In the excellent A16Z podcast, dotcom veteran Martha Lane-Fox suggested that as England (and kind of UK) had same population as the Tokyo metro area, then we are less a country and more just a large Asian city &#x2F; metro area.<p>This probably is a good way of looking at it.<p>Yes London and the South East are a form of black hole sucking all the people, investment etc from the rest of the U.K.  However are we combating this with massive transport investments, with superb connectivity infrastructure and taxation policy.<p>No of course not. Because any attempt to fix this will cut the value of housing in the south east, impoverishing millions of registered voters.<p>(Overly cynical, yes. There are attempts to redress the balance but nothing like the scale needed)<p>Edit: actually I think are major hope lies not in making commute times shorter, but in massively pushing remote working as a viable option.  Taxation and investment policy should focus on this. Everything from domestic housing regulations onwards should have this clear goal.