As a Southerner, I'm not sure Westminster works for us. We get ever more crowded with a housing explosion which is gridlocking our surgeries, hospitals, roads, schools, etc. In return we pay much higher Council Taxes, housing prices, food and beer prices. Even if you want to go on holiday, the prices from the Southern airports are normally much more expensive. Business rates are sky high too. If our wages were much higher, it wouldn't be so bad but for the average person, unless you work in the City, it isn't so.
Of course, the grass is always greener the other side of the fence but if the North were to take some of the pressure off the South by getting more investment, I wouldn't complain.