Northeners should move South

[keithd]

Northern cities such as Liverpool are beyond revival and millions of their residents should move to London and the South East instead, a think tank has said.


Policy Exchange said a mass internal migration was the only answer to a decade of failed efforts to concentrate regeneration cash on other parts of the country.

All of the three million new homes planned by the Government should be shared equally between the capital city, Oxford and Cambridge, it concluded in a radical report.

And money currently being pumped into renewal projects and back-to-work schemes should instead be given directly to councils according to local wage levels to spend on regeneration measures.

In conclusions the authors conceded might be viewed as "barmy", they said coastal cities such as Liverpool and Sunderland had "lost much of their raison d'etre" with the decline of shipping and had "little prospect of offering their residents the standard of living to which they aspire".
It was time to be "realistic about the ability of cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle to regenerate struggling nearby towns such as Liverpool, Bradford and Sunderland.

"No one is suggesting that residents should be forced to move, but we do argue that they should be told the reality of the position: regeneration, in the sense of convergence, will not happen, because it is not possible," it concluded.

Restrictions on house-building in the south east should be lifted to lower house prices and stop people on low incomes being "trapped" in less prosperous parts of the country, the authors said.
Land earmarked for industrial use should be released for housing, it said, suggesting that adding a minute's journey time to the edge of London's suburbs would make room for a million more people. And the resulting price increase for industrial land would force some firms to relocate to cheaper areas, meaning more jobs for people in struggling towns and cities.

The university cities of Oxford and Cambridge were well placed to become the economic power-houses of the 21st century, it argued, like the industrial north more than a century ago. "We should consider expanding both dramatically, just as Liverpool and Manchester expanded in the 19th century. Dynamic economies require dynamic economic geography."


stay up north if you dont mind please. the south is crowded enough without you oiks spoiling it for us wealthy-happy-with-our-quality-of-life-southeners....

[AndyBrad]

I dont know whether to laugh or cry. While i agree we appear to have more chavs up here we also have less poncy, up there own ass, think tank, ****s

2penneth..

[gettin2dizzy]

:lol:

I read that too and couldn't believe it. Having lived all over the UK, I can quite happily say I've never seen such poverty, over crowding and unease as in the South of England.

Sunderland is a sh!thole though.

I wonder how much this 'thinktank' cost

[Odin]

Bad points,

Everyone squeezed in a tiny cramped area.
Fewer terrorists bombs needed to kill us all
We would have to listen to extremely irritating accents
Closer to France
Roads would be chaos
Water/electricity supplies would be stretched
Poor beer
Harder to pull a decent lass
Poor curry
Rampant crime
Too many men who spend to much time looking at other men
etc etc

Good points,

Further away from Sunderland........right i'm off to pack my bags!!!

[keithd]

surely



Harder to pull a decent lass


becomes easier due to...



Too many men who spend to much time looking at other men
etc etc


;)

[AndyBrad]

lets sumise...

north = good

south = bad


job done. next question :)

[Ceri JC]

Idiocy. We should decentralise from London not crowd around it further. With a better internet structure in place, where people work from should get less important and there would be far less reason for so many admin centres to reside in/around London. With terrorism and green issues supposedly being so important, why the hell are they contemplating something that'd exacerbate both? No other country in Europe is so stupidly reliant on its capital as we are. A few bombs around London and most of the country would be ****ed.

[K]

I wonder how much this 'thinktank' cost

I wonder where they live... I bet it's not Berkshire. ;)

[Sosha]

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[K]

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Do both and keep 'em guessing.:cool:

[anna]

I'd love to know who came up with the idea of think tanks..... :smt071

[Ed]

There is so much bollox in that article.

I'm originally a southerner (I'm from London originally) and moved north. Well not that far north but whatever. I'm not going back to enormous property prices TYVM.

[Grinch]

A lot of the problem is companies insisting that you working in the office, like my job. I could do it anywhere in the world, but for some reason they need me in the office to man the phone... its a friggin IP phone, I could be in Japan for all they know. All the machines I look after are in France and Belgium, so why do I need to be here? I never go to meetings, maybe once a month. I could easy travel in for that... but no, I need to be in the office.
The silly thing is, as I work for a 'bank' one bomb could wipe us out, where as us all working at home means nothing could touch us.

[gettin2dizzy]

They could perhaps spend a little cash on some infastructure up north. A battered old windy dual carriageway to Newcastle?! :lol:

[gettin2dizzy]

A lot of the problem is companies insisting that you working in the office, like my job. I could do it anywhere in the world, but for some reason they need me in the office to man the phone... its a friggin IP phone, I could be in Japan for all they know. All the machines I look after are in France and Belgium, so why do I need to be here? I never go to meetings, maybe once a month. I could easy travel in for that... but no, I need to be in the office.
The silly thing is, as I work for a 'bank' one bomb could wipe us out, where as us all working at home means nothing could touch us.
Have you raised this?

[Filipe M.]

A lot of the problem is companies insisting that you working in the office, like my job. I could do it anywhere in the world, but for some reason they need me in the office to man the phone... its a friggin IP phone, I could be in Japan for all they know. All the machines I look after are in France and Belgium, so why do I need to be here? I never go to meetings, maybe once a month. I could easy travel in for that... but no, I need to be in the office.

