UK’s north-south divide has widened, says thinktank
This is thought provoking stuff, however without taking into account commuting patterns it understates the importance of rural hinterlands as the drivers of city growth. Those people living in places like Gedling, East Riding and Cheshire East will know what I mean. We really do need a more sophisticated frame of reference than a simple “city” unit if we are to fully understand the economic issues in England. The article itself tells us:
For every 12 net new jobs that have been created in cities and towns in southern England since 2004 only one has been generated in towns in the rest of Britain, according to a report by a thinktank that has compared urban areas across the country.
The thinktank, the Centre for Cities, found that the gap between Britain’s best and worst performing towns and cities had dramatically widened in the last 10 years, creating a two-tier economy of dynamism and decline.
Its annual report, entitled Outlook 2015, compared the performance of the UK’s 64 largest cities and towns and found the south far outperforming the north between 2004 and 2013.
The research data come after a year in which devolution to city regions proved a hot topic in national and local government, with the chancellor, George Osborne, setting out a vision for building a “northern powerhouse” to compete with London and the south.
During the 10 years studied in the report, the population of towns and cities in the south grew by 11.3% – double the rate of towns elsewhere. Milton Keynes was found to be the fastest growing place in the UK, expanding by 16.5%, followed by Peterborough and Swindon.
Only two places outside the south, Northampton and Cardiff, featured in the top 10 for population growth. Sunderland, meanwhile, was the only city to shrink, losing 1.4% of its population.
But as southern cities have prospered, they have become less affordable as places in which to live. In 2004 the average house in a southern city or town was nine times people’s average earnings. By 2014 the price had grown to more than 13 times the average wage, the report says.