WE welcome Business Secretary Vince Cable to the North-East today. We welcome his optimistic words about the North-East returning to its glory days as the workshop of Britain.

And we welcome confirmation of Regional Growth Fund (RGF) grants in the region – although the wheels of the RGF have turned agonisingly slowly at a time of urgent need.

Those grants include £6.7m for a new manufacturing plant at Lotte Chemical, at Wilton, and £1.4m towards staff training at the Sahaviriya Steel Industries steel site, at Redcar.

We agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments which are to be expressed by Mr Cable today: about how the British economy has relied too heavily on London, to the detriment of places such as Teesside.

We, too, want to see our region become the workshop of the country because manufacturing is what the North-East has done supremely well for generations. But encouraging words need to be backed up by consistent Government support to enable the North-East to meet its potential.

Of course, the RGF grants will help, but the truth is that the Government has not replaced the support the regions received from the disbanded regional development agencies.

The North-East is receiving a fraction of the support afforded under the Regional Development Agency and red tape is stopping the flow of the money which is being made available.

Mr Cable’s visit comes days after confirmation of a 6,000 rise in unemployment in the North-East in the first quarter of the year.

Our region is hurting most from the public sector squeeze – and the private sector needs all the support it can get if it is to keep pace with those kind of losses.