Half of job growth to be limited to London, inequality inquiry finds
In addition to a north south divide you’ll find if you look at take home wages even in the most affluent rural areas, from the jobs based in those areas, not their surrounding cities, are very often below the national average. We really need to think about how we can address this challenge by renewing the link between where people live and where they work. Does anyone remember Living Working Countryside by Matthew Taylor? In the meantime this article tells us:
London and the south-east will see more than half of the UK’s future job growth if the government does not address the massive gulf between the capital and everywhere else, an independent inquiry into the UK’s deep–rooted inequalities has warned.
Bob Kerslake, the former head of the civil service and chair of the UK2070commission on regional inequality, said the UK was going “materially in the wrong direction”. He urged the government to take lessons from Germany in reunifying the country by setting up a £250bn “national renewal fund”.
Londoners as well as people elsewhere will suffer if the imbalance is not addressed, the commission warned, as housing becomes ever more unaffordable and a growing population puts pressure on transport infrastructure, with increasing need for long-distance commuting.
The capital’s taps could also run dry as water supplies come under pressure from the climate crisis. The Environment Agency estimates there will be serious water shortages by 2050, particularly in the south, as the amount of water available is reduced by 10%-15%, with some rivers having 50%-80% less water during summer.
It will also become even more expensive to build in the capital, which is already costly by international standards because of the challenge of engineering through the crowded urban fabric. Despite this, researchers for the 2070 commission estimated that London and the south-east would gain 2.26m extra jobs by 2015, 55% of the UK whole.