North–South divide in the United Kingdom facts for kids

In Great Britain, the term North–South divide refers to the economic, cultural and political differences between Southern England and Northern England, or sometimes between southern England and the rest of Great Britain including the Midlands of England, Wales and Scotland. In mainstream interpretation, the divide cuts through The Midlands. The term has been widened to include the whole United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland included 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 that North East England, North West England and 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.
• Government expenditure per person, which is higher (both in gross terms and relative to tax revenues), in the North than the South; largely to fund universal benefits as a result of higher unemployment.
• 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, many middle-class and affluent areas are located near most major cities north of the divide, and conversely there are pockets of large deprivation in the south. A report into wealth by Barclays Bank also highlighted the anomaly that the wealthiest parliamentary constituency outside London is actually Sheffield Hallam. A 2012 survey by Halifax stated that whilst nine of the top ten most expensive places to live in Britain were in the south of England, Edinburgh was ninth on the list, ahead of Salisbury.

This has led some commentators to suggest that other divisions, such as class or 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 the West 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, and political support is also focused on the usually widespread Liberal Democrats, until the 2015 general election when the Conservatives took virtually all the seats west of Bristol.