A MINER'S son from County Durham was last night drafted in to help turn around the fortunes of ailing retail group Marks & Spencer.

Lord Terence Burns, a former permanent secretary to the Treasury, will become deputy chairman in October and then take the lead role in July next year.

The appointment was made after the company's senior independent director Kevin Lomax reportedly blocked moves to make Paul Myners a permanent chairman.

He had taken the role on an interim basis a year ago, as part of the group's response to the takeover interest of retail tycoon Philip Green.

While chief executive Stuart Rose was thought to be keen to continue working with Mr Myners, Mr Lomax is believed to have preferred an outside face.

Mr Myners and Mr Rose mounted a successful defence against Mr Green's bid interest last year, although tough trading conditions have so far thwarted attempts to revive the retailer's business performance.

Lord Burns, who is also chairman of Abbey National and water company Glas Cymru, will be paid £175,000 as deputy chairman and then £400,000 as chairman. Both positions are part-time, non-executive roles.

Lord Burns said: "I am very pleased to be joining the board at this important time."

Lord Burns was brought up as the son of a miners union official in Hetton-le-Hole on Wearside, and was educated at Houghton-le-Spring Grammar School.

His early career was as an academic at the London Business School where he was professor of economics and director of its Centre for Economic Forecasting. He rose up the ranks of the Treasury during the Thatcherite years, moving to the top under John Major, but found himself redundant under Labour.

In 1998, Chancellor Gordon Brown described Lord Burns as "one of our country's outstanding post-war economists", around the time he gave control of interest rates to the Bank of England.

Lord Burns retired and was created a life peer.

But despite his disagreements with Mr Brown, Labour needed him to remain neutral when its countryside policies came under fire. He headed the hunting inquiry with an impartiality that impressed all sides.