WHILE we will watch with interest to see what impact the BBC shedding 2,900 jobs has on the quality of its output, one aspect of yesterday's announcement by director-general Mark Thompson must be unreservedly welcomed.

A chunk of the Corporation is to be moved out of London. Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport and BBC children's programmes are going to decamp to Manchester.

This is tremendous news. Not only will it bring 1,900 jobs to the North-West and about £750m to the regional economy, it will show that dispersal from the capital can happen.

The Government has been talking about moving civil servants out (and, indeed, the Labour Party is moving its headquarters up to Tyneside) but so far only dribs and drabs of departments have escaped from the stranglehold of the M25.

Britain needs to restore some balance. The South-East has become congested, overcrowded and built-up. Yet in the North-East unemployment is still rising. If the South-East is to ease its economic pressures, it has to allow some jobs to move north.

Obviously, private companies cannot be ordered to relocate, but public sector workers can be redirected, and hopefully the BBC is showing the way.

It will also be fascinating to see what happens to the BBC's output when it is transmitted from Manchester.

Obviously, there won't be much change to children's programmes like the Teletubbies because Tinky Winky and pals do not say "Eh-oh" in a noticeably regional accent.

But a 24-hour news station like Radio 5 Live may find a new agenda when it is based in Manchester. It may find there are decent news stories beyond the tiresome naval-gazing of the Westminster village. It may start to serve the 83 per cent of the population who do not live in London and are not obsessed by London.

The best barometer of change will be the reporting of weather stories. For example, the whole country north of Watford can be wading through snowdrifts up to its armpits without warranting a mention on the BBC, but the moment a single flake falls on the capital the Corporation goes live to its reporters stationed on M25 fly-overs who tell, in the grave tones usually saved for an international calamity, that the nation is in the grip of a white hell and civilisation may never fully recover.

There is life, civilisation and culture outside London. The BBC might start to reflect that when it moves north.