tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/north-south-divide-6611/articlesNorth-South divide – The Conversation2022-11-08T11:47:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939652022-11-08T11:47:35Z2022-11-08T11:47:35ZCOP27: how responsible are industrialised countries for climate change?<p>The United Nation’s 27th annual climate summit, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop27-what-to-expect-193556">COP27</a>, opened on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The event, which should pressure governments into ramping up their decarbonisation pledges, will be the first to put the issue of financial compensation for damages suffered by developing countries at the top of the agenda. What is at stake and who are the movers and shakers of climate finance?</p>
<h2>100 billion dollars</h2>
<p>Key to understanding this issue is the question of the 100 billion dollars. The figure refers to the pledge put forward by US president Barack Obama in December 2009 as negotiations threatened to break down at the ill-fated summit in Copenhagen. He proposed that rich countries pay <a href="https://www.oecd.org/environment/climate-finance-provided-and-mobilised-by-developed-countries-in-2016-2020-286dae5d-en.htm">US$100 billion per year</a> from 2020 onwards to finance mitigation and adaptation policies in developing countries.</p>
<p>At the time, this had less to do with “North-South solidarity” than the US president’s attempt to secure emission-reduction pledges from major emerging countries. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas">Led by China</a>, none caved in.</p>
<p>According to the OECD, 13 years later the pledge is on the cusp of being met. But developing countries greeted the news with some scepticism. In fact, the sum consists mostly of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/fr/environnement/financement-climatique-fourni-et-mobilise-par-les-pays-developpes-en-2016-2020-6cbb535f-fr.htm">loans</a> rather than grants. Nor is it clear if this will be a transfer of development aid or additional funds. Whatever the answer, recipients are likely to have next to no control over how the funds are used.</p>
<h2>Defining “loss and damage”</h2>
<p>As early as the first COP, <a href="https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/q-a-should-developed-nations-pay-for-loss-and-damage-from-climate-change/">held in 1991</a>, a negotiation bloc made up of island states vulnerable to rising sea levels – the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) – recommended an “international financial compensation mechanism for loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change”. Twelve years later, a first version saw the day at the COP19 in Warsaw. In 2015, the UN’s overarching deal, known as the Paris Agreement, nevertheless specified it was a tool for cooperation, <a href="https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/10a01.pdf">not compensation</a>. A “dialogue on loss and damage for the most vulnerable countries” would finally have been brokered at COP26 in Glasgow (2021) (the so-called <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma3_auv_2_cover%20decision.pdf">“Glasgow Climate Pact”</a>).</p>
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<p>In recent years, countries from the Global South have pushed for a financial mechanism to compensate for damages to be launched at COP27. But the United States and Europe never wanted it and will not support the creation of a new fund. Instead, they will argue in favour of <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/fr/press/press-releases/2022/10/24/council-sets-out-eu-position-for-un-climate-summit-in-sharm-el-sheikh-cop27/">strengthening existing institutions</a>.</p>
<h2>Historical responsibilities</h2>
<p>In climate negotiations, it is essential to understand the overarching concept of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. Enshrined in the 1992 Climate Convention, it points to industrialised countries’ historical responsibility in the climate crisis. Here again, the United States has long <a href="https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/6301/28_18YaleJIntlL451_1993_.pdf">opposed the principle</a>.</p>
<p>Until now, it has exempted the countries of the South, including China, from any obligation to reduce emissions. In the past years, it has incorporated the issue of financing adaptation and financial compensation for damages suffered by the Global South. </p>
<p>Economist <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-debat-2016-2-page-23.htm">Olivier Godard</a> has noted the historical responsibility of industrialised countries is <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-climatique-en-finir-avec-les-idees-recues-sur-la-responsabilite-du-nord-52163">not as simple to make out</a> as it might seem, be it on legal and moral grounds or even statistics.</p>
<p>Emerging and developing countries beg to differ, however. As early as 1991, the <a href="https://www.southcentre.int/about-the-south-centre/">South Centre</a>, a think tank of countries from the Global South, indicated that industrialised countries had long pre-empted the global environmental space, something made clear by a glance at relative cumulative emissions. Current generations would therefore have to repair the damage caused by the behaviour of their forebears.</p>
<p>To appreciate this at a quantitative level, the graph below shows annual and cumulative greenhouse-gas emissions of industrialised countries (known as the Annex 1 group in the Climate Convention) and developing countries, including major emerging economies such as China (the non–Annex 1 group).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494107/original/file-20221108-11-g138hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors, PRIMAP data, PIK (Potsdam Climate Institute)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the second oil shock in 1980, emissions from Annex 1 countries peaked and began to slowly decline. By contrast, emissions of non–Annex 1 countries have continued to increase, and exponentially. As a result, while the emissions of industralised countries were twice those of the “developing countries + China” group in 1980, today the situation has been reversed. </p>
<p>For cumulative emissions – those that could measure historical responsibility – before the full spread of the industrial revolution in the North in the late 19th century, the emissions of the countries of the South dominate.</p>
<p>The landscape continued to change dramatically until 1980, when the share of Northern countries’ emissions reached its peak, 70%. Since then, it has declined due to strong economic growth of emerging countries. Today, it is still above 50%, but in fewer than 10 years, the combined emissions of developing and emerging countries will exceed those of industrialised countries. Historical responsibilities will then be shared equally.</p>
