Is the North-South divide rising larger? Take our ballot

As Angela Rayner is poised to blast the Tories for underestimating the North for much too lengthy, we ask if you happen to suppose the notoriously lopsided North-South divide is rising larger?

The deputy chief of the Labour Party will pledge to provide communities the ability to make selections on abilities coaching, housing and planning as she speaks on the Convention of the North in Leeds right this moment. She will warn that ministers have “failed to give northern towns and cities the tools or opportunity to live up to their best potential”.

Data obtained by Labour suggests the economic system would profit to the tune of £13billion if Leeds was as productive as comparable cities in France akin to Toulouse, Lyon and Marseille. Ms Rayner will say: “For too lengthy, the Tories have underestimated the North. It was the employees of the North who constructed the locations we name house with their very own arms. But below the Tories, the locations that when constructed Britain get nothing however the crumbs from the desk – and are informed to be pleased about it.

“Under a Labour government, it will be the bricklayers, the bus drivers and the mechanics that level up the North and give us our renaissance. But those workers and the North as a whole will have a voice. That means Mayors and council leaders at the table, and Ministers in every department making sure local voices are represented at the heart of government.”

One of the main driving factors of the north-south divide has been de-industrialisation, with the widespread loss of manufacturing industries traditionally being located in the north. As the northern economy declined, the south-east became increasingly prosperous in response to the growth of the financial and service sector and the dominance of London. This growth in incomes led to increased house prices in the south-east. Of course, this North-South divide is nothing new – with many believing the gap is widening even further.

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And regardless of the now 5 years of ‘levelling up’ guarantees made by the federal government, the inequality between our areas nonetheless very a lot exists. The Conservatives’ pledge to equally unfold energy and wealth throughout the nation was a key a part of their post-Brexit imaginative and prescient within the 2019 General Election, and can absolutely be a excessive precedence for a lot of voters on the subsequent.

The Levelling Up White Paper – a flagship doc that set out how alternative might be unfold extra equally throughout the UK – promised large modifications for individuals who lived in much less affluent locations. It lined an enormous vary of coverage areas, together with transport, well being, abilities, employment, tradition and native governance.

Attempts to make the UK a extra ‘degree enjoying subject’ have been rumbling on for many years now, with each our authorities and the EU attempting to cut back the divide by investing within the north. Less affluent locations have been assigned ‘assisted space standing’, with new companies there capable of obtain monetary assist.

There’s additionally regional assist via The Regional Growth Fund (England), Regional Selective Assistance (Scotland), The Welsh Government Business Finance (Wales) and Selective Financial Assistance (Northern Ireland).

Other methods embody:

• Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)
• The launch of the Northern Powerhouse thought to encourage industrial growth in northern cities akin to Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

• Government incentive packages to draw companies with a worldwide attain

• Enterprise Zones
• Planned transport enhancements akin to HS2 – Britain’s new excessive pace rail line from London to the North-West

It is now 2024 and after a few years of lip service, individuals residing within the north STILL are likely to have a decrease life expectancy, lesser earnings and a poorer lifestyle than their counterparts within the south-east, in response to figures.

Is the North/South divide rising larger? Take our ballot and have your say