Making any difference? The North-South divide grows

The North South gap in employment rates was widening even before the economic crisis arose. BERR statistics showed a large increase in the difference between July 2007 and July 2008 during a period when activity rates were still rising to 76% in the South East. The gap between the greater South East and Northern, Midlands and West regions rose from 0.6 to 2.1 pecentage points.

Reducing the gap in economic growth between regions is one of the Public Service Agreements (PSA) being led by BERR differences in employment rates are one of the four indicators feeding into the composite target.

Meanwhile, a Centre for Cities report recommended the three northern RDAs be merged because they failed to meet to meet targets for reducing gaps in economic growth. Productivity in the greater South East was 2.5 percentage points higher than other regions between 1999 and 2006. But any economies of scale little realised through The Northern Way to date would have to betraded off against the loss of local links necessary for effective delivery and any realistic democratic oversight arrangements.

This report seemed to support Conservative party policy staements on RDAs.

Regeneration & Renewals survey of the most potentially valuable physical regeneration schemes revealed that projects planned for London and The South East are expected to cost more than all those in the rest of the UK put together, even before the current economic crises.

At a more local regeneration scale, a March 2009 nef report claimed that deprived communities are caught in a cycle of regeneration initiatives that have little impact because they do not improve on past policy failings, while by 2007 the evaluation of the New Deal for Communities programme found that improvements were slowing down on nearly two thirds of the indicators used to measure their progress.

And now the national economy is heading south (or should that be north?!).

Employment Rate of Working Age People, BERR

The Future of Regional development Agencies, Centre for Cities