[kaashif]

The UK is far from done, but the considerable number of good universities and good companies aren't, for whatever reason, translating into rising living standards.

The current crisis can be blamed on energy, but the post 2008 period of wage stagnation and low growth wasn't exactly great and wasn't due to energy.

[physicsguy]

I'd say there's a fair chunk of NIMBYism and lack of investment outside of London causing some of that.

Cambridge and Oxford basically have no lab space and are surrounded by greenbelt, and neither has enough housing, but rather than for e.g. dump a ton of investment in new labs into Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, etc. and try and build the equivalent of Max Planck Institutes in Germany, the government sticks more in Oxbridge and in central London.

Why would you put a 'Turing Institute' to lead AI research somewhere where your Postdocs aren't going to be able to afford to live? Oh, because it's easy for politicians to nip there for a photo op.