North–South divide in the United Kingdom

Northern England in England

InGreat Britain,the termNorth–South dividerefers to theeconomic,culturalandpoliticaldifferences betweenSouthern EnglandandNorthern England,or sometimes between southern England and the rest ofGreat Britainincluding theMidlands of England,WalesandScotland.In mainstream interpretation, the divide cuts throughThe Midlands.The term has been widened to include the wholeUnited Kingdom,withNorthern Irelandincluded as part of "the North".

Existence

The North–South divide is not an exact line, but one that can involve many stereotypes, presumptions and other impressions of the surrounding region relative to other regions.

The existence of the North–South divide is fiercely contested. Some sources claim it exists but also that it is even expanding. For example, a report in 2001 found thatNorth East England,North West Englandand Scotland had poorer health levels than South.

The same data have been interpreted otherwise to indicate only a very small difference.

Indeed, results are highly dependent on the categories chosen for evaluation. As a generalisation, the following tend to indicate that there is some sort of north–south divide:

• Health conditions, which are generally seen as being worse in the north,though spending on health care is higher
• House prices, which are higher in the south, particularly the South-East.
• Earnings, which are higher in the south and east.
• Government spending per person on drivers of growth such as transport, infrastructure and R&D, which is far higher in the South-East.
• Political influence.
• Devolution of powers to local government. London has a directly elected mayor with control over public transport whilst most Northern cities do not have mayors and have transport policies decided by the UK government.

However, manyMiddle classand affluent areas are located near most major cities north of the divide, and conversely there are pockets of large deprivation in the south. A 2004 report into wealth byBarclays Bankalso highlighted the anomaly that the wealthiest parliamentary constituency outside London was actuallySheffield Hallam.A 2012 survey byHalifaxstated that whilst nine of the top ten most expensive places to live in Britain were in the south of England,Edinburghwas ninth on the list, ahead ofSalisbury.

This has led some commentators to suggest that other divisions, such as classor ethnicity might be more important.

There is also controversy as to what constitutes the South given that it extends much farther longitudinally than the North of the country; some commentators have placed theWest Country(in this case, Bristol,Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) into a region of its own because the poverty in some of these areas is often as widespread as it is in the North.

Politics

Map (in equal-size constituencies) of the 2017 general election results showing the red wall

In political terms, the South, and particularlySouth East England(outsideinner London) andEast of England,is largely centre-right, and supportive of theConservative Party,while the North was, at least until the2019 general election,more supportive of the centre-leftLabour Party.

Themetropolitan areasof northern England (as also in Southern England) are still strongly supportive of Labour, even with the recent trends away from Labour in the north. This is shown in that Labour dominateManchester,Liverpool,Newcastle,HullandSheffield.

During the 1980s, Labour councils in the North were often openly defiant against the policies of theThatchergovernments. Examples includeLiverpoolunder theMilitant tendencyandSheffieldunderDavid Blunkett.

Support for theLiberal Democrats,and many of the smaller parties, is generally more equally spread out across the UK. There is some criticism of this analysis in theWest Countrywhich, until the2015 general election,had consistently provided a solid base for the Liberal Democrats, particularly in places which suffer from many of the same economic problems as the North.

Some city councils in southern England tend to swing politically between Labour and Conservative control, despite being located in a wider region dominated singularly by the Conservatives. Examples includeSouthampton City CouncilandPlymouth City Council.

In 2019, many traditionally Labour seats in the so-calledred wallwere won by the Conservatives, many for the first time. Historically, constituencies in theNorth MidlandsandNorthern Englandtended to vote for the Labour Party. It is noteworthy the erosion of the Labour Party vote in the north and midlands began in the2001 general election,with a continual trend of decline until2017.However, the trend returned strongly in2019.In 2014, political scientistsMatthew GoodwinandRobert Forddocumented the erosion byUKIPof the Labour-supporting working-class vote in their book,Revolt on the Right.This eroded vote was arguably capitalised upon by the Conservatives with their pro-Brexitstance.However despite this, the Labour Party still won more seats than the conservatives in the North.

In 2021, the Conservative government launched aLevelling up policyto address the North–South divide as part of a broader objective. In September 2021 the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government was renamed theDepartment for Levelling Up, Housing and Communitiesunder Secretary of StateMichael Gove,and a Levelling Up Taskforce was created to define the policy in more detail.

TheScottish National Partyhave been the most supported in Scotland since the2007 Scottish Parliament election.

See also

• North–South divide
• North–South divide in England
• North–South divide (Wales)
• Scottish HighlandsandScottish Lowlands
• North BritainandSouth Britain
• Lloegyr
• Trap-bath split
• Solid North