ABSTRACT
During the 1980s, the term ‘north-south divide’—first coined by the Brandt Commission to describe the difference in living standards between the ‘First World’ of the northern hemisphere and the ‘Third World’ of the southern-became increasingly associated with the phenomenon of de-industrialisation, poverty and mass unemployment in the north of Britain coexisting with economic growth, labour shortages and escalating house prices in the south. While the 1990-2 recession has fallen disproportionately hard on the southern part of the country, temporarily reducing the width of regional ‘divide’, most commentators expect the gap to rewiden as economic recovery takes place. This chapter delves beneath the political rhetoric and examines the nature of the north-south divide and the economic policies that the Conservative government have brought to bear on the problem.
