Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyGCSE the changing economic world30 min★★★ difficulty

Closing the gap and economic change in the UK

From microfinance to transnational corporations, and from coal to call centres: how development gaps narrow, and how the UK economy has been rewired.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Explain development gaps, strategies to reduce them and economic change in the UK.

Key learning points

  • • Strategies to reduce the gap
  • • Tourism and TNCs
  • • Deindustrialisation and the UK
  • • The UK in the wider world

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 17 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

developmentstrategiesreduceeconomicchange

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 17 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 17

Watch first

Closing the gap and economic change in the UK

An English teaching video on this topic from Mr B. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Explain development gaps, strategies to reduce them and economic change in the UK.

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 17

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Strategies to reduce the gap

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 17

Learn

Strategies to reduce the gap

Investment, industrial development, aid, intermediate technology, fair trade, debt relief and microfinance loans. Evaluate by scale, who controls the money and whether benefits reach the poorest — top-down projects deliver infrastructure, bottom-up projects deliver ownership.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 17

Learn

Tourism and TNCs

Tourism can convert natural assets into income and jobs, but leakage sends profits abroad and employment is often seasonal and low-paid. Transnational corporations bring investment, technology and export earnings while repatriating profits and sometimes exploiting weak labour or environmental regulation.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 17

Quick check

What is 'leakage' in tourism?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 17

Quick check

Which strategy most directly gives local people ownership?

7

Learning cycle

Part 7 of 17

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Deindustrialisation and the UK

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 17

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 17

Learn

Deindustrialisation and the UK

Globalisation, cheaper overseas production and government policy shifted the UK from manufacturing towards services, finance and research. Science and business parks cluster near universities and motorways, and the north-south divide reflects where that transition landed hardest.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 17

Learn

The UK in the wider world

Trade, culture, transport and electronic communications tie the UK to global markets. Rural areas experience both growth, in commuter and second-home villages, and decline, in remote areas losing services and young people.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 17

Quick check

What has driven UK deindustrialisation?

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 17

Quick check

Where do science parks typically locate?

13

Explore the idea

Part 13 of 17

Worked example

Model answer: 'Evaluate the contribution of TNCs to development' (6 marks)

TNCs contribute investment that a host government could not raise alone, creating waged employment more reliable than subsistence work and transferring technology and management skills that can spread through local supply chains. Export earnings also improve the balance of trade. Against this, profits are largely repatriated rather than reinvested, wages are set low precisely because low costs attracted the investment, and weakly enforced environmental regulation can allow pollution that the host country ultimately pays for. TNC investment therefore accelerates measurable economic growth while distributing its benefits unevenly, so it works best where governments negotiate conditions on employment and environmental standards.

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 17

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Challenge round

Part 15 of 17

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Investment, industrial ____, aid, intermediate technology, fair trade, debt relief and microfinance loans.

16

Mastery quiz

Part 16 of 17

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Closing the gap and economic change in the UK

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. What is 'leakage' in tourism?

  2. 2. Which strategy most directly gives local people ownership?

  3. 3. What has driven UK deindustrialisation?

  4. 4. Where do science parks typically locate?

17

Lesson round-up

Part 17 of 17

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 17 · Watch & discover

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