Jeremy Hunt

Whereas in any other country.

City like Middlesbrough would be able to solve that problem.

And, you know, this is where we've gone wrong for a long time.

And it's time to put that right.

And we can look at nearly any other country.

By the way, the disparity between London and the southeast and our regions is far higher in Britain than any other major economy.

Because we don't allow areas to solve their own problems.

So this is a no brainer.

This is not left or right or, you know, Labour or Conservative.

If we closed half the gap between London and our regions, that adds about 4% to GDP.

That would make the average household about £1,000.

Totally agree.

And I think what I do in the book is I look all over the world and I try and look at the best things in every country.

Now, America is brilliant at innovation and growing global tech giants.

They're very good at giving their local cities proper autonomy to solve their own problem.

They actually have a lower proportion of adults in work than we have in Britain.

And when it comes to getting more people in work, I think the most interesting models are countries like the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.

And let's look at the heart of the problem.

If you live in London and you're on the three main benefits for people out of work, which is the local housing allowance, personal independence payment and universal credit health component, and you're living in a one-bedroom flat, you'll get about £46,000 from the state.

If you work full-time on the national living wage after tax, you get £22,000.