Surveys repeatedly show that over 50% of U.K. wealth and the fastest growing businesses are based in the South of England, with just a few hot spots such as Chester and Harrogate in the North.

The national innovation plan must have built in mechanisms, to harmonise the growth of innovative businesses throughout the country, in order to prevent the geographical polarisation of prosperity.

We should encourage the development of "North melted into South" innovative companies, which have their front offices in the South of England or other wealth hot-spots and their back offices elsewhere. Front and back offices would be video linked by broadband telecommunication systems. In instances where regular travelling between business sites was unavoidable, businesses would naturally gravitate to adjacent areas, having back offices in the nearest available employment black spot.

When weighing up the merits of this proposal, the important thing is to think long term and recognise that child psychologists are making some surprising findings. Today's school children appear to think differently to their parents. They are highly adept at gaming in virtual reality, using mobile phones, zapping between TV channels and talking with their friends at the same time. The modern communication skills they are learning will enable them to work with people at a distance and handle a wealth of multimedia inputs simultaneously. Middle aged decision makers should not dismiss video linked businesses because they believe "people need to work face-to-face."

5.2 The social benefits of remotely linked businesses

• Electronic cottages, which accommodate staff working for a range of different companies could be set up in spare retail capacity in traditional local clusters of shops denuded by the growth of out-of-town shopping.
• Allowing people to work locally and change jobs without changing their work place would build up a core of working age people with strong local loyalties.
• Moving data is cheaper than moving people, doesn't cause road traffic jams and produces less pollution.

In a similar manner, electronic cottages could be set in the back rooms of rural pubs threatened with closure. Broadband satellite connections to remote areas are currently more expensive than cable connections, so additional subsidies may be necessary.

Government funding would be required to make this proposal a reality, but the funding would be well spent, because it would simplify a number of existing transport pollution and planning issues. Regional aid packages will need to be flexible, to help cover set-up and running costs, for both ends of North-South video linked businesses.

There will always be some occasions when staff will need to travel between offices. Please see "A Transport Internet System" for a suggestion for an innovative low pollution integrated transport system to harmonise with the North melted into South proposal.

Please see Fiscal Policy for a suggested innovation.

• The various national and regional government offices could create show case examples, by using video links as their preferred form of routine conference communication.
• Government contracts could favour sub-contractors who reduce their communication and travel costs by using video links for review meetings with the contracting authority.
• The government should be active at an international level, working towards a goal of fifty percent of international conferences taking place remotely using video links. e.g., Group of Eight face-to-face meetings, to take place bi-annually, with video conferences being held on alternate years. The video-conferences could include at least one open session, accessible over the internet, where pressure groups could put their cases directly to ministers.
• The international bonus: A traditional argument in favour of big international meetings is that they give senior politicians the chance to get to know each other at a personal level. That's true to a certain extent, but when time is deducted for the formal public sessions and media posturing, the fraction of the conference time spent on intimate conversations is fairly limited. It would make more cost effective use of tax payers money and politicians time if half the international conferences were carried out electronically, as proposed and some of the savings of time and money were set aside for a truly private senior ministers jamboree, for one week every year. This proposal could be formalised as .........
• An EU foreign policy for the 21st & 22nd centuries: If senior politicians and their families from all the United Nations countries spent one week a year together in a private European location, with no fixed agenda, with no press presence and an agreed embargo on making public statements, for say ten days after the meeting, then some surprising outcomes for the good of human kind could emerge.