Bridging the Gap between the South East and the Rest

Divergent Prosperity: The surest indicator of the rapidly increasing divergence in prosperity between the South East of England and the rest of Britain is the large and quickly widening differential in house prices. Whilst in areas like Wales, house prices are dropping in real terms, increases of over 25 per cent per annum are occurring in the South East. So once again, the British economy is failing to grow in a developed and even fashion which is creating considerable economic imbalance and checks to long‐term growth. A great deal can be done to correct this imbalance by regional, not central, authorities — but it will need a far more dynamic approach that has not been shown to date.