What happens to towns when the main employer goes under?

Vinegartits

I have been wondering what happens when the sole or major employer goes out of business and those in surronding towns and villages are dependent on that employer for income and others are dependent on the spending of that income etc.

If anyone was local and can remember when they closed the coal mines, can you tell me what happened to house prices, the local economy and how long it took to recover? Thanks

pickles110564

Vinegartits wrote: »

I have been wondering what happens when the sole or major employer goes out of business and those in surronding towns and villages are dependent on that employer for income and others are dependent on the spending of that income etc.

If anyone was local and can remember when they closed the coal mines, can you tell me what happened to house prices, the local economy and how long it took to recover? Thanks

Hi, as i am in your area some large company must be about to go under, can you shed any light on the subject.

beecher

The economies of coal mining villages around where I grew up have never recovered - they had the heart ripped out of them.

SingleSue

That sounds scary Vinegartits, hope you haven't heard impending bad news for our little town.

robin_banks

Look around mining villages and it will become very clear, very quickly.

tomterm8

They die. During the great depression there was 75% unemployment in some towns. Those towns ceased to exist.

Rochdale_Pioneers

As others have said, the town/village is essentially screwed. Utterly screwed if little/nothing is done to try and bring new jobs to the area quickly, or if the whole region suffers a similar fate.

Tebbitt once told the unemployed to get on their bike. Tough if you have a house/family rooted in one place and there aren't jobs going anywhere around.

robin_banks

Tbf to Tebbit he later realised the error of his comment.

Vinegartits

SingleSue wrote: »

That sounds scary Vinegartits, hope you haven't heard impending bad news for our little town.

Sue, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! The question was hypothetical for the main part and came out of a meeting at work along similar lines. The area is struggling as you know and we are aware, in a way that the general public probably isn't, of how many are hanging on by their fingernails and yet this is comparitively early days in this recession. We have to be prepared and unfortunately my profession forces me to consider worst case scenarios and plan ahead accordingly. So don't panic, I have heard nothing more than the usual, just trying to get ahead of the game so to speak.

Vinegartits

robin_banks wrote: »

Look around mining villages and it will become very clear, very quickly.

Was there not a growth in service industries, call-centres and the like? I wondered when this re-growth started and also if the economic hardship following pit closures caused a mass exodus to other areas, cities etc

SingleSue

Vinegartits wrote: »

Sue, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! The question was hypothetical for the main part and came out of a meeting at work along similar lines. The area is struggling as you know and we are aware, in a way that the general public probably isn't, of how many are hanging on by their fingernails and yet this is comparitively early days in this recession. We have to be prepared and unfortunately my profession forces me to consider worst case scenarios and plan ahead accordingly. So don't panic, I have heard nothing more than the usual, just trying to get ahead of the game so to speak.

Thanks Vinegartits.....I must admit we used to do a similar worse case scenario in the last recession. We would all get to the stage of thinking "Oh begger" and change the subject.

It really doesn't bear thinking about.