BRITAIN is a nation that is oddly unbalanced. The vast majority of the country’s resources, wealth and opportunities are concentrated in a single capital city, London, that is geographically in the extreme south east and yet which dwarfs every other part of the nation.

London is our political capital, our financial capital, our administrative capital and our artistic capital. The rest of the county fights over the scraps.

London has also always been the place where our national newspapers and other national media cluster. As a result, the picture they paint of our country has long been weighted towards the nation’s capital. It can seem at times as though London is the only part of the country that matters.

The BBC at least did move part of its operation to Manchester. That was a very welcome corrective. But it hardly began to redress the balance.

Now Channel 4 has made the daring and hugely welcome decision to relocate its base of operations to the north: to the Leeds City region of which York is part, in fact.

This is great news for our region in terms of jobs and investment. Over the next 10 years, the move is expected to create 1,285 jobs across the region, and generate £1.2 billion. But the significance of the move goes much further than that.

Channel 4 is effectively making a statement to the effect that Britain doesn’t begin and end with London; that other parts of the country, each with their own character and their own strengths, do matter; and that people with drive and ambition don’t necessarily need to head to the south east to get on.

Good on Channel 4. Welcome to Yorkshire, we say.