Letters | 6 December 2012

The North in need

Sir: Neil O’Brien’s article on the North-South divide is welcome (‘The great divide’, 1 December). As a Geordie who spent much of his working life in the West Midlands before being immersed in the Westminster bubble for the last decade, London increasingly feels like a separate country. The wealth, the economic activity and the jobs are something that many communities only an hour and a half away on the train can only dream about.

Many of the heavily industrialised towns and cities never recovered from the recession of the early 1980s. We have generational unemployment and significant pockets lacking any aspiration. There is a lack of successful role models for the young, and of private sector activity.

Improvements to education are key, but not enough. There must be a complete reinvention of economies. This means in large swaths of the urban North policies are needed that are not timid in approach, but where new businesses have long-term holidays from tax, national insurance and employment legislation.