It's about time people realised the UK is more, much more, than London and the SE
A nice thought, but it's not really true is it? Economic policy since the 1980s has been to concentrate growth and investment in London and the south east, the old regional development policy of Development Areas and Assisted Areas was swept away in the rush to let the market decide in an unbridled environment. While Scotland and Wales benefitted to some extent from their devolved authorities the result was the stagnation and decline of the English Midlands, the North West, the North East and the South West with the exception of the major conurbations where showpiece developments were permitted and used to illustrate the "success" of this new English growth policy. But step away from the showpiece developments in central Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle and you find large areas of deprivation and lack of investment. This applies to many regional airports too.
Many years ago a French geographer published a book entitled Paris and the French Desert abhorring the centralisation of French life in the capital. A similar book could now be written entitled London and the English Desert. Heathrow's third runway will just continue the trend to suck life out of the regions.