We need help if we are to bridge the gap

Aug 29 2003 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

Where's the logic? Billions are being handed to transport links in the south. Meanwhile, the North, which has campaigned tirelessly for essential improvements to its road and rail systems, receives a token gesture.

The £5.5bn allocated by the Transport Secretary to free gridlocked roads hardly mentions the North-East.

The reason being offered is that as houses are springing up down south in their thousands, they need new transport links.

The demand for houses, large business parks, even townships, is apparently booming in the south of England.

Knee-jerk responses from developers and local authorities are kicking off a patchwork of new schemes. The country is developing more by accident than design.

Why aren't the transport, housing and planning government departments working together to sort out a cool, long-term, sustainable strategy?

We are suffering in this area from lack of investment because of short-term, market-led schemes, which then demand expensive infrastructure.

We need major investment to move forward - by rail or road. The north-south divide is growing as a result of housing and transport policies that appear to favour the south-east.

The biggest road-building programme for two decades postponed the plan to widen the congested A1 Western Bypass on Tyneside.

It also rejected dualling the whole of the A1 in Northumberland.

Meanwhile, the East Coast Main Line has been indefinitely shelved by the Strategic Rail Authority.

We need a long-term vision for England looking at the rebalancing of regional economies. The difficulty is that big decisions are being taken on a ``let's sort it out today" approach.

So, the theory goes, people cannot afford housing in the south so let's build more new towns - but by doing that, you're simply storing up long-term problems.

The Government has set itself a target of closing disparity in economic growth between the richest and poorest regions by 2012.

I wonder when we will see evidence of that.

* Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton law firm.