The commonwealth

How did traditional industrial location factors influence The pattern of industry in the UK? Traditional industrial location factors were, in the words of Karl Marx: ‘Land, Labour, Capital and Raw materials’, and these greatly influenced industrial location in the UK up until the 70’s: Land, referring to the site of an industry, was important when considering where the factories were located: Traditional heavy industry needed (generally) large amounts of flat land to accommodate huge furnaces …

…Government intervention and transport’ Land is still important to a certain degree- the heavy industry that is left in the UK is in the form of integrated factories (e.g. Port Talbot steelworks), which need even more flat land than traditional heavy industry to locate. However, most modern industries are ‘footloose’, meaning land isn’t a vital factor in their location. Location near markets is an essential factor for modern industry to consider when locating