Letter to Newcastle Chronicle & Journal - 3 Dec 06. Eddington disposesses North East

Dear Editor

Control traffic on the roads by increasing the cost. Do the same for rail. Don’t invest in a new high-speed north-south rail link. So how do we get around? Air?

Rod Eddington’s report is as parochial as Richard Beeching’s plan in 1960s, and probably for exactly the same reasons – Beeching’s paymaster (Ernest Marples, Transport Minister) was in road building, Eddington’s own background in air travel.

But Eddington takes it further; with its strong South East focus (see comments on developing ports, and on new runway capacity at Heathrow) it dispossesses the North East. We have to go to the South East because that’s where government is, and that’s where many companies have their head offices and the people who make the decisions on contracts and spend.

Surely a better idea than this short-sighted transport policy would be to spread the decision-makers around the country – move the few to where the many want to work? The 1500 most influential people, the people who make decisions on somewhere around £400billion spend, are Parliament, ministers and the most senior civil servants. I propose we move them, month by month, through the regions of Britain so they

1 get to meet their constituents and understand what goes on outside of London (and reinvigorate the people’s faith in democracy)

2 bring jobs with them as company head offices can move out of London and still have access to government (why do you think they spend all this money on lobbyists, if it isn’t profitable to them?)

What have we got that they want? How about water? Space? Countryside? Schools and public services that work? Isn’t that enough?

Hugo

Letter to The Times - 3 Dec 06

History repeats itself. Sir Rod Eddington suggests pricing people off the roads, then pricing them off the railways too. So what’s left? Dr Richard Beeching proposed a similarly parochial plan in 1960, which suited his paymaster (Ernest Marples, then Transport Minister, had been a director in a road building firm).

A less short-sighted policy might be to ask why we travel, and why to the South East? Could it be that that is where the spend is, and if we want a bit of it we have to go and influence, face-to-face, the people who make decisions whether it is Ministers and Senior Civil Servants (spend around £400billion per year) or the head offices of major companies. Not surprisingly everyone builds their head office nearest to the people they most want to influence, resulting in this North-South divide.

So how to do it better?

How about we move Parliament, Ministers and Senior Civil Servants to the people? That way 1,500 people move around the country and the other 55million can stay put and wait for their month with easy access. It would work better than the various reviews which try to move civil service jobs out of London, it would give major employers a real reason to move themselves out, bringing with them millions, not tens of thousands, of jobs, together with support services, hospitality and entertainment, house building, and giving people access to countryside, public services that work, quality of life.

It would cost around £100million per year; money re-circulated into the economy in mainly jobs. The benefits, in reduced need for flood defences and infrastructure in an overcrowded Thames Gateway and Thames Valley, in London Weighting (£160million just for the 40,000 civil servants currently still in London), and in regional renewal would pay for this 200x over every year!

Sincerely