- The Guardian, Tuesday June 19 2007
The north-south divide in Britain is greater than ever despite the government's aim to reduce the gap, an economic forecasting group says today. The latest regional planning report by consultants Experian Business Strategies found that economic growth was increasingly concentrated in the greater south-east owing to large-scale shifts in the national economy.
"In the past, the global cycle was heavily associated with manufacturing and the northern industrial heartlands," said Andrew Burrell, associate director of Experian. "But as successive recessions shrank this sector, international finance and the City of London have become more and more essential to the UK's economic growth."
As a result, Experian says a "two-tier economy" has emerged with the north trailing behind. "The recent recovery appears to have been strongly influenced by booming global demand in London's financial and business services, which has then spilt out to the neighbouring regions. The north, by contrast, has been dependent mainly on public sector investment for its growth," said Mr Burrell.
Only a handful of cities outside the south-east such as Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds and Nottingham are delivering robust growth, Experian says.
"New Labour came to power 10 years ago, aiming to reduce regional differentials and improve the relative performance of the north," said Mr Burrell. "To some extent, this was achieved during the first half of the decade, but this was only relative to the effect of a global slump on the south and massive government public spending in the north. Overall, the north's performance has remained remarkably flat and unspectacular."
However, the report adds that some urban centres such as Leeds and Manchester have managed to diversify from their industrial bases and made use of the government's spending boom.
