Powerhouse of cards? Understanding the “Northern Powerhouse”

The ‘Northern Powerhouse’ is the UK government’s latest attempt to reduce regional disparities. By bringing together the cities of the north into a functional economy, the aim is to create an agglomeration with the scale to counterbalance London. This paper summarises and critically reviews this agenda. While sympathetic to the basic idea, it argues that the Northern Powerhouse is a vague and problematic concept. It can be understood both as an economic development strategy and a political brand, giving focus to disparate and often pre-existing policies. It has meant new resources and institutional change, but is geographically fuzzy with insufficient funding to achieve its unclear aims.