A lot of it is due to location. In England, especially where I live (right on the south coast) real snowfall is rare. As a result, no-one bothers investing in things like winter tyres and snow chains, and while the council has lots of gritters they're mainly required for dealing with ice (icy roads are a serious problem here each winter).

To give an example, the snowfall back in January was much more than that in previous years. Winter '07-'08 and '08-'09 each had about a day when there was actual on-the-ground snow, and that was gone by the next day. In fact the snow in those photos had all disappeared by this morning.

It's a whole different situation in Scotland. Up there you regularly gets lots of snow and so the country as a whole is geared to coping with it. Down in the south it's simply not worth it.