Ed Cox: As Britain’s great divide gets bigger, the North needs its voice to be heard

But while places like Leeds, York, Sheffield, Manchester and Newcastle have shown great resilience to the effects of the recession, new analysis by IPPR North shows the recession has made the North South divide worse.

We carried out some new research in preparation for launching the commission and found that the North-South divide still continues to widen as the drivers for growth remain concentrated in the South. The situation is made worse by new economic powers being devolved to assemblies in London and Scotland.

The North of England is falling behind in relation to vital drivers for economic growth such as skills, business start-ups, and investment in transport, science and technology.

Investment in transport infrastructure is heavily skewed towards London and the Greater South East. Recent Treasury figures indicate spending on transport in London has now risen to £802 per head compared with £248 per head for the North East, £333 for the North West and £272 for Yorkshire, a disparity often highlighted by this newspaper over the last five years.

In 2009/10, investment in science and technology in London was nearly double that of any of the Northern regions: the index of spending per head in London was £155 compared £86 in Yorkshire. And only one of the three new Technology and Innovation Centres is located in the north of England – at Daresbury Campus in Cheshire.

Instead of looking to London to solve the problem, the new commission aims to find solutions for the North to forge its own future. The Northern Economic Futures Commission brings together for the first-time, key figures from the business world across the North of England to set out a 10-year strategy for economic growth. We think the Northern regions deserve to have a strong voice and the commission will act as a mouthpiece for what really matters.

We must also remember that there are problems in the South. Some of these problems are shared with the North, driven by industrial change and spatial restructuring, but some are different, such as house price pressures, congestion and exaggerated inequality. But for the UK economy to be firing on all cylinders there is a genuine need for a new sense of rebalancing.

This context raises some immediate questions: where will the jobs come from to replace those lost in the recession and the cuts? The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley, Halifax Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland, followed by the spending cuts, have taken a heavy toll on Yorkshire and there is little sign so far of the private sector-led recovery anticipated by David Cameron.

We should also ask where the North should focus its attention to promote economic growth and increase productivity? What are the priorities for infrastructure, investment and skills? Yorkshire is internationally renowned for its strengths in areas such as pharmaceutical companies, often spun out from higher education, and advanced manufacturing, but how will this be maintained amid competition from the South and from abroad?

We should also take stock and consider some more profound issues: should the goal of growth centre on convergence with the South of England, or should we look further afield to assess the performance of the regions?

The geographical and physical make-up of Yorkshire, which includes a vast amount of agricultural land, former colleries, a long coastline and rivers such as the Swale, the Ouse and the Wharfe, is remarkable. Its distinctive natural assets should be used in areas such as energy generation to help re-build the resilience of the UK economy.

The North can learn from other European regional economies as it responds to the shift in economic power to the East. But how can it take a lead in addressing a set of national concerns such as developing a more environmentally sustainable, low-carbon economy and dealing with longer-term demographic trends such as an ageing population, health challenges and growing concerns about immigration?

Taking just one of these areas, the ageing population, shows the task faced by policymakers. By 2030, there will be fewer than three people aged between 15 and 64 for every pensioner living in this region. The impact will be most striking in North Yorkshire, where the number of people aged over 85 is projected to rise by 65 per cent by 2001 and 2020.

Our commission aims to provide answers to these questions. In recent years, significant research has been carried out about these issues, not least under the auspices of the soon-to-be-abolished regional development agencies, as well as within local authorities, at universities, Government departments and in other quasi-state organisations such as The Northern Way, which was a voice for a group of RDAs.

As some of these have now been dismantled, we have a new set of instruments, focused upon local enterprise partnerships, but there is a danger that under the new arrangements important lessons will be lost.

It is more vital than ever that the North of England has a strong voice that can articulate a vision for the future. The group of commissioners we have on board, which includes council chief executives, rural experts and leading business people, are ready to do just that.

Ed Cox is the Director of think tank IPPR North. For more information on its research and the Northern Economic Futures Commission,

go to www.ippr.org.