<h2>A moral responsibility?</h2>
<p>Prior to 1990, basic conditions for the historical-responsibility argument were not being met. Previous generations were <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-debat-2016-2-page-23.htm">not aware</a> that greenhouse -gas emissions would alter the climate, so it was impossible to blame them and, by extension, to make subsequent generations responsible. And it goes without saying that current generations have <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-debat-2016-2-page-23.htm">no capacity to sway</a> the past generations’ energy and development choices.</p>
<p>Moreover, the acceleration of economic growth in emerging countries since the 1990s has seen emissions soar. As a result, their emissions have increasingly exceeded those of the Annex 1 countries for the past 20 years.</p>
<p>When it comes down to individual responsibility, however, per capita emissions are still much higher in the North than in the South, mainly because of the intensity of their energy consumption. The one major exception is China, where per capita emissions now exceed those of the European Union.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing GHG emissions per capita" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494105/original/file-20221108-24-19wya4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SDES, Ministry of Ecological Transition</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we can see, it is impossible to settle the question of historical responsibility. No figure, nor any theory of justice will ever be able to establish a consensus, and this question will constitute a stumbling block for all negotiations.</p>
<h2>An insoluble conflict</h2>
<p>It will thus be impossible to satisfy all of the demands of the Global South in Sharm el-Sheikh. A study published in 2018 estimated the “losses and damages” at no less than <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-72026-5_14">$290 to $580 billion per year by 2030</a>. As global heating worsens, the annual cost of impacts could exceed <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-72026-5_14">$1 trillion by 2050</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of the reliability of these estimates, it is unrealistic to imagine that the United States and the European Union would take on commitments that would require them to pay hundreds of billions of dollars each year.</p>
<p>But no one will gain from a failed COP27. A compromise, however unsatisfactory for developing countries, will have to be found. Diplomacy is also the art of masking conflicts that will never find a solution.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Nathalie Rousset (PhD in economics, former program officer at Plan Bleu, now a consultant) contributed to the processing of data and the writing of this text.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The promise of US$100 billion a year for North-South solidarity is now a source of frustration for developing countries.Michel Damian, Professeur honoraire, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Patrick Criqui, Directeur de recherche émérite au CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/643172016-08-24T12:28:45Z2016-08-24T12:28:45ZThe north-south divide in A-levels explained<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135166/original/image-20160823-30209-13w65o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The north-south divide of the education system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">bibiphoto/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to A-levels, it is fair to say that some universities view certain subjects more favourably than others. <a href="http://russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/subject-choices-at-school-and-college/">Guidance</a> from 24 leading UK universities in the Russell Group identifies eight “facilitating subjects”, so called “because choosing them at advanced level leaves open a wide range of options for university study”. Those subjects are English literature, maths and further maths, along with history, geography, modern and classical languages and the three traditional science subjects.</p>
<p>And with research out earlier this year showing that 30% of university applicants wished they had <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/Studies/university-applicants-are-regretting-the-a-level-subjects-they-took-new-research-shows-a7006436.html">chosen different A-level subjects</a>, it is clear that what students choose to study at A-level can have a big impact on their university experience and future life choices. </p>
<p>But there’s one thing students don’t get to choose when it comes to A-level options, and that’s where they live. Year after year, there are reports of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/aug/15/alevels.schools">north-south divide in A-level results</a>, and this year was no different. Using a fairly crude regional distinction, the latest <a href="http://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/a-levels/2016">Joint Council of Qualifications statistics</a> indicate that in 2016 almost half (47%) of A-levels overall were taken by students in the south of England, 29% in the midlands and almost a quarter (24%) in the north. </p>
<p>Of those A-levels, the southern regions saw 26-29% of students gaining the highest A-level grades, while in the midlands and the north the figures were lower at 22-24%. </p>
<p>These figures seem to suggest that if you happen to grow up in the south of England, you are more likely to end up with better A-level results than if you go to school further north. And if the headlines are to be believed, there also seems to be a north-south divide to contend with when it comes to subject choice. Apparently, <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/southerners-do-classics-northerners-do-pe-regional-a-level-figures/">southerners study classics while northerners do PE</a>.</p>
<h2>North vs. South</h2>
<p>While it is true that 56% of students taking A-levels in classical subjects – which covers classical civilisation as well as Latin and Greek – were based in the south, students in the midlands – where 24% took the subject – and the north (20%) were not significantly under-represented in <a href="http://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/a-levels/2016">statistical terms </a> compared to other subjects. </p>
