The North’s Got Talent — but the South gets it
Is it just the way it is? For too long Britain’s brightest head to London for jobs and opportunities, leaving the North’s cities as launchpads, not destinations. But perhaps, the logic of the one-way ticket is fading? The North can now compete on opportunity, lifestyle, and ambition — if we thread its cities together with real power, infrastructure, and decision-making. It’s not just about staying local; it’s about making the North a place where talent thrives, roots grow, and careers prosper.
Our Gill Morris asks is it time to look North for sovereignty and opportunity?
Can our great Northern Mayors deliver a new dawn of sovereignty and opportunity?
I don’t believe the streets of London are paved with gold, so why do we still suffer brain drain to the South?
For a century, Britain has exported too much of its ambition to one postcode. Graduates pack their bags for London, convinced that serious careers require it. The capital still offers dense networks, deep pockets, and prestige industries that turns CVs into jobs. The rest of the country made things; London made careers.
It’s just what happens. An agglomeration. But the result was a one-way ticket culture that drained regional talent and thickened London’s arteries. Entire regions have ended up treating their universities as export industries
The challenge isn’t stopping people moving down South — it’s making staying, or coming back North, the smart move for a hungry 27-year-old. And the good news? The logic is changing.
Time to change direction of travel?
London will always be London — world-class, restless, brilliant. But it’s also exhausting, expensive, and time-poor. The old guarantee of “career certainty” no longer offsets the cost of living or the quality-of-life gap.
Meanwhile, something more interesting is stirring further North. Investors are spreading bets; Whitehall is finally relocating real executive functions — not just back-office jobs — to cities like Leeds, Manchester, and Newcastle. The National Wealth Fund’s base and central-bank outposts prove that national decisions don’t have to live within the M25.
This isn’t about building a wall around London. It’s about building a bigger Britain — one where a network of northern cities can hold on to their own talent and attract and import new ambition.
A new dawn of politics: place and power?
Reversing regional and intra regional disparities and divides isn’t about rhetoric; it’s about rewiring the system. That’s where devolution meets sovereignty — not in abstract constitutional terms, but in the real ability of places to shape their own futures.
Permanence — Cities need institutions that outlast ministers. Give mayors the authority and capital to originate and underwrite projects locally. Real sovereignty starts when decisions don’t need a Westminster permission slip.
Head offices follow headcount — Channel 4 proved a national institution can thrive from Leeds. Others should follow. Seed senior jobs, policy, and deal-making roles in the North. That’s how you change the gravitational field.
Build the mesh, not the spokes — Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle should work like one labour market, not five disconnected ones. That means Northern Powerhouse Rail, full delivery, unified ticketing, and fixed bottlenecks. Sovereignty isn’t isolation; it’s connection.
Scale-up the quiet clusters — Back what already works: advanced manufacturing in South Yorkshire, life sciences in Liverpool, offshore wind on the Tyne, digital and fintech in Leeds. Devolution should invest in what’s proven and build baby, build excellence.
Create great places — Talent follows lifestyle. Quality of life, access to opportunity, better connected people and places help build cultural capital. Invest and innovate; homes near tram stops, good access to health and care services, faster planning, childcare that works, and city and town centres which put people and communities at their heart.
Talent is everywhere — so build for it
If you want graduates to stay, return, or relocate North, you need visible projects that demand their skills — and then connect those projects so opportunity travels as freely as talent.
That’s what Northern Powerhouse Rail is about: not just shorter journeys, but thicker, connected markets. Imagine what faster, reliable journeys and investment in world class infrastructure would mean for growth and opportunity. So let’s get on with it!
Publish the route, lock in the governance, and tie every mile of track to a pipeline of homes, labs, studios, and workshops. That’s how you make opportunity sovereign again — locally designed, locally delivered.
The £££ prize is too big to ignore
A country that asks all its brightest to crowd into one capital is squinting at growth through a keyhole. Let London be world-class at what it does — and build a northern network confident enough to keep its own.
This isn’t a fantasy. It’s already happening.
Manchester has swagger again. Leeds moves money and makes decisions. Sheffield is exporting high-tech kit, not nostalgia. Liverpool stitches science to trade. Newcastle is wiring the data economy and powering the grid.
The old story ended with frustration. The new one ends with delivery as habit: tunnels, labs, composites, commissioning desks — in the North.
Generations to come should never feel they are at a disadvantage because they aren’t in London. The narrative needs to change. Great opportunities for great jobs, skills and lifestyle can be built and are being created by our powerhouses, engines and clusters outside London.
We need to unblock that drain if we are going to renew, thrive and prosper.
Enjoyed reading this? Want to join the debate? Don’t miss NPEESS26: Turbocharging Growth Summit coming to Bradford Live on 12th February 2026. Find out more and get involved here
