Dramatic rise in Britain's north-south divide: think tank

Britain's north-south divide has widened dramatically in the past 10 years, a report from a British think tank revealed Monday.

For every 12 new jobs created in the south of England in the decade from 2014, just one was created in the north, said the Center for Cities Report, illustrating a two-tier economy of dynamism and decline.

The organisation's annual report, Cities Outlook, was unveiled Monday in City Hall, London.

The report puts the economic performances of Britain's 64 largest cities under the microscope to reveal the best and worst performing cities. Not a single northern England town makes the top-10 of the best performers.

The report calls on all political parties, ahead of May's general election, to ensure their visions for growing cities are based on significant devolution of both fiscal and structural powers.

Center for Cities reveals national growth between 2004 and 2013 was largely driven by only a handful of cities, mainly located in the South, which have seen their populations boom, their number of businesses grow, and thousands of new jobs created.

At the same time in other cities, migration of young and skilled workers, a lack of business growth, and falling employment opportunities have led their economies to contract.

Topping the top-10 list is the new town of Milton Keynes which saw an 18.2 increase in job numbers over the decade.

But London, at number two in the list, was the runaway success with 769,500 jobs created during the same period, an increase of 17.1 percent compared with 2004.

University city Cambridge had the third highest jobs growth, followed by Brighton and Bournemouth in fourth and fifth places.

At the other end of the table, Center for Cities named Gloucester (minus 12.6 percent), Rochdale in Greater Manchester (minus 12.2 percent) and the northern England seaside resort of Blackpool (minus 10.9 percent) as the worst performers in the jobs growth league table.

The think tank warns that even the best performing cities in the south face threats to their further progress, primarily because of the unprecedented growth in housing prices.

Center for Cities acting CEO, Andrew Carter said: "The stark picture the report paints of the enormous gap in the fortunes of UK cities over 10 years underlines why a 'steady as she goes' approach must be scrapped."

"This report throws down the gauntlet for all political parties to turn their recent interest and pledges around cities and devolution into a clear plan to grow jobs and businesses, and improve quality of life throughout the United Kingdom," said Carter. Endit