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Irecall one word that dominated a business seminar in Manchester some time ago. The seminar was on the north-south divide, and the word was London. It was obsessive. Why does London keep taking our best people, everyone asked? Why do our children all want to get to London?
This week’s report by Lord Kerslake on the north-south divide presents the problem in graphic terms. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows Britain with the widest regional inequality of any advanced nation. London’s economy is growing at between two and four times the rate of the north. It is blessed with better health, better trains, better skills. The south-east has largely escaped austerity, its public spending rising £2bn in a decade. The north’s has fallen by £6bn. Fixing this gap will require action “on a level with Germany post-unification”, the report says, when trillions were spent over decades on the former east.
The government must “go big or go home” if it wants to succeed with its bold bid to “level up” Britain and narrow its glaring north south divide.
So said Bob Kerslake, the former boss of the civil service, who’s now head of the UK2070 commission, an independent inquiry into the nation’s geographical inequalities. Fancy fast rail and road links just won’t cut it. We need skills, research, development, education. Cash too. Don’t forget cash.
Responding to the report by the independent UK2070 Commission, which says that an ‘over-centralised system’ is partly responsible for widening regional inequality, Sir Richard Leese, Chair of the Local Government Association’s City Regions Board, said:
“This report sets out the case for urgently tackling rising inequality in our regions.
“Taking decisions over how to run local services closer to where people live is key to improving them. There is clear and significant evidence that outcomes for local communities improve and the country as a whole gets better value for money when democratically-elected councils have the freedoms and funding to make local decisions.
The government must "think big" and spend more if it is serious about levelling up the UK's regions, an independent inquiry has said.
An extra £200bn of regional funds should be channelled to disadvantaged parts of the country over the next two decades, the UK2070 Commission said.
The report concludes policies need to cover longer timescales and feature stronger pan-regional collaboration.
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An independent inquiry has found that London’s productivity over the last ten years was nine times higher than the entire Northern Powerhouse area, highlighting how the economic gap has widened between different regions in the UK.
The UK2070 Commission’s final report urges the government to “go big or go home” if it is to put a halt to the widening economic and social divisions.
Sectors such as fintech have defied Brexit uncertainty in London, with the capital’s tech scene continuing to attract large investment.
The report recommends a “connectivity revolution” to level the playing field. In the 2019 general election, the Conservative Party promised to roll out gigabit broadband across rural Britain.
Government intervention on the scale of HS2 is needed to address the widening gaps between the richest and poorest parts of the UK, an independent inquiry claims.
The UK2070 Commission said regional inequalities were “serious” and growing, with the UK home to some of the richest and poorest regions in Europe.
Its report said the UK must adjust to life beyond Brexit and the impacts of climate change over the next decade, warning that a “business as usual” attitude will lead to further decline and division.
A report from the UK2070 Commission has demanded that the government “think big” if they are to level up regions across the UK.
The independent inquiry indicates that a further £200 billion ought to be invested into disadvantaged parts of the UK over the next twenty years.
As the commission’s name suggests, they believe that policies should be made for the long term and encourage multiple regions to cooperate with one another.
The UK2070 Commission issued both its Final Report Make No Little Plans – Acting At Scale For A Fairer And Stronger Future and an Executive Summary of this Report today, with chair Lord Kerslake, the former Head of the Home Civil Service, warning Government that it must “go big or go home” if it is to arrest further economic decline and social division.
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This article references research using data available in the UK Data Service collection:
OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators
OECD Regional Innovation. OECD Regional Statistics