<p>The situation was even less clear-cut in PE where southern students were only slightly under-represented at 40%. So it is simply not fair to suggest that an academic practical split exists between the south and the north. Especially given the relatively small numbers of students studying classical subjects – just over 6,000 in 2015. Compare this with the Maths A-level, which was taken by 92,163 students this year. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135345/original/image-20160824-30222-1vez546.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A-level subject choice by English region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCE Entry Trends 2016</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking at other subject splits, communication studies was predominately taken by southerners – 64% of students were based in the south, compared with only 8% in the north. Again, this subject was taken by a relatively small number of students – fewer than 2,000 across England. </p>
<p>Similarly, 39% of the 11,272 students who took law were located in the north, with only 33% of students in the south. But it would seem “southerners study communications while northerners study law” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as classics vs. P.E.</p>
<p>These low numbers make the regional variations at subject level essentially meaningless. And combined with the uncertainty caused by the <a href="http://www.aqa.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/policy/gcse-and-a-level-changes/background-to-new-as-and-a-levels">policy changes</a> affecting what students can study at A-level – which are still working their way through the education system – it accounts for a lot of the so-called “regional disparity” in results. </p>
<h2>Bigger disparities</h2>
<p>However, the focus on regional differences in subject choices obscures bigger issues, as the data also reveals that longstanding gender differences in subject choices still persist. </p>
<p>Sociology and psychology are overwhelmingly studied by female students and computing and physics remain predominantly male subjects – which is not the case in <a href="http://www.oecd.org/gender/data/wherearetomorrowsfemalescientists.htm">other parts of the world</a>. And there are also worrying signs of further decline in the numbers of students taking some modern foreign languages – with just <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/08/18/a-level-results-2016-which-subjects-did-students-do-the-best-and/">13,500 students</a> taking French and German this year, down from 18,400 in 2011.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135346/original/image-20160824-30249-1fidruq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gender difference in A-level subjects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCE Entry Trends 2016</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most importantly of all perhaps, the geographical disparities in results suggest that secondary schools in the north and the midlands are still struggling to capitalise on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-close-the-north-south-divide-between-secondary-schools-51607">high levels</a> of excellent primary provision in these regions. Viewed alongside the enduring effects of regional inequality in terms of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/05/22/north-south-funding-divide-sees-children-falling-behind-from-the/">both disadvantage and school funding</a> this is the real cause for concern. </p>
<p>So instead of focusing too closely on marginal differences between subject choices at A-level, we need to start examining what happens during children’s transition between primary school and secondary school – and even before they begin formal education. Because it is clear that for both northern and midland regions something is going awry during this period.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jopling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you happen to grow up in the south of England, you are more likely to actually study A-levels, and will probably end up with better results than if you go to school and study in the north.Michael Jopling, Professor in Education, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/287562014-07-08T14:21:30Z2014-07-08T14:21:30ZFor the UK economy to blossom outside of London, politicians need to get sharing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53196/original/pv5dbmxf-1404744173.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Divine intervention? The Adonis review offers some lessons</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjblackwell/5766284156/in/photolist-9MxHom-gAn7ek-51suz5-51suDh-dVXwi-a6YrJo-ej26WW-34hg6n-fxdvSf-7AuW5u-4QvTFW-34mPwm-34hg8V-A4c8E-64icDd-5fqdgv-7e5VuA-6NaRwv-aTnbM-7e24Ht-4QkZJb-6cM3rM-4Qs6te-wkKVz-fYwZs-bGdCM2-4Q1oGy-4zsPdE-8TATF9-9Lu4A-4QrV16-71mwad-7PaDCA-74LHqE-8TAU6W-4QrW9M-4Qw7PU-5Gm6uF-rES4f-7jkeiY-sXwx5-4YveYL-sXwx6-9Lugv-9Lufq-sXjyd-6qFCjQ-aA5GLd-7MzUyn-d2BtGS">Tom Blackwell</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An economic recovery has emerged in the UK that is unbalanced in social, geographical and sectoral terms. Whether or not decentralisation can improve this might well come down to simple questions of trust and stability.</p>
<p>It is against this backdrop of uneven growth that Lord Andrew Adonis has launched his <a href="http://www.policy-network.net/publications/4695/Mending-the-Fractured-Economy">growth review</a> for the Labour opposition. Adonis argues for a more coherent national growth strategy prioritising innovation, skills, growing companies and decentralisation to cities and county regions.</p>
<p>The review has familiar echoes with <a href="http://www.lgiu.org.uk/2012/11/01/lord-heseltine-review-a-summary/">Michael Heseltine’s growth review</a> produced for chancellor George Osborne in 2013. Politically, this highlights the coalition government’s somewhat lukewarm response to Heseltine’s recommendations, especially on the extent and nature of shifting money and power outside the corridors of Westminster.</p>
<p>The Adonis review adds some substance to the vibrant public debate around what to do (if anything) about the dominance of London and the South East and its growing disparities relative to the rest of the UK. It emphasises the qualitative as well as the quantitative extent and nature of growth. It focuses attention on the creation of better quality jobs with training and career development prospects as well on stronger and more sustainable companies able to innovate and export. Drawing on less visible government intervention in the US, it underlines too the need for a “smarter” and more entrepreneurial state, rather than a larger and higher spending state. Doing more with the money government already spends and invests to achieve better outcomes is the trick. Such ideas are challenging for those who advocate simplistic arguments about smaller and less government. </p>
<h2>Power to the people</h2>
