WHATEVER the result of the Scottish Referendum – and I am certainly hoping our fellow citizens north of the border vote NO – British politics is about to change.

Scottish people have made it clear that they want more control over their lives. Exactly the same is true here in the North-East.

Our region is seriously disadvantaged by London-centric politics. We are the only region not connected to the rest of the country by any motorway. The A1 through Northumberland still has sections which are single carriage. The same is true of the east-west A66. A manufacturer in Middlesbrough wanting to sell in Liverpool must even negotiate a 30mph speed zone in the suburbs of Darlington. As the North-East Chamber of Commerce points out, this is no way to run an economy.

In 2011, when George Osborne decided to switch public spending from public services to investment, the North-East’s share was a measly 0.3 per cent! This is inexcusable.

Some people have been shocked to learn that duelling the 42 miles of A1 north to Berwick would cost £600m – but this Government has guaranteed £1bn to extend the tube from Victoria to Battersea, which is a journey of less than two miles.

This difference in approach is inexcusable.

Decisions on public services are unfair too.

Take the arts – spend per person in London is 14 times that in the rest of the country.

Since the lottery began in 1995, the people of Westminster have spent £14m on tickets and £408m of lottery money has been spent in their area, whereas in Durham £34m has been spent buying tickets but the county has only received grants totalling £12m. The Government has promised Joanna Lumley £60m for a “garden bridge” across the Thames while a recent report found that nearly half of councils are thinking of selling existing parks. We simply can’t go on like this.

I and my colleagues in Parliament – and I am sure the readers of The Northern Echo – can all think of issues and items where we want to see the economy rebalanced.

The Barnett formula provides resources to equalise provision in the Celtic nations; we need to seek a guarantee that we can’t be left behind again. It’s worth noting that average earnings in London are £613pw, in Scotland £508, but in the North East £472.

But a shopping list of desirable items isn’t enough. We need to change the system so that we don’t get into this situation again.

We need to rebalance power in this country.

That’s why Ed Miliband has said devolution is for everyone. In the Blair years there were five cabinet ministers from our region – I doubt we will see that again, but today there is not one single minister from our region.

So when decisions are taken our perspective is not given. This is unacceptable.

As well as giving local authorities more powers, we need to look at how British politics works, including making the House of Lords more representative.

As Gordon Brown said last week: “What unites us [is] a shared British commitment to the values of liberty, fairness, and social responsibility.”

This means “the same civil and political rights, [and] also the same basic social and economic rights”. So we share risks and resources.

We need to think hard about what a new settlement should be. The way we organise our institutions for taking decisions, respond to what people want and the sort of country we want to live in needs to be lined up in a consistent way.

Let me give a couple of examples.

In Newcastle, Professor Sir John Burns – who comes from West Auckland in my constituency – leads ground-breaking work in genetics. But in London we have a world class centre for tropical diseases which has just cured someone with Ebola. We all want access to a truly National Health Service that offers the same brilliant treatment in London and in Newcastle, so we don’t want to turn into a small-minded, narrow region that can’t share our resources and benefit from improvements elsewhere.

On the other hand, when we’re looking at housing it would be a good idea to have a different approach here in the North-East, where the average property price is £116,000 and some people are in negative equity, as compared to London where the average is £345,000.

The North-East is not too small to exercise power intelligently – we are 2.6 million people; Wales is three million; Northern Ireland is 1.8 million. When one considers the powers which have been given to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, it’s clear we could have more regionally-based control.

The North-East is the most well defined geographical region in England – bordered by the North Sea, Scottish borders, Pennines and Yorkshire Moors. We have a proud history, let’s grasp our future too.