| Think-tank: 'It's grim up North, so move' |
Published By: Mathew White
On Wednesday 13 August 2008 |
It's grim up North and people in cities like Liverpool and Manchester should move to London and the South East, a radical report says.
The only answer to a decade of failure over regeneration in parts of the country is mass internal migration, the Policy Exchange think-tank believes.
It said all of the 3 million new homes planned by the Government should be shared equally between London, Oxford and Cambridge.
House-building restrictions in the South East should be lifted to lower house prices and stop people on low incomes being "trapped" in less prosperous parts of the country, the authors said.
Meanwhile, cash being pumped into renewal projects and back-to-work schemes should instead be given directly to councils according to local wage levels to spend on regeneration measures.
The authors admitted their report might be viewed as "barmy" but said coastal cities like Liverpool and Sunderland had "little prospect of offering their residents the standard of living to which they aspire" after the decline of industries such as shipping.
The report concluded: "No one is suggesting that residents should be forced to move, but we do argue that they should be told the reality of the position: regeneration, in the sense of convergence, will not happen, because it is not possible."
The authors included Tim Leunig, a lecturer in economic history at the London School of Economics, who said: "No doubt some people will claim that these proposals are unworkable, unreasonable and perhaps plain barmy.
"But the issue is clear: current regeneration policies are failing the very people they are supposed to be helping and there is no evidence that the trend will be reversed without radical changes. Internal migration has always been an important part of a dynamic economy."
He went on: "For the last decade British politics has been dominated by ministers who represent poorer urban areas and the New Labour government has invested heavily in urban regeneration.
"A future Conservative administration more representative of suburbs and the South would most probably have a very different set of priorities.
"If we are to ensure that people in this country have similar opportunities, regardless of where they are born, we need to allow people to move from places with few prospects to places that offer more opportunities."
Oliver Marc Hartwich, chief economist for Policy Exchange, said: "All towns and cities should have the right to determine their own policies; and their local councils should be assessed regularly and accurately, and the results of such assessment explained to local people.
"Freedom, responsibility and accountability are the keys to unlocking the potential that exists in our towns and cities."
But both the Government and the Conservatives distanced themselves from the study's findings with a spokesperson for the Department of Communities and Local Government saying: "We totally disagree with the conclusions of this report.
"No Government has done more to turn around decades of neglect, and since 1997 cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle have benefited from thousands of new jobs, lower crime rates and better living standards thanks to our sustained commitment to regeneration, and investment in public services.
"It's alarming that this 'think tank' is labelling our great cities as 'beyond revival' and arguing that we should target less effort on them, when those areas that have received regeneration funding have shown the greatest improvements."
