The Government is conspicuously silent on tackling regional inequalities - Andrew Vine
It’s there in the thriving high streets full of independent retailers where there are no boarded-up shops, in the smartly spruced-up public buildings, and the new houses going up seemingly everywhere, all of which convey an air of prosperity.
The contrast with so much of Yorkshire was also to be seen on the packed railway platforms of commuters waiting for fast, punctual and reliable trains getting them to work in central London in about 30 minutes.
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Hide AdWhenever the family from Essex pay a return visit to Yorkshire, they are also struck by the contrast – at how scruffy and borderline derelict so many of our town and city centre streets are, how so much of our urban landscape looks like it hasn’t had a penny spent on it in years and how terrible many of our train services are.


That’s the north-south divide for you. But on the question of how to close the gap, the silence from the government is deafening.
All of us who live in the north know only too well how far we have fallen behind the south in terms of prosperity and investment, and how vital it is that this inequality is addressed.
A desire to see that happen was partly responsible for the Conservative victory in the 2019 election, when many traditional Labour seats switched allegiance for the first time, not only because of Brexit, but because of the promise the economy would be “levelled up”.
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Hide AdIt was an empty pledge from that master of mendacity Boris Johnson, and even if there was a sincere commitment among his more responsible colleagues to make levelling up a reality, the financial damage of the Covid pandemic torpedoed the chances of anything much happening.
So where’s the new plan to end inequality from a government that came to office promising to rebuild Britain?
The need for one is undeniable, even desperate, underlined yet again by last week’s report from the Social Mobility Commission into regional inequalities.
It surely came as no surprise to anyone in the north that the best jobs and opportunities are to be found in London and the south-east.
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Hide AdThe result is that the north’s young people are losing out, not getting the chances they deserve unless they head south.
The authors of the report might just as well have painted a picture of Yorkshire when they identified former mining, industrial, rural and coastal areas as offering the fewest opportunities and said poor public transport is holding people back.
It is grossly unfair on those young people, and hugely damaging for the north’s chances of building a better economy, that these injustices persist decade in and decade out.
Why should it be that a boy or girl growing up in, say, Bradford or Barnsley is automatically at a disadvantage to counterparts from Bedford or Basingstoke?
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Hide AdThis entrenched status of the north’s people as second-class citizens cannot be allowed to continue and there can be no national renewal – economic or social – if the north is left to stagnate while the south forges ahead and grows ever richer.
Yet currently there doesn’t appear to be a determination to do anything about it. The government can hardly argue that it was unaware of the issue of regional inequality until taking office.
Sir Keir Starmer referenced it on numerous occasions when visiting the north whilst in opposition, and he is certain to have had his ear bent about it by the elected mayors of Yorkshire and the wider north.
It is understandable that Labour want nothing to do with the discredited label of “levelling up” after it became a euphemism for broken promises and failure to deliver.
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Hide AdBut whatever they call them, there need to be policies specifically aimed at ending regional inequality that deliver new investment in the north and give its young people the same opportunities as those living a couple of hours’ train journey to the south.
The government must demonstrate that it is committed to doing that, but the careful avoidance of saying anything much on the subject is a matter of concern, especially since it is possible that we might be in for a nasty surprise.
All the talk from Sir Keir and the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, about a black hole in the national finances and tough spending decisions in next month’s budget doesn’t bode well for boosting the fortunes of the north.
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