It was back to my old university for me yesterday as I went to Manchester University for a chat with Professor Richard Jones, who is one of the leading authorities in the UK on innovation policy and how universities can play a role promoting growth and tackling regional inequality.

The UK massively lags behind other countries on two key indicators: firstly, the % of national income we spend on research and development (R&D). Secondly, on how productive our non-capitol cities are (eg Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol etc).

To solve this we must increase the % of our GDP that we spend on R&D, and it must be spread around the country. The UK is currently bottom of all G7 counties for investment in science – this is just not good enough.

I’m developing Labour’s plans to see us increase the 1.7% of GDP we currently spend on R&D to 3% over time. This would have a transformative effective on the UK economy as a whole but particularly on the North and Midlands by not concentrating this investment solely in the South East. It was great to be able to talk to Richard about this, and to see my old arts faculty and seminar rooms.