Five years after George Osborne announced a 'Northern Powerhouse' his vision is alive and kicking; It's been five years since former Chancellor George Osborne promised us a Northern Powerhouse.
Byline: Jonathan Walker
It's five years since former Chancellor George Osborne revealed his plan for a "Northern Powerhouse".
He was speaking in Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry, on June 23 2014.
And he said: "I'm here to talk to you today about what we can do to makethe cities of the North a powerhousefor our economy again."
Did he succeed? The obvious answer is no - because the North is still much poorer than the South of England, or at least than London and the South East.
Five years on from the Northern Powerhouse launch, we're still lagging behind
But Mr Osborne didn't promise to close theNorth-South divide within five years.
Instead, he set out a long-term plan to turn the North into "a great global city".
Mr Osborne was inspired by economists who argue that cities need to be big to succeed.
When you have lots of people, businesses, universities and creative types in one place, they all become more productive, so the theory goes.
He explained: "You need a big place, with lots of people. Like London."
And he continued: "How do we build theNorthern Powerhouse?
"By joining our northern cities together -- not physically, or into some artificial political construct -- but by providing the modern transport connections they need; by backing their science and universities; by backing their creative clusters; and giving them the local power and control that a powerhouse economy needs."
It's not all about transport, but transport was the most important part of his plan.
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If getting from theNorth East to the North Westbecomes as easy as travelling between East London and West London then the North becomes, in effect, a giant city with a higher population than Tokyo, New York or London.
And Mr Osborne's idea is making progress - albeit slowly.
A new transport authority, Transport for the North, was created. It's proposing a [pounds sterling]39bn project called Northern Powerhouse Rail, linking Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool.
And here's the...
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