The northern powerhouse is about much more than rail lines and tarmac

If the northern powerhouse is to have true meaning, it must shift away from call centres and distribution depots to make itself as appealing as the south to investors, writes Chris Blackhurst

Symbol of strength: The Angel of the North in Gateshead (PA)

Having spent part of the holiday visiting relatives, I can vouch there really are two different countries in Britain: north and south.

I’d go further and maintain that the divide begins much nearer London than supposed, not far beyond the M25. Within its boundary there is wealth (yes, deprivation too) and investment and business zeal. There is energy and drive that is not replicated elsewhere, not to the same consistently high level.

Whenever the fragility of the post-industrial north is mentioned, lack of infrastructure is always to the fore. It’s true that getting around the north is a lot harder than in the southeast. There simply are not the same rail services, while major highways, especially crossing from east to west, are few, and near the cities they are seemingly permanently clogged.

Having won a thumping majority, thanks largely to an outbreak of support from the north, this government has pledged to invest heavily, to redouble its efforts regarding the establishment of the northern powerhouse. Indeed, failure not to do so could easily mark a return of the “red wall” delivering Labour dominance.

Throwing money at the problem, however, is only part of the solution. Whenever I visit the north, to return to my hometown or other northern towns and cities to give talks in schools, I’m frequently asked if I will encourage and inspire. The biggest battle the teachers face is lack of aspiration. It’s all very well building new train lines and roads, but if there’s no will or ability to get on, to attract investors and to begin new businesses, the north will still languish.

This is borne out by a Commons briefing paper. It shows there are 1,544 private sector firms per 10,000 adults in London; 1,274 in the southeast; 1,218 in the southwest; 1,198 in the east of England; and 1,012 in the West Midlands. Then the numbers fall: 981 per 10,000 in the northwest; 912 in the East Midlands; 862 in Wales; 834 in Northern Ireland; 739 in Scotland; and 694 in the northeast.

These are confirmatory but also worrying figures. Away from the south, there is a need for the skills required to go into business, the means to become an entrepreneur, and the lack of requisite desire. Partly, it’s having role models. Children who grow up in the south, especially in the more affluent areas, are more exposed to the world of enterprise. They know businesspeople, they meet them through their parents and via their schools.

Joining the financial services sector, going into the City, for example, for someone from London is a far easier step to make than for their equivalent in the north. Likewise, joining the creative industries or tech; or if you’re in and around Oxford or Cambridge, one of the science parks. The list goes on. Simply, there is much more opportunity to enter business and to learn in the south. There is also more likelihood, for someone setting up on their own, of them finding the right recruits and attracting the necessary funding.

These are the anomalies that must be addressed if the north is to have any chance of matching the south. If the northern powerhouse is to have true meaning, these should be right at the top of the priorities list, alongside faster and more frequent transport links, and quicker broadband. The danger is that it’s too easy to think of the northern powerhouse as a series of infrastructure projects. That’s how it has become labelled, how it is portrayed. It’s all about spending billions over decades on vast engineering works.

That has to happen but it’s nowhere near enough. The northern powerhouse should stand for wholesale re-education, the provision of all the resources needed to develop a flourishing enterprise culture – one that is world class, as we live increasingly in a globalised world. If the north is to reach the same level as the south, then it has to attract investors, and inevitably they will be from overseas. It is not a question any longer of the north making itself as appealing as the south – to succeed it must be at least as good as all the other areas in the world where an investor might be tempted to put their cash.

If that seems ambitious, that’s because it is. But it’s also very real.

The government has made a stab by relocating some civil servants out of London. More have to follow. Not just public sector workers, however.

The private sector ought to be incentivised to move its facilities north. And not only the back offices. Too many of these so-called relocations comprise support staff. They should be of key departments and the senior executives; and they should be offering genuine prospects of career advancement. The north has to shift away from being a receptacle for call centres and distribution depots, and jobs without long-term prospects.

The inducements must also be long term and real. Too much of the north’s recent industrial past is littered with examples of foreign businesses coming in, taking whatever is on offer, staying for a while, then departing. The new enterprise-focused north must put down roots that grow and last.

It can be done provided those in control, with the means of delivery, appreciate and understand that the northern powerhouse is about much more than railway lines and tarmac.