<p>One thing given prominence is the need to boost the local and city-regional dimensions of growth as the route to a more balanced economic recovery. Adonis wants us to meaningfully enhance the powers and resources available to cities and county regions especially for infrastructure, transport, housing and skills. He also advocates a strengthening of the existing <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/supporting-economic-growth-through-local-enterprise-partnerships-and-enterprise-zones/supporting-pages/local-enterprise-partnerships">Local Enterprise Partnerships in England</a>, and the encouragement of integrated governance structures – the so-called <a href="http://www.agma.gov.uk/">Combined Authorities</a>. These have been established around Manchester, the North East, West Yorkshire, Sheffield and Merseyside, and have given those regions the ability to retain more of the business rates generated in their local economies. There is much in common – if not always acknowledged – between the coalition’s approach and the ideas advocated in Adonis’ Review for Labour. More crucial though might be a key difference in the extent and nature of decentralisation.</p>
<p>Some thorny issues remain in several important areas. First, the decentralisation envisaged requires a shift in how the state works at both local and national levels. The often overlooked issue is what needs to happen in Whitehall and Westminster to make such decentralisation a reality and to make it work.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53296/original/f2xqcxdq-1404818584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seats of power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_parliament/4642915654/in/photolist-bUCoBP-9Euekg-76ScsJ-t8d8A-mSPMW8-58KtYk-85ha4U-4wUVnT-f22d4V-Vff7q-DdREM-ixDqJN-2yDaUE-iLJ6V6-29kxm-5PoTHh-3ceZVk-4aQ2BD-2eSjr5-HcUMH-fBMH4P-grUtyr-jTgXQG-6swXAL-59VnJ-8H68S3-dAT8VR-5j5V6K-c2JWAb-naSexz-GYR47-a77v1h-bVVaLY-7tjeui-5Fa1f9-a9YZd-6rPE6U-3o1bYy-fq953B-g217AV-fGB2TY-7mhJW5-PMsd3-5FthF5-wyFHt-bz6VGK-bhoyW-nCkuS7-4ahzKY-n5hqc7">UK Parliament</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Austerity politics in what is still a highly centralised system in England has made this more difficult. It helps dissuade politicians from releasing more powers and resources to the local level and it acts as a disincentive to trust local politicians and officials to develop credible plans, wield power in accountable ways, spend their money wisely and deliver policy effectively.</p>
<p>Second, Adonis reiterates the strong argument for empowering people at local level to arrange their own investment in infrastructure, skills and economic development. Critical to this is creating <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/urban-rural-and-regional-development/a-sub-national-perspective-on-financing-investment-for-growth-ii-creating-fiscal-space-for-public-investment_5jz3zvxc53bt-en">what the OECD calls “fiscal space”</a>: the capacity and flexibility for local governments to raise and deploy resources to address particular local concerns. </p>
<p>Our work reviewing the City Deals in England as part of the EPSRC and ESRC-funded research centre on <a href="https://research.ncl.ac.uk/ibuild/">innovative business models for local infrastructure delivery</a> (iBUILD) has thrown some light on this. It shows that city authorities in England are indeed trying to pool, upscale and tailor resources for long-term investment, and use the private sector in the process, but they are hampered by restrictions within the current system. Retaining a higher level of business rates, then, is but one step on a much longer journey toward meaningful fiscal decentralisation.</p>
<p>Third, the review draws on some of our <a href="http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/textonly/SERC/publications/download/sercdp0150.pdf">own national survey findings</a> to pick apart some of the problems with the current system of Local Enterprise Partnerships. In brief, they lack the staff and resources to meaningfully shape growth in their local economies (although this is changing slowly); their geographical coverage is sometimes mismatched with functional economic areas, and their ability to mobilise and orchestrate local partnerships of business, public and civic sectors is mixed.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53299/original/68wnnqs6-1404819060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keeping them on their toes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/add1sun/4993432274/in/photolist-8BfDrU-6Y9nHo-ccQb41-dYR2xf-4JVJJH-4tZauf-7xcTK6-6mNvW9-6x7YxG-daNfxB-eXkWYQ-aeuJVn-7DD8eV-5Ba7Ju-7Tx3yN-hSNA6i-byhFpM-e5wobU-et9UNk-fwNat6-7kmV2P-fPUtEq-4RzBVa-bkYZrE-9DhvTV-7Mk9HG-7YaeXy-h2ze9m-4UWDNx-dS1SSw-bwbTkw-dRVcMR-5RMt7-c6tuTS-dyQx13-btiCNu-2Fzv6t-arhjWU-bTpMq6-aqfUHs-8JSgWk-dwAykz-e27UUH-g7bg3p-8Jfr2p-8A25w5-9Ajf69-8bsquH-aewiu4-mURLTk">Addison Berry</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More fundamentally, institutional churn and instability is a hallmark of sub-national economic development in England. The pendulum has swung between regional and local arrangements in the post-war period and institutions have come and gone. We have seen Regional Planning Councils, Local Enterprise Agencies, Urban Development Corporations, Regional Development Agencies, Government Offices for the Regions and Regional Chambers. </p>
<p>Seeing quite how we break out of this cycle to move towards more continuity and stability is tough. And it’s hard to imagine, for now, how we can incorporate the kind of longer-term strategic and integrated economic development and planning of the kinds pursued in cities and city-regions in Germany and Sweden. Constant change has produced problematic structures that then spark calls for yet more change.</p>
<h2>Follow the leaders</h2>
<p>Last, Adonis’ blueprint for Labour rightly places an emphasis on the need for better local and regional leadership. We need strength, far-sightedness and civic sensibility in leaders, he says, as well as an ability to develop ambitious, visionary and credible plans which work in partnership with the public, private and voluntary sectors. This is all laudable stuff, but is it not entirely clear where the “new generation of Joseph Chamberlains” will come from. The politics at local and city-regional level remains constrained by England’s highly centralised governance system. </p>
<p>More decentralisation could usher forth a new generation of local leaders. Directly elected Mayors only found favour in <a href="http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/george-ferguson-mayor-bristol">Bristol</a> and <a href="http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/Mayor/">Doncaster</a> but not in Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield or Wakefield. And if that won’t bring forward candidates of the type Adonis craves, then some other institutional innovations are needed to encourage their emergence.</p>
