After the failure of George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse and the fabled levelling-up agenda of Boris Johnson, we now have another initiative, the Great North. This sounds familiar, as I remember that there was a campaign with the same name back in the 1980s, but at least this is an initiative originating from within the north.
It was reported on Saturday 7 September that the elected northern mayors were getting together, on the weekend of the Great North Run, to see how they could work together. When asked about the meeting North East Mayor Kim McGuinness had a number of things to say, particularly about the image that the North has.
Changing the image of the north
Speaking to the Observer, McGuinness stated:
“That long-standing image of the north as left behind, as grim – all of those tropes that are used when people talk about the north in the round or sometimes when we’re depicted – it’s very clearly not true. Anybody who’s ever been to and done the Great North Run, for example, will tell a very different story of what we are as the north.
“There have been many good intentions around the creation of the northern powerhouse, but it was very much a thing handed to the north by the centre. If I went out in the street in the North East and said: ‘How do you think levelling up has gone?’, I think people would roll their eyes.
“What we want to talk about is how we build a bottom-up brand that is all about the people of the north, for the people, by the people – under that really famous banner, the Great North.”
McGuinness is absolutely right to say that we need to change the image of the north, but I think that concerns not only how we are viewed in the south, but crucially how we view ourselves. We must start to really believe in ourselves in the way that northerners did in the 19th century, when we were the cradle of the Industrial Revolution and when northern ingenuity changed the world. And to change anything we need much of the power back, which has leaked away to London and the south east over the decades.
Investment is needed
We do need more power and investment in the north as the UK is becoming increasingly imbalanced economically and this follows the imbalance in power, with both wealth and power being hoarded around London and the south east. That is not to say that there aren’t some very poor parts of London and indeed some very wealthy parts of the north. However, taking the regions in general the data shows huge discrepancies that need, to coin a phrase, levelling up.
According to Statista, the average GDP per capita across the UK is £33 593 However, in London it is £57 338, while in the North East it is a paltry £24 172, the lowest of any region or nation in the United Kingdom. This situation does not have to be like this and we must do more to close the gap. But we need the power to make decisions for ourselves and we need to end the domination of the Treasury Green Book which encourages Westminster governments to concentrate economic investment in London and the south east as there can be quicker short-term returns form it, so reinforcing the imbalance across the UK as a whole.
More than a slogan
There needs to be more than just a pithy slogan behind this latest initiative. There needs to be a long-term policy initiative from both northern mayors and the Westminster government, aimed at coordinating our demands from the north and examining positive ways that power can be devolved that will make a real difference to the people of the north and especially in the North East, given its position as the poorest region and nation in the UK. This would mean that any northern initiative should not be dominated by the large conurbations of the north west, or by West and South Yorkshire for that matter. We need joined up thinking across the north, which can enable real levelling up to take place, whether it be for Tyneside or Merseyside, Middlesbrough or Manchester, Sunderland or Bradford.
Furthermore, the policies need to be developed, as Kim McGuinness seems to suggest, in conjunction with grassroots groups, such as Citizens UK and North East Public Transport Users Group, who listen to and/or represent the wider public and are aware of their very real needs. There also needs to be appropriate consultation with trade unions, especially in those areas where unionised workers will be delivering the improvements to people’s lives, which we all want to see.
The north working together
So, in what ways could the northern mayors work together? There are many ways in which the north could work together. Here are just a few of them.
Transport
One important way they could work together is in the area of transport. Some of the improvements in transport could come from work within the mayoral regions, especially the re-introduction of publicly owned public transport systems and ensuring that they are fully integrated within each region. There is also an urgent need to make public transport both safer and more accessible.
However, that would not be enough to bring our transport networks up to the standards of London, as it would be similar to having integrated systems in different parts of the capital, without linking them together. Much of our travel by transport in the north is by necessity between different mayoral regions. There still needs to be the much mooted but never developed high speed rail line from Newcastle to Liverpool, through York, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Warrington, which could cut travel time to two hours between Newcastle Central and Lime Street stations, while also making very busy routes such as Leeds to Manchester a lot quicker.
Similarly, there needs to be better rail transport across other parts of the Pennines, including from Blackpool to York, via Blackburn, Burnley, Bradford and Leeds and from Carlisle to Newcastle.
Most of all there is the need to listen to what the public of the north say they need. They are the best judges after all.
Health
There is also a need for the north to come together to lobby for more funding and power to deal with the ongoing health crisis in the north.
As Professor Clare Balmbra of Newcastle University put it in 2022, “at the most extreme, a baby boy born today in Blackpool can expect an additional 17 years of poor health compared to a baby boy born in Richmond upon Thames and a baby girl an additional 13 years.
Put simply, people in the north are consistently found to be less healthy than those in the south – across all social groups and amongst both men and women.”
It is important that those who make policy at Westminster are reminded of these differences and that we present a united front in working together to erode them.
Education
There are many things wrong with the education system at the moment, so many that is hard to know where to start with improving it. And of course, the northern mayors have limited funds and powers to impact what is at the moment a right mess.
The National Curriculum is simply not fit for purpose and ultimately we need a curriculum for the north and it would be good to see the Northern mayors lobbying the Wearside-based Education Secretary for more flexibility in the curriculum so that it can be made more responsive to the needs of our children. However, such changes as are needed are outside the present powers of the elected mayors., whose powers are limited
Having said that there is scope in the area of skills training to make a difference and in a very important area as well. In their book Head North two Northern Mayors, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, called for two equal paths in education post-14, with a serious and aspirational technical path to go alongside the academic and university path rightly in my view they claim that this would provide a worthwhile education for all, as opposed to the broken and discredited system we have at present.
It would mean that in the north, young people could see a route into the local economy and their aspirations could be raised accordingly. This kind of plan for the north would be a vital link in helping our young people to gear up for the challenges of the renewable energy transition which lies ahead.
A Just Transition
Speaking of the renewable energy transition, we really do need a just transition in the north. For too long we have been waiting for real jobs to replace those lost in the de-industrialisation of the north.
We need to harness not only the wind and the sea around our coasts in the north, but also the skills and energy of our people. The north of England was where the first industrial revolution in the world largely took place. Given fair investment and the power to make more decisions for ourselves, it can also lead the way in the new, green industrial revolution. Many of the skills are there and the traditions of the great industrial heritage can be revived as we go forward in ways described here
Hope for the north
Perhaps most importantly the northern mayors need to engender some hope among the long-suffering people of the north, a commodity which seems to be in very short supply, despite the Tories being evicted at the General Election in July. Along with the hope there needs to be a realistic vision of something better. Hope and vision are the necessary antidotes to the cynicism, which now seems to habitually greet any political discourse.
The main beneficiaries of this cynicism are. of course. the divisive and destructive Reform UK. At present they may only have five MPs, but in July they came second to Labour in 89 seats, many of them in the north. The warning lights should be flashing and the alarm bells ringing and the elected mayors in the north, especially those who represent Labour, equally should know what they need to do.
Let us all wish the elected mayors well with the Great North initiative and hope that, with our support, it can make the real difference that is so desperately needed. Then the north can indeed rise again.
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