Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008
Think tank calls for massive internal migration from north to south
Politics.co.uk: 'Make London bigger' to tackle inequality
"London must be massively increased in size to tackle national inequalities, a centre-right think tank has suggested. Policy Exchange is saying a substantial increase in London's size will allow people from poorer parts of the UK mostly in the north to move down to where there are better job prospects." HOW ABOUT MOVING THE JOBS UP NORTH INSTEAD?? No mention of how the creaking transport infrastructure in London would cope with another half million people commuting to work each day. No mention of how the water and sewerage systems, already overloaded, would cope. I'm all for growth but let's get the infrastructure in place first!
Posted by drewster @ 02:56 AM (741 views) Add Comment
21 Comments
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1. mark wadsworth said...
That's what right-wing NIMBYs always say: "Why can't we move the jobs up North?"
How do you do that? If it's so easy 'moving jobs' how come nobody thought of it before?
2. harold said...
"London must be massively increased in size to tackle national inequalities, a centre-right think tank has suggested."
Jeez, London is already a dump, how will this help? This suggestion is akin to saying that as some kids only have access to a tarmac playground, we should concrete the whole country! Twisted logic, the real aim of which is to enable certain developers to build on the green belt.
3. Peeps said...
London is too big already.
4. mark wadsworth said...
All Hail The Hallowed Greenbelt!
Dear Harold, only 10% - 15% of the UK is developed, 85% - 90% is farmland, of which 10% has been designated Hallowed Greenbelt.
5. renting2 said...
Then, when London is jam packed, we can develop and build huge posh gated communities oop north for the rich people.
6. Dave said...
Hi
Who wants to live in that sewer they call London!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YUK
7. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
I'm not aware of London being in need of more people? How on earth would it tackle national equality?
London is quite busy enough - too busy already.
8. drewster said...
Mark W,
I'm certainly not a right-wing NIMBY. My simplistic solution was limited by the space available for comment.
You've somewhat missed my point. I never said there should be no building on the "sacred" greenbelt around London; simply that without the infrastructure in place the quality of life will suffer (as it already has done through congestion on roads and trains, for example). Secondly there are a lot of people in the North who would rather not have to move away from their families and friends just to get a decent job. Thirdly there are places in the North which are doing quite well - consider Chester, a mere 20 miles from Liverpool, yet with an economy far stronger.
From my experience living in both the north and the south, northern cities lack green spaces. There is no park in Liverpool or Manchester to rival Regents Park or Hyde Park; whereas popular cities like Edinburgh or Oxford or Cambridge have large tracts of green space. The housing stock is of questionable quality - where Edinburgh has impressive large Georgian buildings, Liverpool has pokey Victorian terraces. John Prescott had the right idea with his slum clearances (the Pathfinder scheme).
Overall I disagree fundamentally with the report's general theory: if Liverpool's loss of the docks caused the city to lose its raison-d'κtre, then why has Bristol, also a former port, managed to shine?
9. Scratch22 said...
What are we all going to do for a living in London?
Work for the banks? I don't think they'll be hiring people just yet!
10. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
11. Eternal Sceptic said...
I have never really thought about it before, but on reflection. It's a good thing that so many of us are amateurs.
12. hpwatcher said...
a rubbish report, clearly, from idiots
13. nickolarge said...
On other subjects such as housing supply and demand one of the points made is that this country is small. I know of courier companies that cover the bottom half of England and South Wales with drivers that start at and return to the same outer London base each day. Hardly anywhere is 'too far away' from the infrastructure required to operate a business.
14. Daveats said...
Sorry rethink, if London is to get bigger we will need more coaches running from eastern block countries to fill it,its only these people that can be housed by the local authority paying the BTl landlords. no normal tax paying northerners will be able to afford a house in London,unless they are going to be subsidised.
15. Jungli said...
I quite like this idea. Being into field sports. Leave the North for those who really enjoy it.
16. Whostolemyendowment said...
For jobs to be created, or recreated, outside the M25, let alone 'up north'.....we need the industrial and commercial foundations, which have been eroded beyond the point it will be easy to start to rebuild. Unless of course we are all ment to end up in call-centre and supermarket jobs.
The only glimmer of hope is that with the inflation in such as China, and increased fuel and transportation costs, that localised UK manufacturing can become competitive again. Only downside is that the internal market will have difficulty supporting that industry alone.....and exports must take up the slack.....and we will face the same cost impacts as everyone else. No easy solution...but certainly, hyping London alone is not the way to go.
17. mark wadsworth said...
Drewster, "without the infrastructure", is another NIMBY mantra.
It is easier and cheaper to increase capacity on an existing railway network, increase staffing at a hospital, add an extension to an existing school etc than it is to start from scratch. So is it better to plonk houses in a field in the middle of nowhere, or round existing conurbations (not just London, obviously)?
BTW Leeds has got a couple of lovely parks - Woodhouse Moor and Roundhay park (although they are both in North Central Leeds - the southern bit is pretty grim). As does Bradford, altho' we can write Bradford off.
It's all got to do with agglomeration.
18. monty032 said...
I always think that any proposal that is immediately rejected by both Labour and the Conservatives must have something going for it. Regenerating towns just by zoning house building doesn't work. This can be seen in microcosm in my own city, Durham. It is a posh University city surrounded by a noose of green belt. No major new building has taken place here for decades, and consequently young families cannot afford to buy a house here. Instead, many buy in dreadful former mining villages such as Ushaw Moor and Sacriston, where the local authority encourages new estates to be built, so house prices are a third lower. (If you are from southern England, the grinding deprivation in these villages, where the majority of households depends on benefits and the only shop is the Co-op, has to be seen to be believed.) Then, because there are no jobs where they live, they all commute by car through the green belt every day to get to their jobs in Durham. Regenerating depressed towns might or might not be a desirable objective, compared to encouraging people to move, but with the tools available to local planning bodies, it just doesn't work. They just continue on life support forever.
19. d'oh said...
Proposed to Miss D'oh last Friday. Took her to Primrose Hill (can see London in all its glory [sic] from there) and said "let me take you away from all of this." She heartily agreed.
20. nooneo said...
This really tells us that this country has a complete vacuum of ideas!
21. shipbuilder said...
These are the people forming the policies of the next Tory government. At least they are working hard - an idea more lacking in imagination would be difficult to come up with.