In 1962, Harold Macmillan’s home secretary Henry Brooke warned that if the government did not “prevent two nations developing geographically” – a poor north and a rich south – “our successors will reproach us as we reproach the Victorians for complacency about slums and ugliness”. Ever since, politicians have lamented the north-south divide. Yet England, the largest part of a fragile multinational state, has remained Europe’s most regionally imbalanced country. It contains both northern Europe’s richest region (west London) and six of its poorest (including South Yorkshire and the Tees Valley).
Through its promotion of the “Northern Powerhouse”, David Cameron’s government paid rhetorical tribute to the north of England and achieved some policy successes (such as the establishment of Transport for the North, the UK’s first pan-northern government body). But the north still suffers from a significant democratic deficit.
Content from our partners