<p>The dangers of a two-speed country dominated have been front and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21227209">centre of political debate all year</a>. But the enduring point from the Adonis review, and perhaps from Heseltine’s before it, is that inequalities between people and places are both a cause and a consequence of unbalanced growth, and demand not just a stimulant, but a genuine structural remedy if we are to make progress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Pike does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An economic recovery has emerged in the UK that is unbalanced in social, geographical and sectoral terms. Whether or not decentralisation can improve this might well come down to simple questions of trust…Andy Pike, Professor of Local and Regional Development, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/270372014-05-22T05:20:50Z2014-05-22T05:20:50ZHS2 and the myth that wealth will trickle up from London<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49173/original/nx545ykd-1400691446.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's trickling-down up north.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/4553648927#">BenSutherland</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the years I’ve written a lot about <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Global_Politics_of_Unequal_Developme.html?id=k1RnQgAACAAJ">global north-south issues</a>. Yet until now, I’ve never said a word about the same divide within England, my own country of birth and residence. But the two overlap. Theories of global development can help us understand regional divides closer to home.</p>
<p>In the global context “north” and “south” have always been contested concepts. They sought to capture what has long been deemed to be an important binary distinction between modernising and backward areas, between developed and developing parts of the world, between rich and poor countries. </p>
<p>The language has altered over the years, but the core idea has persisted and was given its “north-south” expression most famously on the cover of the Pan edition of the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Common-Crisis-North-South-Co-operation-Commission/dp/0330281305">Brandt Commission report</a> of 1983. This depicted a Peters Projection of the globe with a red wavy line running along the US-Mexican border, through the Mediterranean, across the southern perimeter of the USSR and then dropping sharply downwards to sweep up Australia and New Zealand with the USA, Europe and the USSR into the developed, so-called “north”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49169/original/4733hpw7-1400688857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The global north-south divide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_South_Divide_3.PNG">Bramfab</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Sheffield, we know that we are located in the north of England. This is a matter of geography. You can argue, as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/04/north-south-divide-myth-distraction">Owen Jones</a> has recently done, that “the north-south divide is a myth – and a distraction”, highlighting the obvious reality that the divisions of power and wealth in England actually play out in much more complicated ways. But no-one can deny that northern England is a different part of the country from southern England and that sometimes you have to travel between the north and the south. This is what brings us to trains and the vexed matter of the HS2 project.</p>
<h2>A once-in-a-century chance</h2>
<p>On March 28 <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/27/letters-high-speed-rail-prosperity-north">The Guardian</a> published a letter signed by the political leaders of eight major northern cities – York, Liverpool, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds. It called upon all the main political parties to commit definitively to the HS2 project, to champion it and to focus on its delivery. What’s really interesting, though, is the reasoning the leaders advanced. HS2, they wrote, is “a once-in-a-century chance for our cities to realise their enormous potential and to make an ever greater contribution to the wider prosperity of the UK”. HS2 offered “growth”, “jobs”, “prosperity”, “a step-change in productivity”, all of which had to be grasped “at the earliest opportunity if our country is to remain a global leader”.</p>
<p>In short, the big city northern leaders take the view that HS2 will bring hugely significant economic advantages not only to their cities but also to the north of England as a whole. Indeed, their support is now <a href="http://www.onevoiceforhs2.co.uk/news_resources.html">widely proclaimed by proponents of HS2</a> and presented as a <a href="http://www.onevoiceforhs2.co.uk/hs2_faq.html">key argument</a> in its favour. The key questions therefore become: why do these northern leaders think this and are they right?</p>
<p>I’ve been looking since at some of the official representations made by the HS2 lobby and can’t actually find much said in an explicit way about the political economy supposedly underpinning the project. But, even so, I think I can see what the unspoken argument is. I recognise it as the spatial equivalent, if you like, of the “trickle down” notion that has long sat at the heart of theories of development. The idea is essentially that wealth and prosperity will somehow just “spread out” from core centres of economic production, however defined, to other geographic zones that are – and this is critical – well connected to the cores.</p>
<p>The problem is that this generally does not happen as easily and as automatically as supposed. Even the pro-free-market Institute of Economic Affairs is not convinced, as it has recently released <a href="http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/CCP_HS2_web.pdf">a report</a> that looked at East Kent (as a beneficiary of HS1) and Doncaster (as the possessor of a fast rail link to London for several decades) and showed that these places have hardly witnessed extensive economic regeneration as a consequence.</p>
<p>What’s more, this is not surprising from the perspective of development theory. As long ago as 1957 the eminent Swedish economist, <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MnXgAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions">Gunnar Myrdal</a>, argued that when fast growth occurs in one part of an economy, it is just as likely – in fact more likely – to “suck out” enterprise, investment, people and ideas from less fast-growing regions with which it is connected. He described these as “backwash effects”, not “spread effects”. Myrdal himself was quite an orthodox economist, but his argument about the potential draining effect of growth on some regions linked up powerfully with a whole school of more radical development theorists who went on to argue throughout the 1970s and 1980s that core-periphery relationships in the global economy benefited cores, not peripheries, and were in fact designed precisely to do so.</p>
<h2>But what about South Korea?</h2>
