Not so divided, after all

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 16

Not so divided, after all

Britain’s lop-sided election result heightened the long-run-ning debate about the northsouth divide. The latest Regional Trends, published on July 1, gives the anecdotalists a timely chance to check their more outrageous claims. Contrary to political myth, the numbers do not suggest the divide is worsening. If you take average British GDP per head as 100, south-east England’s index in 1985 was 115 — but this was actually a smaller excess over the rest of the country than when Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979. Scotland, where the Tories lost most seats In the election, boasts the third highest average incomes. Average incomes in the northern region and in Yorkshire and Humberside rose sharply in

1985, although partly thanks to the end of the coal strike. Ownership of consumer durables, like televisions and refrigerators, is pretty evenly spread across the country. Southeast England has the most videos, but (oddly) it has proportionately fewest washing machines. Yet people keep moving south in search of riches, especially from the big cities: Liverpool and Glasgow have been losing population for 15 years at a rate of nearly 1 per cent a year. The five British counties whose population is growing fastest are all in the south. In so far as regional inequalities of income do persist, one might expect Government spending to help correct them. The limited figures which appear in

Regional Trends suggest this does not happen. In 1985, spending on public administration, defence, health and education was £939 per head in the rich southeast, the second highest figure in the country; in the poorer region of Yorkshire and Humberside, it was only £738.

Civil servants are clustered in the south. The south-west and south-east had 159 and 131 civilservice jobs per 10,000 population in 1986, compared with only 59 in the East Midlands and 66 in the West Midlands.

Despite this bounty from the public purse, life in the south is not all roses. Crime, for instance, does not respect artificial dividing lines — and nor does police efficiency, which seems to be at its worst in the south-east.

Copyright — The Economist.