Agreed.

Has it ever been discussed politically? I know other countries that do this
quite actively - and it would surely have a flow in effect in terms of
increasing economic activitiy in other parts of the country and help reduce
the extra amount employers have to pay employees to work in London...
effectivly reducing the north/south divide - which must be a good thing.

To be fair - there are some areas that have done this - ie Reading IT
centre.