effects on the landscape of both Midlands and South, as both experienced a property boom in the middle years of the decade. resulted in the proliferation of the 1930s-style semi-detached houses in Midland areas such as Birmingham's south suburbs to match a similar manifestation in areas of the South such as West London. As in the North, many Midlands towns and cities have experienced redevelopment, including a second Birmingham Bullring complex which replaced a postwar development, including a branch of the upmarket Selfridges department store, and The Mailbox redevelopment which houses a branch of Harvey Nichols. Solihull metropolitan borough is one of the most affluent in the country. Closing the gap There have been various attempts to address the north-south divide, starting with foreign investment. An example of this is Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK opening at Sunderland in 1984, or Siemens Gamesa at Hull in 2017, manufacturing offshore wind turbine blades. As of 2022 however, many Northern post-industrial cities and towns are experiencing a renaissance. Examples include Manchester, Kingston upon Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sheffield and the English Midlands cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Derby and Nottingham. Manchester has benefited from the decentralisation of many BBC departments that produce TV & radio from London to Salford Quays in Greater Manchester. It has become the de facto digital hub city outside London for the UK, between 2012 & 2017 private equity investment in Manchester tech companies showed the fastest pace of growth in both volume and deal values in the EU – higher growth than the big hitters like London, Berlin, Paris and Stockholm. By 2018 there were an estimated 82,300 people working in digital in the Manchester city region – the largest cluster outside London & the city's stated ambition is to be recognised as one of Europe's top five digital cities by 2020. This cluster is reflected not only in BBC digital output but also the setup of the non-London UK-base for tech giants like Microsoft, Google & the open secret of around 1000 Amazon employees setting up near Piccadilly. Similarly, the decision in 2022 from Channel 4 to open its new Headquarter offices outside of London resulted in bids from various cities across the country, with Leeds prevailing as the destination for the move. The Bank of England retain their only offices outside London in Leeds, which as well as strong big data & medical software specialisms,