OPINION - 'Number 10 North is for North London too': How the South will benefit from fixing rest of UK

When the Prime Minister says Number 10 North is about nothing less than remaking the British state, you might expect a North London MP be sceptical. However, I am an MP in Barnet, representing London’s suburban fringe, and I’m not a sceptic but a champion for what the PM is doing – because Number 10 North is for North London too.Let me give you an example: housing. I’ve lost count now of the number of times I’ve met constituents in my patch of North London, who are into their thirties and forties and yet still living with their parents despite wanting a place of their own.At the acute end, more than one child in every classroom in London is now living in temporary accommodation. I experienced temporary housing for years as a child, and I know just how uprooting it is. And yet, unless we stop Britain’s economy flying on just one London-shaped engine, we will struggle to fix this issue.The UK is one of the most economically unbalanced advanced economies in the world. Compared with other advanced economies, England’s largest cities outside London are further from their potential, with many having productivity levels below the national average.Exchequer Secretary Dan TomlinsonGettyManchester, Leeds and Birmingham are fantastic places, but measured against Munich, Lille and Barcelona they are underperforming economically, as are many of the towns and villages around them. This is not for a lack of talent and ingenuity of the people who live there, but for a lack of agency to build their own future.And that hurts London too, because London absorbs the consequences. Millions across the country face a choice: stay near mum and dad near where you’re from and compete for the relatively few high-productivity jobs nearby - or move south to London and its surrounds.Millions choose to move south. The result is a London housing market that is profoundly overheated, not to mention some of the longest average commute times in Europe.So, what does the vision of Number 10 North that the Prime Minister has set out mean for Londoners like me?Read MoreFirst, if cities like Manchester and Leeds were to offer more of the economic opportunity that London offers, fewer people are forced to make the journey south. That is not London losing out. That is pressure coming off London’s housing market, its hospitals, its transport network, its schools.Second, devolution is not going to be something that just happens elsewhere: it is for London too. Every argument for giving a city like Leeds real control over transport, skills and land is an argument for giving the capital the same. If the Mayor of London could raise money through a visitor levy and put it towards local infrastructure, Londoners would be better off. A greater say over business rates would let London back its own growth plans rather than waiting on a collection of government departments. London will benefit too from being able to learn from good decisions and policies as they are implemented in other devolved parts of the country.Third, the fixes are complementary rather than competing. London’s biggest economic constraint is homes. In many other places the constraint is connectivity. It is harder to travel between our northern cities than between comparable cities anywhere else in Europe. That must change. Building greater transport connections across the country doesn’t take away opportunity from London: when the rest of the country thrives, London is better able to thrive.That is why I am taking up the role of Growth Minister with real excitement and looking forward to working with the team in Number 10 North.Its role, and its location as a statement of intent for the economic realignment we need, is very welcome indeed. Not because London’s turn is over, but because we are all part of one national story, and a country where every community can do more for itself is a country where the people I represent in London’s suburbs do better too.Daniel Tomlinson is MP for Chipping Barnet and Parliamentary Secretary (Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury) and Minister for Growth