John Higginson – CEO of Higginson Strategy, which works with organisations and individuals in the business of doing good – says we should stop perpetuating the notion of a North-South divide, and work together to tackle any inequalities and splits that continue to exist.
Chancellor Sajid Javid and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell took to the stage in Manchester and Liverpool last month to announce their spending plans for the country. Their choice of Northern cities was no coincidence.
With each election hopeful politicians flock to the region as their early political battleground to showcase their commitment to closing the North-South divide.
While investing in our struggling towns and cities is to be applauded, maintaining the idea of the North-South divide is outdated and undefinable. The boundary of where the South ends and the North begins is hotly disputed yet it’s spoken of as though there is a tangible dividing line. We continue to maintain that the nation is made up of two unequal halves, with the North overshadowed by the South.
The reality is the North is booming. In just five years the Northern tech sector grew by some 619%, making it the fastest growing region for the industry in the whole of Europe. High-profile corporations continue to open Northern bases, joining the likes of Channel 4, the BBC and KPMG. This year Manchester was ranked the top city in the country for business.
The South is now no longer the leading region for general well-being. The annual Halifax Quality of Life Survey found that over half of the best places to live in the UK are outside the region, with the North benefitting from better housing affordability, low traffic flows and crime rates. The North isn’t a place to be looked down on, it’s a growing force to be reckoned with. And a lot could be achieved if the North and South worked together.
Multi-office agencies need to take note. Many still choose to separate their clients according to region, with Northern clients working with the Northern teams, and vice versa. This siloed attitude is a decades-old hangover from a time when there were genuine logistical challenges with working cross-office.
But these challenges no longer exist, and businesses are doing themselves an injustice by not recognising this.
Isolating offices by region encourages a blinkered mentality towards growth. It limits the scope of each office’s search for new business by giving them a restricted pool of opportunities. It reduces team cohesion and promotes office-to-office competition.