<p>You may ask whether these various theories of dependency and forced underdevelopment have not been undermined by the fast growth and development of so much of East Asia over the past few decades. The answer is yes, in the sense that many of the theories exaggerated the periphery effect by asserting that it determined development, rather than simply being a necessary condition; but also no, as many of these countries managed to engineer their own development and re-orient their ties with the Western core. They did so by setting up “<a href="http://www.academia.edu/1922131/Developmental_states_in_East_Asia_A_comparison_of_the_Japanese_and_Chinese_experiences">developmental states</a>” to plan their various routes to growth and development in strategic and sustained ways over several decades. They didn’t just seek to improve their connections to the core parts of the global economy.</p>
<p>The lesson for the leaders of England’s northern cities is surely clear enough. Even the IEA got it partly right in arguing that they should focus on improving infrastructural links between northern cities, rather than to London. More broadly, they should work together to think through and insist upon the establishment of a Northern Development Agency with the capacity to plan the integrated development of the North of England as a coherent regional economy. They ought also to be moving on with this with urgency, because, whatever happens in the Scottish referendum in September, the political position of the north within England will thereafter be even more exposed and vulnerable than it is at present.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>A version of this article also appears on <a href="http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2014/05/20/exploring-north-south-issues-political-economy-england/">SPERI’s website</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Payne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the years I’ve written a lot about global north-south issues. Yet until now, I’ve never said a word about the same divide within England, my own country of birth and residence. But the two overlap…Tony Payne, Director, Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/248222014-03-27T06:11:15Z2014-03-27T06:11:15ZHS2 must be one of many new transport links to benefit regions<p>The HS2 project survives. Despite ferocious attacks, the initial High Speed Rail (Preparation) Act 2013 was passed in November and the <a href="http://www.hs2.org.uk/developing-hs2/hybrid-bill">Hybrid Bill</a> – where the real arguments are debated – is now going through the UK Parliament.</p>
<p>The key questions are about connectivity, how HS2 will link up the cities and towns of Britain, bringing them closer together. The confirmation that there will be <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26717518">no link to the Eurostar line</a> is insignificant compared to the importance of linking up the towns, cities and regions of Britain.</p>
<p>The main issue with HS2 is that though these trains will slash times from London Euston to Birmingham Curzon Street and Manchester Piccadilly, passengers will be left on the platform at these destinations with few onward options. Until now, virtually no thought has been given to the final destinations where people want to go to, or how they’ll get there. Curzon Street Station, for example, is several hundred metres from the connecting trains at New Street Station, where <a href="http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/curzon-street-station-transformed-massive-6750166">a £500 million rebuild</a> is taking place – yet, amazingly, there’s no plan for getting the customers from one to the other.</p>
<h2>Linking the core and periphery</h2>
<p>Belatedly, HS2’s planners have recognised that a key argument for the new railway is its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hs2-will-drive-urban-regeneration">potential to trigger urban regeneration</a> – but that regeneration is likely to be limited to a small circle around the new stations. But the places most in need of regeneration are not the great core cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It’s the scores of industrial towns in the regions around them which have lost their old economic base and are struggling to find a new one. </p>
<p>Only in the past few months have civic leaders woken up to this fact. As a result, a <a href="http://www.synaptic-cluster.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Irrigating-the-region_PHall-C-LChen_Supporting-Article_TCP-0413.pdf">split is developing</a> between the core cities and other places such as Wakefield, Bradford, Burnley and Blackburn. There’s a risk that these secondary and tertiary towns and cities might even be worse connected to the rest of the country than they are now if left out of the HS2 project.</p>
<p>This problem can be solved through a three-pronged attack. First, it’s essential that tram and bus rapid transit systems are created to link the HS2 stations to surrounding areas. Manchester, which is completing a 60-mile tram network, provides the model.</p>
<p>Second, the local and cross country rail networks that link the wider regions need to be electrified and upgraded, and these networks need to be seamlessly connected to the HS2 hubs. This is not an easy job in Birmingham and Leeds because of the way the stations’ tracks are configured, but it can be done.</p>
<p>Third, and most critically, the HS2 trains need to provide onward connections to these networks, providing a direct service to London not just from the terminus at Birmingham, Leeds, or Manchester, but from Bolton, or Solihull, or Bradford – from the wider range of towns that fill the hinterland around great cities. The model here is France, where old industrial towns in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hs2-alone-wont-address-the-north-south-divide-15539">Nord-Pas-de-Calais</a> region enjoy direct trains to Paris. </p>
<p>Finally, equal attention needs to be given to links at the London end. The key interchange at Old Oak Common in West London, where it will meet Crossrail trains heading into the West End and the financial centre of the City, needs redesigning along Dutch lines with direct, cross-platform interchanges. And as Boris Johnson <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/huge-support-for-boris-johnsons-12bn-crossrail-2-scheme-for-london-8972735.html">has stressed</a>, Euston cannot accommodate the extra traffic without investment, notably in a second Crossrail line. All this will cost money, but without it, HS2 will simply not do the job it was intended for.</p>
<h2>Who’s listening?</h2>
<p>Remarkably, HS2’s new boss Sir David Higgins has fully bought into these arguments. Fifteen days into the job, he <a href="http://www.hs2.org.uk/david-higgins-launches-his-vision-for-hs2">launched the project’s rethink</a> in the northern capital of Manchester, pointing out the “poor connectivity” in the North, “not just to London, but also east to west between Liverpool and Manchester, Manchester and Leeds, Leeds and Hull. Those challenges have direct consequences, not just for the economy as a whole, but for people’s daily experience and aspirations.”“</p>
