The decline of the British tyre industry - Newcastle University

companies in their sectors to become more efficient and thus increase their share of domestic and world
markets. 20 This differed from previous indicative planning insofar that the government and the NEDC were
proposing ‘to build up from the bottom on the basis of what was possible and not impose targets from
above’. 21 Politically, these new bodies performed an additional function of helping the government to steer a
course between Tony Benn 22 and his supporters who backed planning agreements and the CBI which
opposed them. The setting up of the SWPs was ‘a means of appearing to institute planning agreements
without doing much about them or risking breaking up the machinery of NEDC tripartism’. 23 One critic
described the Industrial Strategy as ‘not so much a strategy, more an empty slogan’. 24
The strategy emphasised ‘picking winners’, 25 although in reality it was more indiscriminate. 26 The Director
General of the NEDO described the SWPs as the ‘basic mechanism’ 27 underpinning the Industrial Strategy.
Some 39 SWPs operating by consensus and tailored to specific industries were created encompassing 40 per
cent of manufacturing output. 28 Some were new while others, including the Rubber Processing SWP
(renamed the Tyre Industry SWP in 1980), 29 were formed from existing EDCs. The emphasis was on
developing policy oriented strategic plans rather than detailed numerical plans, which mirrored the approach
adopted by companies. 30 Inevitably, SWPs were established in sectors which had a powerful trade
association, or where there were strong links with the sponsoring department in the Department of Industry. 31
The effectiveness of the SWP system as an instrument of industrial regeneration ‘has received surprisingly
little critical attention’. 32 The SWPs could have played a vital role in the creation of an effective micro
strategy by addressing problems confronting their respective industries. The limited empirical research
identified the critical lack of any mechanism for securing the implementation of SWP policies at the level of
the firm. 33 This article will evaluate the policy response of the Rubber Processing/Tyre Industry SWP to
overcapacity and the declining competitiveness of the British tyre industry. It will explore the development
of ‘efficiency dialogues’ and the difficulties of implementing this policy. The paper will examine the