It has been generally acknowledged for a long time that there is a disparity between the North and South of the country in a whole host of areas. For example the Centre for Cities charity found in 2015 that, for every 12 jobs created since 2004 in Southern cities, only one was created in cities elsewhere.1 Southern cities such as London and Milton Keynes have seen growth in jobs, whereas many Northern cities have seen a decline.
This divide has been exacerbated further by the pandemic, after which the North and Yorkshire saw a gain in footfall of +8.9% from 2021, in comparison to a far greater gain of +27.4% in Greater London, which industry experts credited to the greater impact of the burden of inflation in the North.2