<p>Perhaps he’s thinking even further: as well as linking HS2 into local rail network, he sees the need for radically <a href="https://theconversation.com/hs2-vital-for-the-north-or-just-a-quick-escape-route-20047">improved service on that west-east Trans-Pennine corridor</a> in the North of England. Call it HS1.5. It could and should become an early priority if we want to see HS2 flourish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Hall has received funding from the EU for a research project called SYNAPTIC that promoted better connectivity in northwest England.</span></em></p>The HS2 project survives. Despite ferocious attacks, the initial High Speed Rail (Preparation) Act 2013 was passed in November and the Hybrid Bill – where the real arguments are debated – is now going…Peter Hall, Professor of Planning and Regeneration at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192172013-10-15T22:32:15Z2013-10-15T22:32:15ZThe north loses out yet again under NHS funding proposals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33075/original/nsq2kyk4-1381843610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1024%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NHS clouds gather over the north. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Wilson Clarke</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The north-south divide is a powerful trope within popular English culture and it’s also evident within the country’s health. <a href="http://longerlives.phe.org.uk/">A recent report</a> by Public Health England showed that between 2009 and 2011, people in Manchester were more than twice as likely to die early (455 deaths per 100,000) compared to people living in Wokingham (200 deaths per 100,000). </p>
<p>This sort of finding isn’t new; for the past four decades, the north of England has persistently had higher death rates than the south, and the gap has widened over time. People in the north are also consistently found to be less healthy than those in the south across all social classes and among men and women. For example, average <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_238743.pdf">male life expectancy</a> in 2008-10 in the north-west was 77 years, compared to 80 in the south-east. </p>
<p>A large amount of this geographical health divide can be explained by social and economic differences with the north being poorer than the south. Certainly, over the past 20 years the north has consistently had <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ons.gov.uk%2Fons%2Frel%2Felmr%2Feconomic-and-labour-market-review%2Fno--1--january-2010%2Fthe-labour-market-across-the-uk-in-the-current-recession.pdf&ei=B2NdUqaRMIHt0gXU74GYCw&usg=AFQjCNF885-7Cf4f0K03ROjRo_Ll2WLJ3g&bvm=bv.53899372,d.d2k">lower employment rates</a> (for example this is 70% in the north-east compared to 80% in the south-east).</p>
<p>This is of course associated with the lasting effects of de-industrialisation (with the closure of large scale industry such as mining, ship building and steel) and the lack of any replacement jobs or a strong regional economic policy.</p>
<p>While the NHS clearly cannot address all the issues that cause the north-south divide, there have been attempts to increase NHS funding in areas that have the worst health – and many of these are in the north. The current NHS funding formula considers factors such as deprivation and ill-health indicators by area, so places with worse health and higher deprivation have higher NHS budgets. </p>
<p>However, NHS England has a new funding formula <a href="http://bit.ly/166fQIN">out for consultation</a> which fundamentally changes the way money is allocated to General Practitioners for the care of patients, and it appears that the north will lose out.</p>
<p>In our <a href="http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.f6146?ijkey=T8UyxJfcO83wVdN&keytype=ref">BMJ letter</a>, we mapped the new NHS funding data and this showed clearly that the more affluent and healthier south-east will benefit at the expense of the poorer and less healthy north. For example, in areas like south-eastern Hampshire, where average life expectancy is 81 years for men and 84 years for women, and healthy life expectancy is 67 years for men and 68 years for women, NHS funding will increase by £164 per person (+14%). </p>
<p>This is at the expense of places such as Sunderland, where average life expectancy is 77 years for men and 81 years for women and healthy life expectancy is 57 years for men and 58 years for women, and where NHS funding will decrease by £146 per person (-11%). More deprived parts of London will also lose out with Camden receiving £273 less per head (-27%) under the proposed formula.</p>
<p>While the objective of the new formula is to provide “equal opportunity of access for equal need”, these geographical shifts are because it has defined “need” largely in terms of age and gender, with a reduced focus on deprivation. </p>
<p>It also uses individual-level, not area-level need, GP-registered populations rather than higher wider population estimates, and secondary care (use of hospitals and A&E) not primary or community care use. This means that areas with older populations have higher health care usage so they are getting money transferred to them from areas with fewer old people.</p>
<p>However, areas with more old people are also areas that have healthier populations who live longer – hence there are more old people. These healthy old people are largely in the south-east so, within a fixed NHS budget, the new NHS formula can only shift money to them by taking it from others. </p>
<p>The new formula appears to shift NHS funds from some unhealthy to healthy areas, from north to south, from urban to rural and from young to old.</p>
<p>Many of the areas that will lose NHS funding if the new formula is implemented are the same areas that have also lost out from above average cuts to local authority budgets. The scale of the potential NHS funding shifts will add further stress onto these local health and social care systems and potentially widen the north-south health divide by reducing access to NHS services where they are needed most.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The north-south divide is a powerful trope within popular English culture and it’s also evident within the country’s health. A recent report by Public Health England showed that between 2009 and 2011…Clare Bambra, Professor in the Department of Geography, Durham UniversityAlison Copeland, Post Doctoral Research Associate , Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167382013-08-06T05:41:21Z2013-08-06T05:41:21ZNeither fracking nor anything else should divide us further<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/28668/original/32jyvk8m-1375704947.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lindisfarne Castle, Northumbria - one of many beautiful places in the "desolate" North East.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Owen Humphreys/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent comments from former government energy policy advisor David Howell, Lord Howell of Guildford, on the suitability of different parts of England for fracking amply demonstrate how off-the-cuff remarks can rebound. But more disturbingly they also indicate values and attitudes which are perhaps more detrimental to the English landscape than fracking itself.</p>
