Be proud of your roots and don't desert Doncaster, says well being writer Lisa Fouweather

Examining the social, economic, and cultural disparities that exist between London/the south-east of England, and the rest of the UK, there are differences across the board.

From education – in 2017, more offers to Oxbridge universities were made to Home Counties pupils (students residing in counties surrounding London), than the whole of northern England combined, owing to pupils in the north being likelier to finish school with poorer grades than those in the south.

To life expectancy – life expectancy in the north in 2020 was 77.6, versus 80.6 in the south.

The north-south divide is evident throughout the entirety of our lives.

From the moment we’re born, to the moment we die, there’s no escaping the starkness of the inequality that exists.

A government report published in 2021 highlights how 79% of adults across all regions consider there to be a large gap between social classes in Britain today.

Furthermore, around three quarters (74%) of adults believe there to be a ‘very large difference’ in the opportunities available in different parts of Britain, a direct result of class differences.

How Class (Wrongfully) Determines Outcome

Overwhelmingly, the class we are born into dictates the class we will spend the rest of our lives within because, as a 258-page report by the Social Mobility Commission published this year found, social mobility is largely a myth (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41664459).

The report highlights how, in 2017, four-fifths of students from England and Wales accepted at Oxbridge between 2010 and 2015 had parents with top professional and managerial jobs, and the numbers have been edging upwards since.

Not just at Oxford and Cambridge either, but at all British universities, statistics highlight how people whose parents had degrees are far more likely — 64% against 18% — to get a degree than those whose parents had no qualifications.

Furthermore, adults with working-class parents are about three times as likely - 30% against 11% - to be in a working-class occupation themselves compared with adults with higher professional parents.

Discussing class divide is not just people being pessimistic/viewing life from a ‘glass half empty’ perspective, but a genuine reality, whereby wealth is unevenly spread across the country, with the south east* being the wealthiest of all regions (median household total wealth= £503,400, over twice the amount of wealth in households in the north of England).

*(The south-east which, by the way, despite being home to just one-third of the UK population, now accounts for 45% of Britain's economy, and 42% of its wealth).

Why Is Wealth So Disproportionately Spread Across The Country?

Largely due to employment opportunities.

Unemployment in the north sits at 5% (as of 2022), compared to unemployment in the south, which sits at 3.2%.

For those who are employed in the north, rates of pay are considerably lower than they are in the south (in 2018, the average household gross disposable income was £16,995 in the NE region, VS £24,318 in London).

There are also big regional differences in, not just employment prospects, but also perceptions of opportunities, as a 2021 report published by the Social Mobility Commission highlights.

People in London are much more likely to be of the belief that the opportunities to progress in their area are ‘good’ (74%), compared with people in the north (31%).

It is this perceived lack of opportunities that sees the north losing graduates to the south- a report in the Guardian found that the north sees a net loss of around 75,000 graduates per decade to the south.

This is reflected in the average age of people living in northern towns v southern towns.

More than one in five people living in inner London (23.1%), are aged between 25 and 34, compared to just 12.7% of those living in the rest of England.

Not Only Are People Earning More Money In The South, But People Are Being Given More Money Too...

Despite, in 2020, making up only 14% of the total UK population, London is given disproportionate funding and opportunities compared to the rest of the UK.

For example, levels of public investment in London and the south-east (2019–20) equate to £12,147 per person, versus public investment in the north which sits at considerably less - £8,125.

While there are some perceived ‘benefits’ of living up north, e.g., lower house prices (average price in 2021 for a house in the north - £143,129, v average price in the south = £350,016), upon considering other factors such as the lack of employment opportunities, particularly in creative industries (a report found that for every job created in the north, just under three were created in the south), and the lower rate of pay (in work poverty has risen in the north from 3.4 million people in 2009/10 to 3.5 million in 2019/20), any perceived ‘upper-hand’ that the north has in terms of things being cheaper is illusionary.

Things are cheaper because it’s all northerners can afford... If there were more employment opportunities/a better overall standard of living etc, then house prices would reflect this.

Things wouldn’t be so much cheaper up here.

House prices are not better in the north because things are ‘better’ in the north, they are ‘better’ in the north because everything else is worse.

What Can We Do About It?

While the buck stops with the government - the north needs more funding from the government (more funding=more opportunities), as residents, we can do our bit too. Rather than putting ourselves down, looking around in dismay at the ‘state’ of it/listing everything that is ‘wrong’ with the north, we can focus on the positives.

There Isn’t Just A North-South Divide, But A North-North, South-South Divide Too, With Class

Divide Even Existing Within Classes.

Every town/city has its better and worse off areas, including those in the South. In fact, our capital, London, has the highest inequality rate than anywhere else, with London overrepresented at both the bottom and the top of income distribution nationally.

Measured after housing costs, 28% of Londoners live in poverty, compared with 22% across the UK as a whole.

If you’re a creative living up north, instead of upping and moving down south where there are ‘more opportunities for creatives’, why not stay and strive to change the perception of the north?

Because, to use Doncaster as an example, there is nothing inherently ‘wrong’ with our city (at all).

With some of the best transport links in the country, ample green spaces etc, Doncaster has so much going for it, what there is something wrong with, however, is the lack of opportunities that we have here.

This though ( ^ ), this can be changed, for...

The more creatives that reside here, the more opportunities will arise here.

The fact is that, when creatives leave in their flocks to move down south, all we are doing is reinforcing the perception that the north has few opportunities for creatives, and so the cycle will continue/the class divide will continue.

So, why don’t you stay, be the change you want to see, and remember:

If something doesn’t exist, then you can make it for yourself and you should [make it for yourself].

Be proud of your roots, and do your bit to put your Northern hometown on the map for all the right reasons – stay.