COLUMN: Come on up, the North is lovely

My attention was caught by a group of young women wearing hen party sashes who, quite spontaneously, halted in wonder. They were staring at the medieval street and towers of the Minster rising behind the rooftops. ‘Let’s all move here!’ cried one in an accent with a London twang. Her friends (also clearly from the southern counties) cheered in agreement.

Of course, it was easy to feel proud then of our city and wonderful county of Yorkshire. But the reality is that the UK is not united. And a growing part of the problem is the North-South divide.

In 2016, for example, an Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North report revealed that at primary school level, the north of England receives about £4,600 per pupil in grant funding, which is £900 less than London. In secondary schools, the north receives £5,700 per pupil, £100 less than the English average and £1,300 less than London. York schools are among the worst funded.

When it comes to arts funding the gap is also considerable. It is thought that £700m is needed to bridge the gap between North and South.

Glorious: York is a wonderful place to live, says Tim Murgatroyd - but there are still real problems caused by the North-South Divide

Similarly, the north of England has seen £59 billion less in transport spending compared to London over the last ten years. This summer the Government announced a £30 billion Crossrail 2 scheme for London just days after axing or downgrading rail projects in Wales, the Midlands and the North, with the IPPR North revealing that the area is “underfunded” by almost £6 billion a year compared to London.

In terms of being rewarded for work, the wage gap, too, is high. For example, the average wage of a working woman in Camden is £560 a week, while in Hartlepool it is £252. Although housing costs are clearly much cheaper in the North than the South East, such huge earning differentials reveal a divided nation.

The roots of the problem are complex and historical. I am old enough to remember the rapid decline of traditional industries in the Thatcher era and afterwards. York itself has lost many enterprises for which it was justly famous, from railway carriage building to much of its confectionery and chocolate industry.

Instead, investment has been pumped into the London and the Thames corridor for decade after decade, especially into the service and finance sectors.

A cynical part of me can’t help wondering if more of the Government’s MPs had northern constituencies there would be higher spending in latitudes beyond the Watford Gap.

Here’s a radical thought. Given the fact that the Palace of Westminster is facing a multi-billion pound repair bill to bring it into the 21st century, perhaps we should cut our losses altogether and move Parliament to somewhere more central in the UK. Leeds could even prove the perfect candidate.

Above all, what should concern us now is repairing the damage to our industrial base in cities like York with a highly-skilled population who are often forced to work for low wages. Likewise, to our public services that have been so pointlessly mauled by austerity and privatisation.

The idea of regional investment banks managed by publicly accountable bodies actually based in the North seems a first step. Similarly, ambitious programs of capital investment to create a modern infrastructure to raise UK Plc’s woefully low levels of productivity compared to our more successful European neighbours.

As someone brought up in the industrial West Riding, I would love to see our region become world famous for a new generation of green, non-polluting technologies, just as our forebears were famed for mining, mills and manufacturing.

Then perhaps those young ladies from the South on their hen party might indeed move here and make their own contribution to ‘God’s Own County’. Like the many hard-working immigrants from all over the world who add so much to Yorkshire life, they’d be very welcome.