<p>Lord Howell, Chancellor George Osborne’s father-in-law, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/former-energy-minister-lord-howell-george-osbornes-fatherinlaw-says-its-fine-to-frack-in-empty-desolate-northeast-8738634.html">said</a> that fracking should be focused on the North East because it contained large uninhabited areas which were not environmentally sensitive. He also questioned the wisdom of test drilling in “sensitive places down in Sussex.” The implication was that Sussex contained “beautiful natural areas” while the North East did not. Challenged by people such as the Archbishop of Canterbury (formerly Bishop of Durham), he countered by stating he’d meant the North West of England. Presumably he thought of the experimental drilling being carried out in Lancashire, or perhaps merely conjured up images of the area’s industrial past, but in any case managed to offend a new group of people.</p>
<p>It is a valid question whether, in a small country like Britain, there are any areas at all that are not environmentally sensitive. The barest glance at a map would show Lord Howell how much of Northern England is designated as <a href="http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designations/nationalparks/default.aspx">National Parks</a>, <a href="http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designations/aonb/default.aspx">Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty</a> and <a href="http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?layers=Designations,9,10&box=-288417:46530:777997:746530">National Nature Reserves</a>. Part of the problem is the widespread but mistaken notion that parts of our countryside are still “pristine” and “unspoilt” and that areas not actually built on are unaffected by development.</p>
<p>In fact no part of England has remained unmodified by human activity in the 10,000 years since the last ice age. Traces of human activity are sometimes very obvious, sometimes less so. Remains of <a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/iha-prehistoric-henges-circles/prehistorichengesandcircles.pdf">stone circles and henges</a>, built by some of our earliest settlers, are evident in the landscape if not always easy to interpret. Other instances of human impact on the landscape are less obvious. <a href="http://www.moorlandassociation.org/heather_moorland.asp">Heather moorland</a> is as natural as a field of cereals, maintained artificially by the grazing of cattle and sheep at particular densities. Flower-rich hay meadows and downland pastures represent other subtle landscapes created by a combination of humans and nature. The moorlands of northern England could change their appearance very rapidly if the grazing regimes which maintain them were altered, as occurred after the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak a few years ago. Areas with comparatively low population density are neither uninhabited or unused.</p>
<h2>The eye of the beholder</h2>
<p>Our view regarding what constitutes attractive scenery in this country has changed markedly over the centuries. In the 1720s Daniel Defoe, riding through England gathering materials for his <a href="http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Defoe">Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain</a>, described the Peak District as “a houling wilderness” and Westmorland as the most “wild, barren and frightful” county he had seen anywhere in Britain. Mountain and moorland scenery was unattractive to townies like Defoe (a butcher’s son from Stoke Newington, London) who much preferred rolling, fertile countryside. The people who lived in these wilderness areas doubtless had different views but nobody bothered to ask them.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.wyevalleyaonb.org.uk/wyetour/content-47668.php">Picturesque movement</a> of the late eighteenth century and the <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm">Romantic movement</a> of the early nineteenth, prompted in part by the damage inflicted by the Industrial Revolution, such as the coalfields of northern England, sought to paint upland areas as attractive. In 1810, at Dove Cottage overlooking Grasmere, William Wordsworth wrote in what would become his famous <a href="http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_1/guide.htm">Guide to the Lakes</a>, that he considered the Lake District (and by implication other upland areas of Britain) as “a sort of national property” in which everyone, whether they lived in the area or not, had an interest. And so the conservation movement was born.</p>
<p>There are clear hints in Lord Howell’s remarks of that persistent, insidious concept of the North/South divide. In the 1960s geographers produced maps that reflected people’s perception of the country, rather than what was actually there. To Londoners, the South East was seen as far bigger than it really was. Roads petered out somewhere in the Midlands and beyond Carlisle dog sleds were the principal form of transport. The North/South divide <a href="http://past.oxfordjournals.org/content/206/1/3.extract">already existed</a> in Medieval times and has continued to exert a pervasive influence at the present day. This can be seen in the level of financial inducements that are frequently offered to employees by companies seeking to relocate in the North.</p>
<p>The real glory of the English landscape is its tremendous variety and complexity within such a small area. We need to cherish all of it and celebrate its distinctiveness, its past, its character and to protect this for future generations rather than seeking to exploit it for short-term gain. All decisions about developing any part of Britain should take account of a wide range of factors. No part of the country, let alone the welfare of those living there, can be simply written off or sacrificed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/16738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Whyte does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent comments from former government energy policy advisor David Howell, Lord Howell of Guildford, on the suitability of different parts of England for fracking amply demonstrate how off-the-cuff…Ian Whyte, Emeritus Professor of Historical Geography, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.