The announcement of Tony Blair and John Prescott's £22bn kick start for the South-east (1 August, page 9), was accompanied by a kick in the guts for the rest of the country by Prescott on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

When asked what he proposed to do about the lack of demand for housing in the North, Prescott made a deliberately ludicrous suggestion – that people should be bussed to and from the South-east – then dismissed his own suggestion and muttered something about regional development agencies.

It is quite clear what is needed. Prescott and Blair should follow the example of the Scottish Executive, which is moving civil service jobs out of Edinburgh to remoter regions of Scotland, and move English civil service jobs out of the South-east.

If they had the guts to take on the civil service establishment, they might even be forgiven if the jobs were moved to their own constituencies.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Terry Jones, independent board member, Carlisle Housing Association