Academics making a case for regional devolution

Professor Jeffrey Henderson and Dr Suet Ying Ho are members of the pro-devolution Hannah Mitchell Foundation and are based in Leeds and Bristol.

They make a case for a major re-structuring of the British state with major powers devolved to the English regions alongside Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Their report says: “Other than Japan, Britain has probably the most centralised state system of any major country in the world.

“With this has come the concentration of economic, political and cultural power in a single city: London. To develop the vision and political will needed to rejuvenate the North and Britain’s other regions and nations, we consequently cannot rely on Westminster. The people of the North have to take political responsibility for our own communities”.

The paper has been welcomed by Yorkshire-based Professor Paul Salveson, general secretary of Hannah Mitchell Foundation. He said: “Jeff and Ying have challenged much of the accepted wisdom in both the coalition parties and Labour, making a powerful case for much greater power being devolved to the North as well as other English regions within a re-structured Federal Britain.

“It’s immensely exciting and should be read by politicians of all persuasions.”

Jeffrey Henderson is Professor of International Development and Suet Ying Ho is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Sociology, Politics and International 
Studies at the University of 
Bristol. Among earlier appointments, Jeffrey Henderson was a Professor at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester and Suet Ying Ho was a lecturer at the University of Liverpool and at Leeds Metropolitan University.

They now divide their time between Bristol and Leeds.