THERESA MAY’S decision to stage a Cabinet meeting in Gateshead today is to be applauded.

Politics should not take place in a Westminster bubble, and the Government should make more of an effort to visit regions like the North-East.

The announcement of a £780m investment into the East Coast Main Line is also welcome. The rail network in the North has been falling apart at the seams in recent months, so any future investment can only help.

However, by trumpeting the much-derided ‘Northern Powerhouse’ when she speaks later today, the Prime Minister will highlight how little has been achieved since George Osborne launched the Conservatives’ flagship policy for the North in 2014.

Back then, Mr Osborne spoke of “delivering a real improvement in the long-term economic performance of the North of England”. Four years on, and it is tempting to conclude that nothing has changed.

The North-South divide remains, indeed if anything, it has widened. There has been no radical overhaul of transport infrastructure or transformative investment into new industries. A degree of regional devolution has occurred, but the big decisions affecting North-East communities are still taken at the opposite end of the country.

While transport spend per head in London is estimated to reach £3,400-a-year by the 2030s, it is set to be £427 per head in the North.

That is the reality of the so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’, so while today’s visit to the North-East is a positive development, it cannot simply be a box-ticking exercise that enables the Government to forget about the region for the next few years.