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by Lib Dem team on 29 June, 2015
“Northern Powerhouse” is the phrase of the moment, and beloved of the Conservative government right up to the moment they decided to shelve a whole bunch of important rail projects in the north. But what does it mean?
When it comes to cities, size matters. Big cities attract big investment and lots of jobs and prosperity. At 2.7 million people, Manchester’s not small, but there are already more than 20 Chinese cities with populations above 4 million and it makes a difference. Big cities have big pools of talent and people with niche skills. In short, there are a whole bunch of reasons why people setting up a big company prefer big cities and, individually, none of the northern cities quite cut it.
The Northern Powerhouse idea is simple: massively improve transport links between Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull so people can move quickly and easily between them, living in one and working in another. You create a virtual big city, big enough to attract all the investment that currently goes to places like London and Paris.
It’s a good plan, and it had cross-party support. Until the Conservatives shelved half the rail plans!
3 Comments
In under 200 words? How about:
Election strategy designed to suggest that the Tories are not just a southern party. Seems to have worked.
How about investing in technology so more people don’t have to travel? UK obsessed by the idea that you can’t have a thriving economy without people travelling long distances. Not very ‘green’ either.
That’s a really good point Philip. Certainly there’s a case for more remote working and there’s a lot of work going on to invest in super-fast broadband. But the evidence we have shows that’s simply not sufficient and there are many industries, especially cutting-edge ones, where having people physically together in large numbers seems to be critical.