Report call to abandon North evokes scorn

Aug 14 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

AUTHORS of a controversial report suggesting the Government gives up on the North were last night struggling to find any friends.

Pundits at the Conservative-leaning Policy Exchange were told by regeneration chiefs yesterday their call for a halt to Whitehall regeneration cash was at best “absurd”.

Their report had said cities such as Sunderland would never succeed at their present size and the only way for Wearside families to enjoy a decent life was for some to move to Oxford or Cambridge.

As politicians, task groups and Sunderland families queued up to attack the report, the authors insisted they had merely voiced an “unspeakable truth”.

First among those criticising the Policy Exchange findings was Conservative leader David Cameron, who until this week was believed to favour the think tank.

Yesterday he was forced to distance himself from claims the North was “beyond revival”. Mr Cameron said places such as The Sage Gateshead were a prime example of how cities can regenerate themselves.

He said: “This report has got nothing to do with the Conservative Party, this is an independent think tank, it has charitable status. I think this report is complete rubbish. It is barmy.

“It has produced some good work in the past, but this is a very bad report. Sometimes they come up with good ideas and sometimes they come up with bad ideas. This is a bad one.

”I think there is a resurgence going on in Britain’s Northern cities. It certainly won’t become Conservative Party policy. Conservative Party policy will continue the good work of regenerating cities right across England, including Northern cities.” Co-author Tim Leunig, who left Oxford University with a doctorate in economics, admitted he had made only a brief visit to Liverpool for his report.

And the head of regeneration group Sunderland Arc added to the backlash as he revealed the authors had not consulted any Wearside-based regeneration experts.

Chief executive David Walker said: “When Professor Michael Parkinson, of Liverpool John Moores University, carried out his review of our work he noted that regeneration has a 15- to 20-year timescale to it and that as far as he is concerned, we are doing a good job.

“For this think tank to look at 2001 to 2005 and say nothing has happened here shows that someone there does not understand regeneration. And to not even come to talk to us about what has been achieved and what other ways we measure success is a great shame.”

Labour former deputy leader John Prescott said in his blog he was staggered by the “insulting and ignorant” report.