The idea behind George Osborne’s northern powerhouse is a simple one. Improving transport links between the big cities of the north will create economies of scale and greater dynamism. Britain, it is said, can learn lessons from the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany and the Randstad region of the Netherlands, both of which have a number of cities clustered together. The chancellor has pledged Treasury support for a number of key infrastructure projects, including high-speed rail links.
But are the right lessons being learned from Germany and the Netherlands? The Centre for Cities thinktank reckons not. Commuting between Cologne and Düsseldorf in Rhine-Ruhr is no more common than it is between Sheffield and Manchester. Nor, somewhat surprisingly, are the train links much quicker.
The real difference is that the individual cities of Rhine-Ruhr and Randstad are powerhouses in their own right. Productivity is higher than the national average in five out of seven Randstad cities and 10 out of 18 in Rhine-Ruhr. This is not the case for any of the 21 cities in the north of England.
Average productivity across Rhine-Ruhr and Randstad is 40% higher than in the cities of northern England. The five best performing cities in the north - Leeds, Warrington, Burnley, Liverpool and Manchester - are streets behind their equivalents on the other side of the North Sea - Amsterdam, Bonn, Leverkusen, Haarlemmermeer and Düsseldorf.
So if building high speed rail is not going to provide a magic bullet, what would help to bridge the 50% productivity gap that has opened up between the north of England and the greater south-east?
The Centre for Cities says there are three things that would help. Firstly, there should be more devolution of power to the cities and the regions, a process that Osborne has already begun. Secondly, money should be spent on improving transport links within cities rather than between them.
Finally, the level of skills needs to be addressed. Only three cities in the north - York, Warrington and Leeds - feature in the UK’s top 20 when it comes to the number of workers educated to degree level.
In large part, that’s due to the brain drain of skilled workers from north to south. Stemming that flow might be better achieved through higher spending on schools and universities than through glamorous infrastructure projects.