Same here. I guess the people in charge just feel like if the ones who work are not in sight, then work doesn't get done at all. :rolleyes:

[timwilky]

A lot of the problem is companies insisting that you working in the office, like my job. I could do it anywhere in the world, but for some reason they need me in the office to man the phone... its a friggin IP phone, I could be in Japan for all they know. All the machines I look after are in France and Belgium, so why do I need to be here? I never go to meetings, maybe once a month. I could easy travel in for that... but no, I need to be in the office.
The silly thing is, as I work for a 'bank' one bomb could wipe us out, where as us all working at home means nothing could touch us.


I unofficially work from home. My directors know that is where I am, my boss knows. I don't even have a pass to get into my old office any more. there are issues that the company doesn't want to face with official home working such as health & safety, insurance cover, etc.

It works well for them as I no longer need office space and associated overhead costs, I am available out of hours etc. all for the cost of them paying my internet costs.

However, the biggest opponents of us home workers are the ones in the office who seem to think it is some sort of privilege, they are now asking why some 3 out of 250 are allowed to work from home. In our case it is because our reporting lines changed, we don't need to be taking up valuable office space in an office 200 miles from who we actually work for.

For us the precedence was set when the northern Europe director moved to Aberdeen. His official office was Rugby, but he spent most of his time in France/Switzerland/Poland/Sweden. So really he could be anywhere so long as there was an airport nearby.

Home working requires some discipline. Yes we can mow the lawn, surf the net etc. But at the end of the day we have to be seen to be productive.



As for the original thread. The North has a lot going for it for the right people. Many of us do earn a good wage and have affordable housing etc. I know if I was to move down south, I am unlikely to improve much on my salary, yet my housing costs alone would quadruple, so why bother.

[Quedos]

don't understand it at all! Lived in london once and i wouldn't go back. Relatives are in Oxford and i thinks it a hole! I'm sure there are some nice people down there but i always seem to meet the pumped up idiots and selfish a***holes so i have a very dim view of those in the south.
Northern England gets better they talk to anyone whic suit me fine - never lived there so no opinion.
though at least they are not calling on them to move to Scotland - we would never get our roads back!

[rob13]

Glad to hear this. Keep the south crowded whilst allowing us Northerners to enjoy the wide open spaces that we have.

"Quality of life" cannot be gauged upon money alone.

[Odin]

The whole thing is relative anyway....where does south start.

For me its when you pass Scotch Corner on the A1M...

[Grinch]

Have you raised this?

Yep, so one week in four I work at home, I'll push it more and try to get 2.

[Viney]

So this means that house prices will fall even further up north, great news for when i move up there in a few years :)

[Ceri JC]

A lot of the problem is companies insisting that you working in the office, like my job. I could do it anywhere in the world, but for some reason they need me in the office to man the phone... its a friggin IP phone, I could be in Japan for all they know. All the machines I look after are in France and Belgium, so why do I need to be here? I never go to meetings, maybe once a month. I could easy travel in for that... but no, I need to be in the office.
The silly thing is, as I work for a 'bank' one bomb could wipe us out, where as us all working at home means nothing could touch us.

This is exactly the situation in my job. It took 4 years and nearly the whole dept. seriously threatening to leave before they sorted it out. I now go to the office about 6 days a year, which suits me fine. The customers aren't even aware I'm at home most of the time and I get more done as I don't have people interrupting me every 5 minutes like I would in the office.

[Paws]

Ohh great, and theres me trying to persuade Treacle id be best to move down there with him, and he wants to move up here-we finally get it all agreed and then they bring this out! siigghhh, let the arguing commence again lol

[gettin2dizzy]

Yep, so one week in four I work at home, I'll push it more and try to get 2.Good stuff :thumbsup:

[Luckypants]

Moving south is a nonsensical idea. I note that the think tank in question is claiming they never said 'move south' and are backpeddling rapidly!

My office is in Hursley (bit of a give-away who I work for :rolleyes:) and I have NEVER been there! I WFH 100% of the time, earn decent money and so enjoy a good life in N. Wales. My team has members across the globe and my customers are also global. It matters not where you sit, it matters what you can do!

For any think tank to suggest migrating to where 'knowledge jobs' are obviously do not understand the modern 'internet' age. The key is to have skills in country that are not available cheaper elsewhere. If these people are located in the cheaper north, they can afford to be paid slightly less and so be more competitive in a global job market.

[Biker Biggles]

But its grim oop north.

[Filipe M.]

But its grim oop north.

Not this North! :lol:

[Jinxy43]

The only good thing bout up north is its further away from france.

[grh1904]

I kind of struggle to see why they call Liverpool/Bradford NORTH, when they are about 2 hours to the SOUTH of here.

So quality of life is housing that you can't afford, beer that you can't afford, roads that you can't ride cos they're too busy coupled with almost daily stabbings.

Nah, I'll keep my 3 bedroomed house with MASSIVE garden (big enough to fit yet another house on), roads that are empty enough to ride on "properly", and oh yes not to forget my £1.25 per pint of John Smith's smooth in my local working mens club that costs me £6 per year membership. (At that price it pays for itself in one Sunday afternoon session).

[Grinch]

My office is in Hursley (bit of a give-away who I work for :rolleyes:) and I have NEVER been there! I WFH 100% of the time, earn decent money and so enjoy a good life in N. Wales. My team has members across the globe and my customers are also global. It matters not where you sit, it matters what you can do!

Ah the sandles and hawian t-shirt wearers building.

[Luckypants]

Ah the sandles and hawian t-shirt wearers building.
Really? Never been so don't know. :D Perhaps I should go down to meet my boss for a laugh.