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In this special edition of the Bottom Line, we're with an audience in Manchester,

discussing the Northern Powerhouse,

the idea that cities in the north of England can form their own economic hub to rival London and the South East.

Hello and welcome to a special edition of the program.

Now we're at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce in the heart of Manchester

and we're better to come to dissect one of the most talked about ideas of the year,

the Northern Powerhouse.

It's one that remains frustratingly vague to many people.

We'll see if we can clarify some of the issues involved today.

Now the objective is to reshape the economic geography of Britain,

attracting new businesses to the north of England,

raising the economic weight of the region relative to London and the South.

The theory behind it is this. It's that scale matters in the modern world.

To flourish a region needs critical mass.

Think of the industrial rural region in Germany or the tech hub of Silicon Valley. And the argument

goes that in this region, each city on its own, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, they lack the scale

necessary, but put them together and they comprise a global force to be reckoned with.

The whole is more than the sum of the parts, in other words.

So the key policy is to upgrade transport and infrastructure

to better connect the urban areas to each other.

Well, we have an audience here, and we're also joined by four guests. So let me

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