Timothy Kirkhope: We need action, not words, over the North-South divide

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's recent meetings in Newcastle have underlined the fact that, as we pick our way out of a recession, we need to use imagination to make sure that as things improve there is no clear disadvantage to our citizens who live and work north of the Wash – the traditional line that illustrates the North-South divide.

Over the years, successive Governments have, from time to time,

alighted on "grand plans" for our northern regions. As a young politician, I well remember visits to the North East by Lord Hailsham in his flat cap and later by Michael Heseltine. And, Conservative governments did much to improve northern transport links and

infrastructure and to inject public funds into some worthwhile

employment opportunities. The private sector started to increase once more following its diminution in the post-industrial atmosphere.

In the last 15 years, however, many government schemes have

concentrated on giving financial support either to ill-thought out projects or those which produced little long-term extra employment. Simply moving Civil Service jobs north, though important, could never be a real alternative to private enterprise.

However, private enterprise has hardly been nurtured. More and more red tape, bureaucratic interference, employment (or unemployment)legislation, and financial restrictions have added to the deterrence for our own home grown enterprises and discouraged investment in the North rather than in the always overheating South.

Some of this legislation has emanated from the EU though in the UK we seem to be hell-bent on "gold-plating" everything that arrives from across the Channel.

My colleagues and I in the European Parliament fight hard for British interests but are often disappointed when legislation which was intended to help businesses in regions like Yorkshire and The Humber is then transformed by our domestic Parliament into very overburdening regulation which, worse still, is then enforced by armies of local and national bureaucrats. That hardly helps to solve our problems.

The Government is replacing development agencies like Yorkshire Forward with new economic partnerships. I welcome that approach as long as they do not end up as unbalanced as the regional economy. Lots of businessmen please – but rather less bureaucrats from local or national government.

It is terribly frustrating for politicians like myself who are "of the North" and for those business leaders who want to see a successful and vibrant Northern economy.

I congratulate those who are determined to work to fill the gaps left as the coalition Government close quangos and agencies who have spent so much public money not all of it usefully, but we need to do even more.

Recent suggestions of a differential tax regime or some clear fiscal advantages for investing in the poorer regions seem to me to be very interesting.

There could be great benefits in this to the regions but also to the country. Other European countries organise these sorts of approaches – and they work.

Coupled with changes in planning laws and a new approach to transport, a new system of grants might just be what we need. At least let's have a proper examination of the possibilities.

The coalition Government has already introduced incentives in George Osborne's Budget to employers to take on more workers and to invest capital.

That is to be welcomed, but it could be argued that this measure will again benefit entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses (who create most new jobs anyway) which are or might be located in the South.

The North has enormous potential. It has many success stories. But it has many problems too. The balance between public and private sector must be addressed. It is obvious that in the medium to long-term our regional economies cannot sustain the present imbalance between the two.

Of course, all of our politicians constantly extol the natural

advantages of living "up North", and our countryside, quality of life, and natural friendliness and good humour, are well known. But, despite all that, maybe now is the time to do a bit more?

Timothy Kirkhope is a MEP for Yorkshire and The Humber and the Leader of the Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament.