Data City Founder Tom Forth has been told some extraordinary reasons why the North underperforms the South.

Including that it’s down to Northerners being stupid. Or drunk.

He’s even read academic papers outlining these theories.

In a fascinating episode of the podcast, we get into a discussion on the real reasons.

They go back a thousand years but transport and our hyper-centralised way of making decisions are right at the heart of it.

I really hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it.

How does Britain’s knowledge economy shape its cities? Paul Swinney 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 joins me to explore the North-South divide, the role of transport in economic growth and why second-tier cities underperform.

We discuss what agglomeration means and why it matters, how post-pandemic work trends are reshaping transport needs and why investing in urban connectivity is key to unlocking Britain’s economic potential.

One of the world’s most expensive railways is being built, but will it actually be useful? The new trains won’t fit into the existing station in Manchester and the railway north of Birmingham has insufficient capacity.

Someone who thinks they know how to fix the mess is Chris Gibb who, amongst many other roles, used to run Virgin West Coast, the very railway that HS2 is designed to replicate.

He describes his plan on this week’s episode.