How the North can become an economic powerhouse again

Mr Neil made the comments as headline speaker at Variety’s Yorkshire Business Awards, which attracted an audience of 425 leading business figures to the Queens Hotel in Leeds.

The event, which had the Yorkshire Post and Sewell Recruitment Group as its headline sponsors, raised £121,500 to help disadvantaged children in Yorkshire and honoured inspirational entrepreneurs.

During his speech, Mr Neil considered the trends that would shape global politics over the next century.

He warned the audience: “We as a continent will increasingly be dependent on Saudi oil and Russian gas, this at a time when the United States will be energy independent. I know which country I would rather be in.

“This happens at a time when our military ability to defend these trade routes and oil supplies has never been lower and when the United States has less interest to come. We, ladies and gentlemen of the 21st century, need to get our act together. Our politicians need to start arguing about things that matter, for example, a proper energy policy that makes us energy independent as well.

“The last time I looked, there was around five trillion cubic feet of shale gas under Morecambe Bay; a policy that would change the whole balance of power in Britain from the over populated, over-important south back to the north of England, again. That’s what would matter to our country. An education system that gives everybody a proper skill, rather than just the elite that go to Oxford and Cambridge.

“And maybe a proper airway policy that gave proper international runway capacity to the north, as well as the south.

“These are the things that will determine our future in the 21st century.”

Earlier in his speech, Mr Neil highlighted the resurgence of the US, which he said was largely due to the shale gas revolution.

“Shale gas has decimated energy prices in the United States...The result is that they have reversed the fortunes of American industries that were long thought to be dead. Chemicals, plastic, iron, aluminium, steel, metals, glass. All returning to the United States, when they were thought they were lost forever. This phenomenon has a name in the United States. It is called ‘the homecoming’.”

“By 2020, the United States will be entirely energy independent. Sometime early in the next decade, the US, Canada and Mexico combined will produce more oil equivalent than the whole of the Middle East. The geopolitics of this are enormous.”

Mr Neil described US President Barack Obama as the poster boy of the Pacific, with no ethnic ties with Europe.

He added: “In 2013, a fundamental change in military power will take place. Sixty per cent of US naval power will be deployed in the Pacific ocean...

“We used to think we were important allies of the United States. We were. So were Germany, for a time so was Italy and so was France. That is the Pacific century. That is what matters to the United States.”

Mr Neil said that in 2013 and 2014 there was likely to be a constant squeeze on UK living standards, which will keep growth low. He said low growth of one or two per cent is probably the “new normal” for the next couple of years. “It is, for most people, a form of stagnation.”

“There is money to be made in this environment, there are businesses that will do well. Internationally, of course, there are still export markets – there is market share to be gained for those who are more efficient and those who get their productivity up.

“We are a shrunken country because of the banking crash. In this economic environment, the coalition will simply limp along.”

The awards were held on the day it was announced that Yorkshire had been chosen to host the Grand Départ of the 2014 Tour de France, a triumph which is expected to bring more than £100m to the region’s economy.

Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, who was one of the most passionate supporters of the bid to bring the Tour de France to Yorkshire, told the audience: “This morning, Yorkshire is trending globally on Twitter. Why did we want to bring the world’s biggest sporting event to Yorkshire?

“I was born and brought up in this city, I was educated in this city. I live in Yorkshire and I’m very passionate about the county. I couldn’t believe it when I came back to work in the city, just over four years ago, (and found) that we had suddenly developed a complex about Manchester.

“That we felt that we had almost a chip on our shoulder, ‘Manchester can do this, and Manchester can do that’. I started to get a bit fed up about that. I thought, ‘Well, we can either just put up with that... or we can fix it.’

“So I thought we’d bring the world’s biggest sporting event here. So Manchester, you’re very welcome to visit us when we host the Tour de France in 2014.”

The event’s presenter was Angela Rippon OBE, the doyenne of British broadcasting. The awards’ other sponsors included Ernst & Young, The design portfolio marketing services, Evans Property Group, Pace, Pinsent Masons, Rothschild, Yorkshire Bank and Yorkshire Building Society.

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