1. Suggest how one or more strategies might reduce regional differences in the UK.

[9 marks] assisted
areas, infrastructure, giving more power to cities

One strategy that might help reduce the regional difference which is the North-south divide in the UK is
improving infrastructure. The UK already has HS1 which runs from London to Kent but also having
plans of HS2 running from London to Birmingham to Manchester to Leeds. This helps reduce the north
south divide as travel times are reduced for example normally it would take 1 hour and 36 mins to go
from London to Birmingham with HS2 it would take 49 mins. This means that people are able to
commute more easily to high opportunities areas such as London but they are able to spend their
disposable income in areas like North, this can help boost the economy of North by helping businesses
grow. However, HS2 due to the lack of funds will only run from

Another strategy that might help reduce the regional differences in the UK is assisted areas. This is
when places in the UK are identified as being areas that need help and support and the government
funds businesses in those areas. This can create a multiplier effect as businesses are to grow which
means they can employ more people which can help people to have a stable income and help money to
be reinvested into the government via taxes. This means that the economy of the North increases as
businesses are able to expand which can help attract tourists and aid in creating more jobs in the North.

Finally, a strategy that might help reduce regional differences in the UK is by giving more power to
individual cities. For example, areas that need aid receive aid via the regional growth fund. This can
help individual counties to gain more decision-making power on how money should be spent in the
areas. This can help target specific areas where money should be invested into to aid development.
This can reduce the north-south divide as making specific changes to certain areas this helps the
development to be unique to the areas in the North which can help increase the economy by
investments.

2. Using a case study of a LIC/NEE country, explain how manufacturing industry can encourage economic
development. [6 marks]

One way manufacturing industries have encouraged economic development is through global
connections. Evidence to support this is, Dangote cement has expanded their manufacturing plants into
13 countries including Nepal and Nigeria. This enabled Nigeria to establish a global influence and
connections with surrounding countries. This means that Nigeria is able to trade with more countries
which can help increase Nigeria’s GDP from export goods. Another way manufacturing industries have
encouraged economic development is through foreign direct investment. For example, TNCs like Shell
has invested in Nigeria in the Niger Delta region. This has allowed other TNCs like Volkswagen to be
attracted to Nigeria and invest this increase the foreign direct investment which means Nigeria is able to
improve infrastructure and develop their technology areas.

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of tourism in reducing the development gap. Use Figure 9 and your own
knowledge.

One impact of tourism in Tunisia as also stated in figure 9 is tourism brings money in for local
communities. From the 1970s income in Tunisia has quadrupled. This helps to reduce the development
gap as people are able to afford basic necessities like food and water which can help increase the
average life expectancy and employees are able to have a stream of income which means they have
more disposable income to spend on businesses in the area. However, tourism has seasonal work which
means the stream of income is not consistent and can hence lead to a poor quality of life, furthermore,
wages are also inconsistent as large private companies like Thomas Cook take large percentages of the
profits which little to reinvest in Nigeria and for salary of employees.
Another impact of tourism is it helps Tunisia to invest in areas to help improve the development. For
example, Tunisia now invests 4% of GDP in healthcare. This helps to reduce the development gap as
women are able to become more educated and have access to birth control and better-quality medicine
and healthcare help to reduce death rates which can help slow down natural increase in LICs.
Furthermore, this helps to build up a strong and sustainable workforce as the increase in better access to
healthcare and quality, means infant mortality rates decrease. However, this is a low portion to set aside
for healthcare, some argue that more money could be invested to help reduce diseases such as malaria.