IN today’s centre pages we begin our twopart review of 2013.

Next week, Steven Hugill and I will pick our favourite business stories of the year.

In part one, we look at some of the region’s powerhouse industries to highlight the success stories, as well as the challenges, being faced by businesses in the North-East.

Please give us a call if you think there is anything that we have missed.

OUTRAGEOUS plans to award MPs an 11 per cent pay rise come as a new report shows that the North-East has the highest number of workers who have not improved earnings in the past decade.

Parliamentary watchdog Ipsa is set to recommend a rise of £7,600 – to £74,000, to be introduced after the 2015 election.

Many MPs have spoken against the rise at a time when people across the country are facing a cost of living crisis.

A report from think-tank Resolution Foundation says nearly three out of four North-East workers are stuck on low pay.

The survey said of the 4.7 million workers who were low paid in 2002, more than a quarter did not see an improvement at any point over the next ten years.

A further 46 per cent drifted in and out of low pay, with fewer than one in five workers moving up the earnings ladder.

According to the figures, women were more likely to be stuck on low pay, with manual labourers and administration workers the top occupations for persistent low wages.

Pay growth is not expected to return to the historic norm of about two per cent for at least a couple of years, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Theses figures highlight a broader problem that a low wage economy is hampering economic growth.

It is great to see an increasing number of people in work, but the fact that many of the jobs being created are poorly paid, part-time positions means that workers don’t have the spending power to give the economy a proper kick-start.

ON a more festive note, an annual cash windfall lies ahead for songwriters Noddy Holder and Jim Lea, who will earn an estimated £800,000 this year alone for penning Slade’s festive hit, Merry Xmas Everybody.

The Performing Rights Society believes it is the most heard record in the world because royalties come in from more countries than for any other song. The estimate is that it’s been heard by 42 per cent of the planet, more than three billion people.

The track is top of the Christmas royalty earners, with The Pogues in second place, due to earn £520,000 from Fairytale Of New York, and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You in third, which will make about £455,000 in 2013.

Others in the top ten include: 4, Wham – Last Christmas, £301,622; 5, Cliff Richard – Mistletoe and Wine, £98,408; 6, Band Aid – Do they Know It’s Christmas, £78,030. 7, Shakin’ Stevens – Merry Christmas Everyone, £53,834.