North-south divide does exist

The prime minister's attempts to downplay the extent of the north-south divide are to be undermined by new findings from the housing regulator.

The Housing Corporation's unpublished study has concluded that while there are pockets of low housing demand throughout the country, the north has suffered much more than the south. The corporation said this week the study, carried out by Sheffield Hallam University, would show that "the localised collapse of housing markets is a northern phenomenon".

Author Professor Ian Cole told Housing Today: "The scale of some of the issues in the north and the widespread nature of them is in a different league to the south."

Cole said the study would conclude that while many demand problems in the south could be tackled relatively easily, the nature of low demand in the north would require much deeper structural adjustments, including neighbourhood renewal.

He said: "While RSLs in the south can devise management solutions to some of the problems of low demand - for instance by changing allocations systems and marketing devices- in parts of the north that in itself would be insufficient."

"In the north, the low demand needs to be linked to a much wider look at all the factors that are crystallising people's decision to make a move. Basically we suggest that some landlords in the north have to take a more strategic review compared with the south."

The study's findings will run contrary to suggestions this week by Tony Blair that "the differences within regions are every bit as significant as the difference between regions".

In a tour of north west England, Blair highlighted the conclusions of a hastily compiled Cabinet Office report which said that "although regional disparities undoubtedly exist ... there are wide variations in conditions within regions and areas of deprivation are to be found in all parts of the country".

Chartered Institute of Housing policy director John Perry said the Sheffield Hallam research would confirm his view that low demand for housing is "much more of a problem" in the north than the south.

"There are just too many houses and too little demand in a number of areas of the north," he said.

A new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, published this week, also shows that a higher proportion of low income households are located in the north of England, Wales and Scotland than in other parts of the country.