestock farmed on a smaller scale includes game birds, ducks, geese, turkeys, ostriches, rabbits and hares.

^{3.TRANSPORT IN THE UK}

Transport in the United Kingdom is facilitated with road, air, rail, and water networks. Urban rail networks exist in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Leeds and Liverpool. Heathrow Airport is the world's second busiest international airport, and the UK also has a network of ports.

3.1.Air transport

 

Pic.8.Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport, which is the world's busiest airport by international passenger traffic.

 

 

There are 471 airports and airfields in the UK, of which 334 are paved. There are also 11 heliports.

BAA is the UK's largest airport operator, its flagship being London Heathrow Airport, the largest traffic volume international airport in the world and is the world's busiest airports. Gatwick Airport, the second largest, is owned by Global Infrastructure Partners and was previously owned by BAA. The third largest is Manchester Airport, in Manchester, which is run by Manchester Airport Group, which also owns various other airports.

Other major airports include London Stansted Airport in Essex, about 30 miles (48 km) north of London and Birmingham Airport, in Solihull.

Outside England, Cardiff Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Belfast International Airport, are the busiest airports serving Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

The largest airline in the UK is EasyJet. Others include British Airways, BMI, Bmibaby, Flybe, Jet2, Thomson Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

3.2.Railways

The rail network in the United Kingdom consists of two independent parts, that of Northern Ireland and that of Great Britain. Since 1994, the latter has been connected to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel. The network of Northern Ireland is connected to that of the Republic of Ireland. The National Rail network of 10,072 miles (16,209 km) in Great Britain and 189 route miles (303 route km) in Northern Ireland carries over 18,000 passenger trains and 1,000 freight trains daily. Urban rail networks are also well developed in London and several other cities. There were once over 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of rail network in the U.K., however most of this was reduced over a time period from 1955 to 1975, much of it after a report by a government advisor Richard Beeching in the mid 1960s.

3.3.Roads

The road network in Great Britain, in 2006, consists of 12,226 km of trunk roads, 38,085 km of principal roads (including 55 km of motorway), 114,657 km of "B" and "C" roads, and 233,383 km of unclassified roads (mainly local streets and access roads) — totalling 398,350 km.

Road is the most popular method of transportation in the UK, carrying over 90% of motorised passenger travel and 65% of domestic freight. The major motorways and trunk roads, many of which are dual carriageway, form the trunk network which links all cities and major towns, these carry about one third of the nation's traffic, and occupy about 0.16% of its land area.

The Highways Agency (an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport) is responsible for maintaining motorways and trunk roads in England. Other English roads are maintained by local authorities. In Scotland and Wales roads are the responsibility of Transport Scotland, an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Assembly Government respectively.^[15] Northern Ireland's roads are overseen by the Roads Service Northern Ireland, a section of the Department for Regional Development. In London, Transport for London is responsible for all trunk roads and other major roads, which are part of the Transport for London Road Network.

Toll roads are rare in the United Kingdom, though there are many toll bridges such as the Severn crossing. Road traffic congestion has been identified as a key concern for the future prosperity of the UK, and policies and measures are being investigated and developed by the government to ameliorate its effects. In 2005, the Government published proposals for a UK wide road pricing scheme. This was designed to be revenue neutral with other motoring taxes to be reduced to compensate. The plans have been extremely controversial with 1.8 million people signing a petition against them.

Driving is on the left. The maximum speed limit is 70 miles per hour (112 km/h) on motorways and dual carriageways.

 

REFERENCES

 

1. www.cia.gov (August 2007)
2. wikipedia.org