Quote Originally Posted by DryCleaning View Post
Up until now the government has left the free market to decide where it wants to spend its money, and almost always big business chooses London and the South East.

What would help is taking the kudos out of Oxbridge, or certainly treating other universities in a similar fashion, so the best and brightest are spread around the UK, and not just the south and east midlands. Many hi tech businesses are based around Oxbridge, and its not particularly difficult to understand why.

The government needs to provide at least some direction, and for that we'll need civil servants
Govt can't decide where the market invests, it can only steer it, though I do agree. For too long the UK's cost-benefit analysis favoured investment in London where inevitably one gets more bang for your buck, but it left other areas flagging. That cost-benefit analysis has now been amended I recall.

Totally agree on the universities and the general concentration in the S.E of England, although it is the home to many world leading industries, so we shouldnt neglect it either.

Yes, we will always need civil servants, my point was merely that the big increase in them for Covid and Brexit transitions etc are not necessarily the same skillsets or roles needed for Levelling up, where a lot of the direction and delivery can (and should) be delivered more locally.