Nick Clegg has unveiled plans to see abandoned buildings across the North of England brought back to life in a renewed effort to tackle a chronic problem where vast sites have become empty and unused for long periods of time, making areas of several major Northern cities look blighted.

Nick wants to help match-make entrepreneurs and community groups with local authorities and land-owners to find temporary uses for vacant buildings and land which would otherwise simply go to waste.

The North has nearly twice as many hectares of previously developed vacant land and buildings than the South, leading to calls from the Liberal Democrats for major renovation projects to take place in some Northern cities.

The vacant buildings could provide invaluable space for a wide range of local people to set up a business, open a shop or put on an event. This process can help to quickly transform empty and derelict buildings into hubs used for business start-ups or community and art centres. It can have a knock on effect and revitalise city centres drawing in talent and investment from far and wide.

On a visit to Berlin to a project called Betahaus, Nick saw how collaborative working space in the heart of the creative district has been set up using derelict land and property.

“Leaving useful land in the North to languish is not only bad for business, it can hamper the success of an area in so many ways. Which is why I want to see empty buildings brought back to life and back in business.

“We need to understand what stands in the way of some of the most incredible space in the country being used, and make things more flexible so that we can fill these buildings with artists, start-ups, and other entrepreneurs to restore the buildings’ purpose and appeal.

“Through my Northern Futures initiative, I’m championing innovative ideas from people in the North to build a stronger economy and fairer society.”

To help unlock this potential, Nick will form a working group immediately – comprised of local government, businesses and charities – to investigate how more vacant buildings and land across the North can be brought back into temporary use. The group will explore sites with potential across Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Liberal Democrat Schools Minister David Laws has stated that more than 2,000 struggling schools could be turned around if effective support was in place.

At an interview at CentreForum, David said the standards in education had been threatened by the Conservatives’ determination to monitor all schools directly from Whitehall. He went on to say that the Conservatives had refused to introduce proper oversight for academies and free schools, relying only on the Department for Education.

According to David this led to large numbers of schools being left with no proper support to improve and as a result, several problems went unnoticed. He added that if all academy chains and local authorities were performing to their best, there would be 2,000 fewer schools requiring improvement, or in special measures.

“Here lies an inherent contradiction in the drive for autonomy – it has led to even more meddling from the centre.

“But this provides a limited capacity for scrutiny which inevitably drives attention towards only the very weakest schools.

“Regional Schools Commissioners are a response to this limited capacity and limited ability to micromanage from the centre. But they still cover absurdly large areas.

“As a consequence of not putting enough focus on a middle tier of accountability, we are allowing too many underperforming schools, weak local authorities and mediocre academy chains to deliver poor education for too long.

“Top down oversight, led by officials often hundreds of miles away, is allowing schools to slip through the net and contributing directly to lower standards.

“Many chains and local authorities across the country are doing a good job in driving up school performance.

“But others are lagging behind, with significantly higher levels of underperforming schools.

“If all local authorities and chains were performing at the level reached by many of the better middle tier bodies across the country, we would today have over 2,000 fewer ‘requires improvement and inadequate’ schools.”