Reviews The local economy of Tower Hamlets: an inner city profile by C Howick, T Key; research series

This report presents the results of a preh'minary examination into the economic problems of the London borough of Tower Hamlets. It is likely to be mainly of interest to those looking for further factual detail on the now familiar problems of inner city decline. It does not go into the explanations of decline to any great depth and it offers only tentative policy conclusions. The section on economic activity draws upon a variety of sources and statistics to show that the industrial base of the area has been narrowing since a high point of development in the mid-nineteenth century. Although total employment continued to grow until the early 1950s, it was concentrated in a narrow range of long established industries. Since 1951 employment has fallen sharply, although the pattern of decline in the 1960s has differed from that in the 1970s. In the 1960s job loss was concentrated in the transport and distribution sector with a decline in manufacturing employment roughly in line with the London average. Since 1971 there has been a dramatic acceleration in manufacturing decline reaching double the London average. The section on population reveals a pattern of continuous postwar decline mainly due to high out-migration rates. The selective nature of out-migration has increased the proportion of less-skilled workers in the borough and contributed to an ageing population structure. However, th